Voice of the DBA

Tag: travel

  • Up, Up, and Away

    A long series of flights for me this afternoon. Off to Houston late, then catching an overnight flight to London. However I don’t stop there. Immediately I’m off to Frankfurt and the SQL Konferenz taking place there. I won’t really stop traveling until Tuesday evening, just in time (I hope) for dinner.

    The one upside is I fly on a 787 Dreamliner. I actually searched out to see where these planes are in use by United, and I’ll be taking one across the water.

    I’ll get some pictures and hopefully have time to blog a bit while waiting to connect at Heathrow.

  • I May Not Shake Your Hands

    I’m traveling next week to the SQL Konferenz in Germany, and then on to Red Gate in the UK.

    However, I may pull a Wil Wheaton at the event and the office and not shake hands. I haven’t had issues with this in the past, with lots of handshakes, hugs, and even a few cheek kisses at times. This time, though it’s me, not you.

    I’ve been fighting a virus of some sort for a little over a week. I don’t have bad symptoms, mostly annoying chest tightness, sore throat, and a slightly runny nose. My son has bronchitis, but I don’t have a lot of his symptoms, and I don’t think antibiotics will help. No fever, so I think I have to wait things out.

    I may be miserable, but certainly not sick enough to cancel anything. I’ll be loading up on medicines to mask symptoms and ease travel, but I may not engage a lot with some of you.

    I also may limit questions, but I’ll bring a pad and if I can’t answer in person, I’ll be sure to blog or post answers later. My typing isn’t affected, so you’ll likely get a better answer anyway.

  • SQL Bits XIV

    I’m heading back to London for SQL Bits XIV in March. This is my favorite conference, and I’m excited and honored to be selected to present.

    This year the conference goes to four days, and it’s an amazing set of sessions being offered at a very reasonable price. You can get a full day of expert level training on Wednesday and Thursday if you like. Friday is very low cost, and Saturday is free. Thursday also has a few side sessions if you’d like to attend a variety of different things during the day.

    I’ll be presenting Thur afternoon and Friday afternoon if you’d like to see me, but please feel free to stop my, shake my hand, and say hi at any time. I should be at the venue early Thur and the rest of the conference until Sat late afternoon. My sessions hare:

    • Branding Yourself for a Dream Job – Thur, 4:00pm
    • Get Testing with tSQLt – Friday, 5:00pm.

    That doesn’t leave me a lot of time for Friday night’s preparations, so perhaps I’ll preview my costume early.

    Superheroes

    One of the best parts of SQL Bits is that there is a themed party every Friday night, and everyone’s invited to have fun. I participated in the medieval theme a few years ago, but wasn’t ready for Steampunk last fall.

    However I’m ready for 2015. I’ve ordered a costume, with time to change something if things aren’t fitting properly.

    I’m excited to see what people choose, and it should be great fun in London this March.

    This really is a great event. Lots to learn, lots of fun, and a casual atmosphere that I rarely see elsewhere. I thank the SQL Bits team for their hospitality and I look forward to another first class event.

  • Off to London

    Today I’m off across the Atlantic again. SQL in the City 2014 kicks off in London and I have 3 talks to give on Friday. Plus a keynote.

    Today is keynote practice, last minute packing, and then off to the airport for my flight overnight to London. This will be another quick trip, and although I think it would be good to spend a few days in Cambridge at the Red Gate offices, I’m so focused on SQL in the City, as well as this being my third trip this month, I didn’t think it made sense. I still have a week in Seattle coming, so this has been a tough time.

    I am a bit excited about the event. We have a new venue, and we’ve worked to fit a number of talks together in a sequence that I think can help get people moving forward in a Continuous Delivery software+database development process. I really think this is the way to build better software, and I want to see us jumpstart development on SSC in this manner in 2015, and hopefully get continuous work being done.

    I’ve also got a new talk based on the DBA Team articles, and I hope everyone likes it. I tried for a bit of humor, so we’ll see. If it does well, I’ll do it in Seattle. If not, I’ll be reworking things next week.

    Once again work blends into the weekend, though not by much. I’ll be heading back from the UK Saturday morning, so I’ll miss a half day in Denver, though it will be a long day in all for me. My flight will leave around 1am Denver time, so by the time we hit Saturday night, I’ll be a bit worn out.