I’m speaking at SQL Saturday Virginia Beach — June 8

Saturday, June 8 is coming soon (a week from this Saturday). How will you be spending it? For me, I will be speaking at SQL Saturday #839, Virginia Beach that day. I will be doing my presentation entitled: "Disaster Documents: The role of documentation in disaster recovery." In my presentation, I tell the story of …

Memorial Day Murph — crossing the finish line

Yesterday, I did the annual Memorial Day Murph workout. I've written about it before. For those of you unfamiliar with CrossFit, the Murph workout consists of a one mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 air squats, and another mile run. Needless to say, it is a LOT of work! For those of us who …

Speaking at my hometown SQL Saturday — Albany, NY, July 20

I got the official word this morning that I've been picked to speak at my hometown SQL Saturday in Albany, NY on July 20! I don't yet know which presentation I'm doing. Hopefully, I'll find out by the end of the week. (Update: It appears that I will be doing my presentation about 'blogging. This …

Burning Out

Reblogging another good article. Steve Jones reminds us that it’s important to maintain a work-life balance.

Voice of the DBA

We tend to work a lot of hours as data professionals, developers, even IT management. It seems that we often are in the office at night, on weekends, and anytime there is a crisis. Even when we don’t have down systems, it seems the pressure to continue to build new features, functions, and ensure systems are operating well leads many of us to work longer hours than the expected 40 hour week. In fact, there are no shortage of companies that expect IT employees to work more than 40 hours every week.

This isn’t limited to IT. Doctors, lawyers, and plenty of other professions put in extra hours at work. Even teachers often do work at home. I’ve seen this first hand this past year with my oldest son teaching 5th grade. He spends a fair amount of time doing work at the kitchen counter, not unlike what I used…

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Three years a ‘blogger — what a long, strange trip it’s been

As of this Friday, I will have been writing my 'blog for three years. Happy anniversary to me, I suppose! I originally started my 'blog to supplement my SQL Saturday presentations, but since then, it's taken on a life of its own. I've written about a number of topics, mostly about professional development. I've dabbled …

My first road race — the debrief

Well, I survived my first road race! Wondering how I did? Here's my official results! Hey, I didn't get lost, and I didn't finish last! And as I write this, my hamstrings are still saying some nasty things to me! I was hoping to maintain at least a slow jog throughout the race, but that …

The evolution of statistics

During my lunch break, I was perusing the ESPN website and stumbled across this article. It contemplates whether or not a .300 hitter (in baseball, for those of you who are sports-challenged) is meaningful anymore. As a baseball fan, the article caught my attention. I didn't read through the entire article (it ended up being …

Getting ready for my first-ever road race

As I posted a while back, I signed up for my first-ever road race! The big day is tomorrow! The pic you see above is my racing bib for the big event! I've never run a road race before. This definitely qualifies as stepping out of my comfort zone. Wish me luck tomorrow. We who …

Testing something? What’s the test plan?

Imagine if you will that you've been asked to test a product. The product could be anything -- software, a car, a kitchen appliance, a piece of sports equipment, whatever. For the purposes of this article, we'll say you're working at some company, and you've been asked to test a piece of software. You're told …

CASSUG hosting the Modern Migration Tour, June 19

The Modern Migration Tour is coming to Albany! End of support for SQL Server 2008 is almost here (ends in July!), which means it’s time to take flight on your migration strategy. But, do you have a plan in place? What approach should you take to ensure a smooth transition? To guide you through these …