Going crazy (in a good way)

Every once in a while, I'll start thinking random thoughts. For whatever reason this morning, on the last day of 2021, my brain randomly started thinking about one of my favorite movies, Field Of Dreams. At the beginning of the movie, Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) said this: "And until I heard the Voice, …

What a TV ballgame can teach us about design

This afternoon, the 2021 slate of spring training games started for Major League Baseball. And of course, being the big baseball fan that I am, I took to it like a lion to a steak. I wasn't thinking too much about design or layout until I heard Michael Kay of YES mention, "I think our …

#TheBestOf… Visiting the ballpark

This is part of a series of articles in which I contribute to uniting our world by showing off a part of my own. A while back, I proposed writing articles to bring people together by showing us something special about your world that you want to share. Today’s topic: the joys of taking in a baseball game. …

The #SQLSaturday All-Star Game #PASSSummit

After my surprise selection for PASS Summit, I went poking around the speakers list. I'm pleased to see that a number of good #SQLFamily friends that I've made throughout my years as a SQL Saturday speaker were selected. I'm also awed that my name and photo are listed along with a number of SQL rock …

#SQL101: Create tables from CSV flat files

With my previous article about getting into REST applications, I figured it would be a good idea for me to set up a data source so I could practice. Besides, I had reinstalled SQL Server 2019 on my machine, and I needed to import some data so that I could brush up on my SQL …

The sports venues that I’ve visited

I enjoy attending sporting events. My previous post got me thinking about the sports venues that I've visited, and I thought it'd be fun to compile that list! A few caveats: I only list venues (along with their home teams and/or events) in which I've actually seen a game. For example, I've set foot in …

A trip to New York City for #SQLSaturday #SQLSat912

(Photo source: britannica.com) As I promised in my previous article, here is the article that details my trip to SQL Saturday #912! Early last year, I wrote about my trip to SQL Saturday #714, Philadelphia. That was an enjoyable trip (well, they all are), and I enjoyed writing that article. With my trip to SQL …

Jumping on the opportunity

(Photo source: NYCgo.com) As I mentioned before, I'll be in New York City for SQL Saturday #912 this Saturday (come check out my three presentations! </plug>). I'm taking the day off from work and am traveling down to The City on Friday. I also noticed something else that was going on in The City while …

Major League Baseball in Troy, NY

A friend of mine pointed out that a Wikipedia article about the Troy Trojans baseball team cited me as a reference! The article was actually a project for a Writing for Publication class that I took in grad school. It was later republished as a feature article in a baseball preview issue published by The …

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 …