Voice of the DBA

Tag: syndicated

  • Daily Coping 5 Dec 2022

    Today’s coping tip is to look for new reasons to be hopeful, even in tough times.

    My life is pretty amazing most of the time. There are some stressful moments and annoying things, but overall, I can’t really complain about anything.

    That being said, I have a lot of empathy for others, and I know that the inflation is a problem for many. I’m financially secure and don’t worry, but I also realize that I am lucky. Not everyone is in the same situation.

    From my experience and travel, I’m glad to see some things starting to improve in the world. Fuel prices are lowering a bit, except for diesel. It’s not a perfect situation, but it’s better than nothing. I find there are more goods available in stores, which is always helpful for people that are just in time shoppers.

    I’m also seeing lots of people posting well wishes, offering help, and doing favors for others. Community is important and it’s good to have people looking out for each other. In a very negative-world-view media storm, it’s nice to see plenty of people approaching life in a positive manner.

    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.

  • Goal Progress for Nov 2022

    I set goals at the beginning of the year, and I’m tracking my progress in these updates during 2022.

    Another month of busy stuff. A long trip for the Data Community Summit and then gone the last few days of the month. Gone from home for 12 days, so more than Oct.

    The conference was stressful and busy. It ate up a lot of time, with a lot of home time consumed with prep and stress. I have to get things scheduled and ready when I travel, so 10 days in the Pacific NW mean I need 12 days of stuff ready. Same for my Dec trip. I’m in the EU for 2 weeks, so a lot of prep.

    However, I made some progress in a few areas. I read a bit more, getting through some books. I also finished my coaching certification and spent a bunch of time on my Power BI Reports.

    I’m going to abandon the Habitat goal for this year. My health hasn’t been outstanding, and while I can try to fit one in, I’m unlikely to do well since I have been struggling a bit with my ankle. I’ll aim for 2023.

    Grade: B

    Here are the goals:

    Work

    Personal

    I managed to get my Power BI report hooked to Google Sheets. I also copied it over for 2023.

    • Link Google Sheets to Power BI – 100%
      – figured it out

    • Create Report – 90%  – I have a report working for all my metrics.
      A few tweaks needed

    • Create Dashboard – 90%  – Needs tweaking, but it’s there.
    • Get people using it – 10% – Got one asst coach looking at it.
    • Coaching certification – 100% – some downtime this month helped

    Community

    • Support the Colorado groups by speaking twice and helping get one event set up
      – 66%
      • CO Springs event set up and executed
      • Denver SQL Server SQL Saturday executed
    • Speak at 3 other community events (was user groups) outside of Colorado – 100%
      • DBA Fundamentals group
      • Toronto SSUG
      • SQL Saturdays in Jacksonville, New Jersey, LA, Denver, Boston, Toronto,  Oregon
    • Support SQL Saturdays – Help get 10 events run in 2022
      – 100%
      • We have had 15 run this year and 3 more scheduled
    • Volunteer 4 days with Habitat – 0 days
      • Not happy about this still. I had hoped to go Sept 15, but they cancelled the build that day. Need to find another day, but it’s hard. They aren’t doing every Wed/Thur/fri, and travel is getting in the way.

  • Daily Coping 2 Dec 2022

    Today’s coping tip is to enjoy new music today: play, sing, dance, or listen.

    I’m on the road this week, so it’s music for me. Not a lot of time to play, and I don’t sing or dance well (or at all if I can avoid it).

    Before I travel, I usually download an artist or two and try to listen to some new music. For this journey, I picked an older artist that I haven’t listened to much and a new one.

    For the older one, I went with Santana. I’ve heard a few of his popular songs, but never really listened to much music so I grabbed the This is Santana playlist on Spotify as well as Blessings and Miracles.

    For the new one, I’ve been catching Nicki Minaj on some other compilations, so I grabbed The Pinkprint and Beam Me Up Scotty.

    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 1 Dec 2022

    Today’s coping tip is to discover your artistic side. Design a friendly greeting card.

    A fun one for me today. I saw this just after returning from the PASS Data Community Summit. Since I had some fun with pictures, I decided to make a themed card: using Lego Steve.

    2022-11-21 16_46_25-

    Happy Holidays!

    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.