Voice of the DBA

Tag: travel

  • Off to SQL Nexus

    This week begins my two city, two conference journey across the Atlantic. I arrive in Copenhagen today, after traveling overnight from Denver. I wrote this before leaving, knowing that I’ll likely be a bit worn out as I make my way from Denver to Washington D.C. to London to Copenhagen.

    This is the most relaxing part of my trip, with a day to adjust in a new country before the SQL Nexus conference starts tomorrow. I’m looking forward to getting some coffee and exploring the city.

    Tomorrow is a conference day, hanging out and learning a bit before I speak on Wednesday morning. I’ll be talking about SQL Server 2016 Encryption, and I expect that if SQL Server 2016 hasn’t RTM’d by this time, it will either Tuesday am at SQL Nexus or Friday am at SQL Bits. I could be wrong, but as I write this, I expect those are the likely dates.

    I’m looking forward to Nexus, which has lots of SQL 2016 content scheduled. I just hope all the sessions are in English Winking smile

  • Working on the Road

    I spend a decent amount of time on the road, traveling to events. Last year I think I spent 50 nights in hotels for work. That’s a fair amount, and it can be challenging to get everything I need to accomplish done in those situations. I’ve gotten good at ensuring my laptops are setup, I have cloud copies of information, or VPN access to files. While I miss my multiple monitors at home, I can work on the laptop for a week without too many issues.

    However there’s one thing I often do before trips: I prep. I get most of my tasks scheduled; I pre-build and prepare newsletters. In short, I try to minimize the work I need to do on a deadline when I’m traveling.

    This week I have a slightly crazy week.

    • UPDATE Monday, I was supposed to be in Fort Collins, CO, with the State Knowledge Bowl competition for my son. However he had other work to do and decided to focus on his classes, so I went skiing 😉
    • Tuesday, Fort Collins, CO – morning work in the hotel, afternoon Knowledge Bowl competition, evening, a bit more work.
    • Wednesday, home office – Daily work and routine
    • Thursday, Spokane, WA – Hotel working
    • Friday, Spokane, WA – holiday, volleyball tournament for my daughter.

    There’s a level of craziness, with changing locations and working sporadically this week. Tuesday should be a holiday, but I’ll have to work around things. I’ll actually try to do some work on Monday around the competition to minimize the disruptions. I have some meetings I couldn’t easily move, so I elected to just work around Tuesday.

    Wednesday will really be my only normal work day, though I have an evening flight to Spokane, so I will feel some pressure here.

    Thursday is a travel day for my daughter. I’ll be in the hotel working while she wanders around Spokane with her team.

    Friday is a tournament, afternoon wave, so if I haven’t finished everything I need, I’ll be working a bit in the am here.

    Not my kind of week, but I have these happen at times.

  • Back to Work

    It’s strange to be back to work on a Monday, with kids still in the house (they start school tomorrow), after being gone for the last 10 days  from work. It was really gone, as I didn’t process email or mess with work in any meaningful way. I did clean some spam over vacation when others were gone, and I added a few Database Weekly links last week, but I didn’t check SQLServerCentral, edit articles, or do anything really SQL related.

    About the only computer tasks I’ve done since the day before Christmas were a few hours on the Advent of Code stuff I’ve been working on in my spare time, and even that was minimal. I got stuck on a few puzzles, and didn’t have much time to work through them. I’d give it 20-30 minutes, but then break for family time.

    It’s a new year, and I’m starting slow. At least slow this week as I take stock of the publishing queues and start to plan how I’ll proceed forward. As I left last year, there were a lot of new technologies coming from Microsoft in 2016 that I felt I needed to get up to speed on. Some are out, some coming, but they’re a point of emphasis. Like Buck Woody with his Data Scientist work, and Grant Fritchey with R, I’m proceeding to learn more about analytics, including data lakes and statistics, as I move through the year. Particularly I’m focused on Python as the language to use, though from what I see with R, lots of the same libraries and formulas apply.

    I’m also looking to continue forward with the #SQLNewBlogger posts and see if I can inspire some of you to move forward with your own skills and thoughts on how SQL works for you. I’m going to look to get at least 2 posts a month out here, and perhaps more.

    Travel starts quickly, with a week long trip to the UK in two weeks and then SQL Saturday Austin, but other than that, it will be a light quarter for me. Just one event in Feb, and none in March. I am looking forward to that slow beginning.

  • Travel Confusion

    I confused myself. Twice apparently in October. Let’s hope that this one works out as well as the last one.

    Jones is a Good Name

    I flew to Orlando on Oct 8. I got a car, and drove up to my hotel in Lake Mary, near the SQL Saturday pre-con. I checked in, the lady asked for me name, acknowledged "Jones" and confirmed I was there for one night.

    I was slightly confused, but thought I might have booked a different hotel for the next night closer to the SQL Saturday. There are times I’ve got events in two places, so I stay near them. When I got to my room, I checked, and my phone showed a reservation for Oct 9-11, at the same hotel.

    Hmmmm.

    I went back downstairs and we determined I didn’t have a reservation for Oct 8, but there was another Jones coming. Apparently I got his or her room. We fixed things, I kept my room, and then promptly double checked the rest of my hotels in the UK.

    Check In is Available for Your Flight

    That was the message I got today when I came out of yoga. At first I started to check in, then realized today is Friday. I planned on going to Seattle on Sunday and I can only check in 24 hours in advance.

    A check confirmed it. I’d messed up reservations again. I called United and they said there was a bunch of space on a couple flights Sunday. If I changed today it was US$300. However if I want until tomorrow morning and call within 24 hours of the flight, there’s no change fee. The benefits of flying a lot are there, but not without some caveats.

    I created an appointment for myself in the am to call and change my flight. Let’s hope a bunch of people don’t book DEN->SEA between now and then.