Voice of the DBA

Tag: travel

  • Traveling Away For Two Weeks

    I leave this morning for nearly two weeks. I head to Jacksonville for SQL Saturday Jacksonville 2022, then I’m off to the UK to visit Redgate’s offices for a week and then I spend part of the last week in Belgium for Technorama.

    It’s not all work as my wife will join me for the part of the trip and we’ll be together in Belgium.

    It’s a long trip, as I return on the 26th, so two weeks away from home. I’ll try to put up a post or two, but likely just the coping tips will continue for the next few weeks.

    Now to decide if we leave the Tesla at the airport for a week.

  • Traveling Observations

    I fly regularly. While I only had one trip during 2020 in the most dangerous time of the COVID pandemic, I flew a record number of miles in 2019 and had 10 trips in 2021. As 2022 progresses, I find myself back in the air and on the road, visiting new and familiar places for work and pleasure. I both enjoy the familiarity of known adventures and the excitement of new places. Already this year I have trips in place to three new places I’ve never visited and I’m hoping to plan more.

    I usually fly to LAX a couple of times a year. I visit Redgate employees in the area or travel to some event. Occasionally it’s a waypoint on a journey to some other city. As a result, I’ve gotten to know the scenery on the way, and the view is one I never get tired of.

    The mountains of Colorado, with snow or without. I like seeing the forests, the peaks, the ski resorts, and even trying to catch a glimpse of the condo I own in Keystone. I usually can pick out Dillon Lake, Keystone mountain, and the structures I often visit if I get a window on the right side of the plane. If not, I enjoy the view of the Fairplay valley and wide-open spaces.

    The deserts of Utah and Nevada, broken up with a few communities and the winding Colorado river as it makes its way towards California. The mountains coming and going, and the massive solar project that has always intrigued me.

    Coming over the mountains into LA, which is so massive. It feels like we fly over the city for an hour as we leave the sparsely populated East side of California and move into the dense LA residential and industrial areas. I wouldn’t want to live there, but it’s an amazing view that I enjoy watching go by.

    As we get close to SoFi Stadium, I know the journey is almost over. This is a project I’ve watched grow from a few dirt spaces to a completed structure surrounded by a beautiful park, I keep reminding myself to take a trip and see a game there someday. I’ve seen it on TV and from the air many times and hope to get there in person one day.

    I love when we take off or land at LAX from the ocean side, though the latter seems to be a rarity for me. Either way, it’s an experience I enjoy.

    I often sit in aisle seats and work on many journeys. I’ve gone to London dozens of times, but it’s rare to have much to see, so I rarely even try to look. However, the journey to LA is one where I keep the window shade up and enjoy the view regularly.

    Travel is tedious, with moments of excitement and pleasure. I am learning to be better about looking for and appreciating the experiences, good or bad, as I move through life.

    I added a few pictures to my blog for you to enjoy.

    Steve Jones

     

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • DEN to LAX Views

    I wrote about this trip for an editorial, and here are a few views from the airplane. I love the flight from Denver to LA, though I wish I were on the North side of the plane. There are better views that way. Unfortunately, I was South both ways, though since I got upgraded, I can’t complain.

    I left Colorado, and here are the mountains with a little snow.

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    The view coming into LA, the land giving way to man made structures.

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    A good view of just how built up LA can be.

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    Heading home, taking off over the ocean

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    Coming around from the ocean, now heading East as we cross back over land in LA.

    20220422_173932

  • Gathering Data Through Life

    Every once in a while, I find a list of places posted on the Internet with a “how many have you visited?” question attached. This might be US states, countries, cities, or even attractions. I love traveling with my wife and having new experiences, and as we’ve gotten older, we value the experiences more than any physical things. It’s something that I hope we’ve passed on to our children as well.

    My wife and I have been very blessed and have been able to travel a bit in life, though not as much as we would have liked with three children and a ranch of horses. We made it a goal about 6 years ago to try and visit a new country every year and experience life in another culture. The pandemic limited our travel for a few years, but we are starting to make plans to travel a bit more and gather some data for our minds.

    We don’t actually get data to store in a database, but rather experience life, see and hear things, taste new foods, and hear new languages. The database in our brain gets a few inserts, although I’m not sure of the long-term retention and accuracy of those memories. A few bits get stored in the form of pictures, and one of the reasons I do like social media is that I’ll get reminded of times gone past on a regular basis.

    Today, I’m wondering what data you might wish to gather through experiences? Is there something you have on a bucket list that you are hoping to experience in the next few years? This could be a place or an event. Perhaps there’s a concert or an experience. Skiing somewhere? Completing a class? Eating at an amazing restaurant? If you’re looking for inspiration, Brent Ozar has a list in his Epic Life Quest.

    I’ve included a list of places below from the list that inspired this piece, and I have a longer list of places on my blog, but let us know what dreams you have to experience something in life.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

    How many of these cities have you visited? (18 for me)

    • New York
    • Toronto
    • Tokyo
    • Bangkok
    • Melbourne
    • Mumbai
    • Hong Kong
    • Beirut
    • Cairo
    • Moscow
    • London
    • Munich
    • Rome
    • Copenhagen
    • Berlin
    • Milan
    • Kiev
    • Los Angeles
    • Sao Paolo
    • Istanbul
    • Montreal
    • Beijing
    • Singapore
    • Abu Dhabi
    • Casablanca
    • Dublin
    • Prague
    • Barcelona
    • Amsterdam
    • Budapest
    • Athens
    • Manila
    • Las Vegas
    • Vancouver
    • Jakarta
    • Shanghai
    • Cape Town
    • Stockholm
    • Paris
    • Vienna
    • Glasgow
    • Osaka
    • Taipei
    • Miami
    • Santiago
    • Seoul
    • Dubai
    • Lagos
    • Warsaw
    • Lisbon
    • Auckland
    • Hanoi
    • Honolulu
    • Perth
    • New Delhi
    • Rio de Janeiro
    • Chicago
    • Zagreb