To set the stage, I was visiting a relatively new client and since they have casual Fridays, I wore my speaker shirt from SQL [...]]]>

“Why would you do that for free?” she asked. I was kind of surprised and paused for a minute because it had been some time since I had thought about it.

To set the stage, I was visiting a relatively new client and since they have casual Fridays, I wore my speaker shirt from SQL Saturday Chicago which is personalized with my name. The client asked about it and I told her that I often volunteer and present at SQL Saturdays and User Group Meetings. The conversation went like this:

Her: How much does that pay?
Me: Umm… nothing. It’s volunteer.
Her: Well, they do reimburse you for travel expenses, right?
Me: No, that’s my responsibility.
Her: I don’t get it. Why would you do that for free? Why work for nothing?
….. Pause
Me: It’s not work because I love doing it. I enjoy teaching and presenting, and well… just hanging out with these people.
….. Skeptical look from the client.
Her: It’s a career thing, right? There are people who will advance your career there?
Me: Umm.. there are some career aspects about it, but mostly I went to that event, and really all of these events, because I like the people. Don’t you travel to spend time with people you like?
Her: Well yeah, but not other [Business Type Removed] people. It’s not a social thing.
Me: Well, I guess it’s a PASS thing, a geek thing.
Her: I don’t get it.
Me: I’m going to several events in the next month and maybe your DBA’s would like to attend Austin’s SQL Saturday…….

Terrible Photoshop Skills, I Know

It’s a PASS thing, you wouldn’t understand.

I’ve been a member of this community for a few years and it’s a big part of my life. If you haven’t gotten involved and embraced the SQL Community yet, then what are you waiting for?

Why attend these events? What do you get?

1. Free or inexpensive training.
2. Access to some of the best minds in SQL Server.
3. Exposure to new SQL Server ideas and features.
4. Inspiration to increase your skill set and improve your career.

It goes without saying that those benefits are important. However, they’re not the most important aspect of these PASS Events. For example, the knowledge is great, but I can learn from books, recordings, blogs, etc. Thanks to the community, tons of free information can be found on the Web.

So, what’s the most important aspect of these events? For me, it’s all about relationships. Building bonds with these people is everything and all of the other stuff is a by-product of that. The events are fun, especially if you volunteer and speak at them. I love this community. That’s the intangible aspect that I couldn’t relate well to the new client.

Upcoming Events

This Saturday (10/1), the fine folks at CACTUSS will be hosting SQL Saturday #97. Some of the best minds in SQL Server will be there to share their knowledge and passion for SQL Server. Oh, and I’ll be there as well to present the following two topics:

Data Warehouse Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make
Many data professionals understand the basics of Data Warehouse design, including Dimension and Fact Tables, slowly changing Dimensions, and the use of meaningless surrogate keys. However, it isn’t until you’ve created a dimensional model and put it into production, that you realize just how much of an impact seemingly trivial mistakes can make. They can hobble performance, allow inaccuracy, and perhaps worst of all, inhibit adoption and usage of the new system.

Learn how to avoid many common mistakes, from someone who’s made them and then found ways to correct them.

SSIS Done Right With Package Configurations
Everyone starts creating SSIS Packages the same way. We hard code connection strings, file locations, etc. Package Configurations are a powerful way to control your packages at run time. This allows you to seamlessly move packages between servers, dynamically assign data sources and destinations, cycle through data sources, and create reusable code.

In this presentation, I’ll demonstrate an easy to understand three step process which you can use with all of your packages to increase your productivity in SSIS.

PASS Summit 2011

The Pass Summit is happening the week of October 10th. The PASS Summit is a wonderful experience, that you just can’t get anywhere else.

This year I’ve been selected to give a five minute lightning talk. DBA Lessons Learned from The Godfather. In that presentation, I’ll share how themes from the Godfather novel and movies apply to our profession and the SQL Community.

I’m really looking forward to these events. I can’t wait to see some of my friends again and get re-energized about SQL Server, blogging, and the community.

I hope to see you there.

Always two there are, no more, no less: a master and an [...]]]>

Like many other technical bloggers, I receive requests for help on a regular basis. Since I’m constantly learning and evolving I approach others for help as well. A couple of years ago, I received an email from a new reader which began with:

Always two there are, no more, no less: a master and an apprentice.

The line is from Star Wars, of course. Being a huge geek, it’s easy to understand how his email got my attention right away. His approach was polite, respectful, and most importantly demonstrated that he had in fact read some of my blog. That got me thinking, what are some tips I could give my readers on how to ask for help? Of course, I couldn’t just produce a list. In my geekitude, I have prepared a list of movie scenes to explain my suggestions.

Show Respect

What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? – Godfather

Be respectful in your request and if at all possible, offer your friendship before you need help. Attend user group meetings and get to know people. Volunteer. If it’s a forum, do your best to participate and help others in the forum. As in the movie, you’re more likely to get help when you need it if you already belong to a group.

Be Nice (Politeness)

Be Nice

If somebody gets in your face and calls you a &^*%*$!!!, I want you to be nice. Ask him to walk. Be nice. If he won’t walk, walk him. But be nice. If you can’t walk him, one of the others will help you, and you’ll both be nice. I want you to remember that it’s a job. It’s nothing personal.- Dalton in Road House

Don’t go overboard but a complimentary remark never hurts when asking for help. If you’ve seen them present, read their blog, or answer questions in forums, complement them on their abilities. Just make sure that your compliments are sincere. I can’t tell you how many “requests” I’ve gotten for help which sounded more like demands for help. People don’t tend to respond well to demands.

Communicate Clearly

Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?!?!? – Detective Carter in Rush Hour

Take some time and compose your question so it can be easily read and understood. If I have to waste cycles trying to decode your question, or need additional information, chances are that I won’t bother. In my experience, most people are like this. Depending on your problem, explain the steps you have taken to remedy your issue and the result of those attempts. Take time to use a code prettify-er before posting it and if possible the code to generate a sample data set people can use to help you. Make it easy for people to assist you. Now that I’ve just told you how complete your questions should be, remember that at the same time you should….

Be Brief

Let me ‘splain… No, there is too much. Let me sum up. Buttercup is marry’ Humperdinck in a little less than half an hour. So all we have to do is get in, break up the wedding, steal the princess, make our escape… after I kill Count Rugen – Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride

The longer your question, the less likely people are to read it. Therefore, it’s in your best interest to be as brief as possible while still providing the background information to solve your problem. Try to leave rants or opinion out of it and just state the facts.

Work for Your Own Answers

Wax On Wax Off

Ask for Guidance, Not Solutions

It is like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory. Bruce Lee

This goes along with RTFM. People are more likely to help you if you ask for general direction and not the complete solution to your problem. People do not want to do your homework, but they will direct you to information sources that will help you. A question framed like, “Can anyone recommend a resource where I can learn to…..” is likely to be answered.

Be Patient

We’re running out of time!!!! – Jack Bauer in 24

You often see this in forums. “Help!!!! My Server is down and I have no backups!!!!” Then five minutes later the person bumps their topic again because people haven’t responded fast enough. If you have a time sensitive emergency, then pay for immediate support. Don’t expect a forum to substitute for that kind of assistance. Your behavior won’t get your question answered any faster, and may in fact alienate people who would normally be willing to help you.

Don’t be Greedy

The point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for lack of a better word, is good.- Gordon Gekko in Wall Street

Yes, I know that the movie quote says the opposite, but stay with me. Similar to my last point, if you continuously ask questions without reciprocating, you may find that the answers stop coming. People don’t want to feel used, so you should prioritize your issues/questions and use community resources sparingly.

Don’t Argue

Pai Mei

That, my dearest, depends entirely on you. Now, remember: no sarcasm, no backtalk. At least not for the first year or so. You’re gonna have to let him warm up to you. – Bill in Kill Bill, Volume 2 (speaking about Pai Mei, plucker of eyes.)

I’ve seen this more times than I can count and it’s often hilarious. Some newbie asks for help on a forum regarding how often he should be shrinking his database. Paul Randal (Blog/Twitter), who has forgotten more about SQL Server than most will ever learn, advises him that shrinking should be avoided. The newbie then proceeds to argue because he heard somewhere that database shrinking is akin to nirvana. Will Paul pluck your eye out like the infamous Pai Mei? Probably not, though I wouldn’t bet against him having those skills. However, if you argue with folks trying to help you, you’ll most likely get less assistance next time.

If Possible, Offer to Pay

Give Me Paw!!!

Listen! We’re not just doing this for the money! We’re doing this for a S*** LOAD of money! -Lone Starr in Spaceballs

I’m not suggesting that everyone is motivated to help others by money, however it doesn’t hurt. In fact, you’ll most often find that people will refuse money that is coming out of our personal pocket. However, it does indicate to them that you are serious about getting help and answers. Also, offering to buy someone lunch or a drink or whatever goes a long way. I’ve bought more than a few meals in my day as a way of thanking people who helped me.

Follow Up

“Just pay it forward.” – Thorsen in Pay It Forward

If you ask a question on a forum, and you find the answer yourself, make sure to go back and update the thread with the answer you found. This gesture doesn’t benefit you personally, but it will help others when they have a similar problem.

Also, if a answer or suggestion helped you, follow up with the person and let them know. This seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how often people neglect to do this. Let’s face it, it feels good to receive a thank you message, and you’re more likely to get help with your next question.

So, that’s my list. Do you folks have any other suggestions?

Why do I ask? Well, technology is eliminating the first two jobs, and the last three are practically extinct. Which way [...]]]>

When was the last time you booked a trip through a Travel Agent? Rented a Video from an actual person? Have you ever seen a Milkman Telephone Operator, or Elevator Operator except in classic movies?

Why do I ask? Well, technology is eliminating the first two jobs, and the last three are practically extinct. Which way is your skill set headed?

Several years ago, my career was going in that direction. I was a Made2Manage expert and used Visual FoxPro to create reports, customize the system, etc. I had skills, but they were very difficult to leverage in the job market. I saw the writing on the wall, made changes, and I urge you to do the same.

Focus on Skills With Staying Power

Invest your time developing skills in technologies that are not going to be obsolete or completely change every year. In my case, my skills were focused on obsolete technologies like Visual FoxPro Programming and Reporting, which was a dead end.

I initially switched my focus to T-SQL and Visual Basic programming, then eventually to Data Warehousing, and Microsoft Business Intelligence (SSIS, SSRS, SSAS). As others have mentioned, T-SQL is relatively static, and since Data Warehouse design concepts are technology agnostic they’re also unlikely to change radically. Microsoft has invested a fortune in it’s Business Intelligence products and has an immense customer base.

Keep in mind that these were my choices and aren’t necessarily for you. Just make sure that your choices have staying power as well.

Focus on Skills That Fascinate You

Gotta Love Your Job

While presenting at M2M’s premier conference last year, an audience member asked me how I felt about being a M2M Administrator. I answered with a joke,

It’s a lot like working at a sewage treatment plant. You’ll always have a job that pays relatively well, but you always go home smelling like crap.

Like most jokes, it’s funny because there’s an element of truth. It’s not enough to focus on a specific skill because it has staying power, you need to figure out what you love to do. Practicing a skill you find fascinating increases your learning rate and leads to a more enjoyable life as well.

Narrow Your Focus

In a past life, I taught high school biology and one of the concepts was Specialization vs. Generalization. In terms of Biology, organisms that specialize are more efficient (like humans) whereas organisms which are more generalized (like Bacteria) have greater survivability in times of calamity. The same is true for IT Skills. You can’t be excellent at everything, there is simply too much to know. Andy Leonard (Blog/Twitter) is probably not an expert in Disaster Recovery and Performance Tuning and Paul Randal (Blog/Twitter) can’t create world class SSIS packages.

However, a narrow focus fosters greater skill and that results in greater efficiency. This generally results in a higher rate of pay as well. Conversely, a generalist with average skills in several areas might seem to have a higher survivability in times of trouble. The generalist can work anywhere, whereas your average company cannot hire Brent Ozar (Blog/Twitter) to be their IT guy.

While this may have been an issue at one time, the Internet has largely negated it. The top people in these fields will always have work and in my opinion, they will always be worth more than a good generalist. Now I realize that every job requires a certain amount of undesirable tasks. Perhaps you dislike checking backups, error logs, etc. I’m not suggesting that you stop doing that, but do your best to spend the bulk of your time working on specific skills to achieve mastery.

I had a conversation with a friend of mine recently about this and he told me, “I do specialize, I specialize on [name of his company here].” He’s banking on being indispensable and that his job security will carry him in this tough economic climate. Hate to burst your bubble, but….

There is No Job Security

Nobody is indispensable, and you shouldn’t want to be. The company survived before you started there, and they will find a way to do without you. They may have to spend more money or limp along with substandard service, but they don’t need you. Besides, in my experience being considered mission critical is more of a hindrance than a benefit. If you are absolutely necessary in your current role, you cannot be promoted and your skills may stagnate.

Focus on Skills in Demand

Back in the 70′s and 80′s Racquetball was a hot sport, and while I was in college, I used to work out with a Professional Racquetball Player. The popularity of racquetball has dropped since then, and Rocky Carson, the current top pro, claims to earn six figure income from winnings and endorsements. Meanwhile Tiger Woods, another non-team athlete, earns nearly 1000 times as much. Is Tiger really 1000 times the athlete as Rocky? Maybe and maybe not, but I’d argue that the primary difference is the demand of their respective sports.

Being the world’s best Tiddlywinks player doesn’t matter much if you can’t make money doing it, unless of course you aren’t trying to make a career out of it. I’m just saying that if Turbo Pascal and C# .NET both fascinate you, I’d go with C# .NET.

Focus On Networking

Something I learned a few years ago is that I always need to network. People come and go from your work, community, and personal lives so you need to be in a constant state of expansion. Don’t start networking when you need a job, a mature network should already be in place beforehand. Notice that when I say networking, I’m not talking about prowling sites like Monster or Dice and I’m not suggesting that you should perpetually look for a new job. Networking is about making friends, sharing technical information, helping others, etc.

Although I respect both men a great deal, ultimately I’d rather end up like Thomas Edison than Nikola Tesla. Both were undoubtedly brilliant, but Tesla died in obscurity, alone and penniless.

Focus On Soft Skills

Anybody can learn to take backups, use Reporting Services, or write T-SQL code. If you’re reading this, you’re smart and want to succeed. However, the geek stereotype is that we’re often socially awkward, don’t relate well to people, and don’t express ourselves well in both verbal and written form. These are the kinds of skills that we all should focus on because they’re considered rare in our profession. To paraphrase an old saying:

If we’re running from Zombies, I don’t need to outrun the Zombies. I only need to outrun you.

Having participated in many interviews recently, soft skills are often much more important than the hard skills. If you give a good, motivated junior DBA a job, his technical skills will quickly improve. If you hire a Senior DBA with the stereotypical personality challenges, is he likely to become Dale Carnegie-esque at the same rate?

So, how do you get the soft skills? Well, the same way you can gain all of of the skills I’ve already mentioned.

Focus on Community Involvement

Geoff Hiten, Grant Fritchey, and Buck Woody at the 2010 Summit

There are so many benefits to being active in the community. You can make great friends and learn so much from other PASS Community members. Many of us blog and present at the regional and local level, and some of us act as personal mentors to more junior DBAs.

Get involved. Attend meetings, blog, and present. This will help you learn those soft skills, and become known for them. You can’t achieve these skills overnight, but if you want to jump start the process, you should….

Focus on Going to the Pass 2011 Summit

The PASS Summit is the premier event for SQL Server Professionals. You can network with the best and brightest. Get help with your technical problems, sometimes from the people who created the technologies. If your employer will send you, that’s great. If not then bite the bullet and pay your own way as I did last year.

I’m registering today and you should too, because today is the last day to take advantage of the $600 early bird discount. You may find that it’s one of the best things to happen to your career. I did last year.

I urge you to take the time to examine your focus and where it’s leading you. This is your life, your career, and your future.

I hope you’ll make the most of it and that I’ll see you at this year’s PASS Summit.

Find ways to change focus that are good for you and the employer, or find a new employer. This is your life.

Kevin Kline - Troubleshooting and Performance Tuning Microsoft SQLServer with Dynamic Management Views (DMVs)

The festivities started on Friday with our three Pre-Con events. Kevin [...]]]>

SQL Saturday Dallas, which was our third, went off without a hitch. While there were a few items we’ve identified as needing work, overall the event was swimmingly successful.

Kevin Kline - Troubleshooting and Performance Tuning Microsoft SQLServer with Dynamic Management Views (DMVs)

The festivities started on Friday with our three Pre-Con events. Kevin Kline (Blog/Twitter), Jessica Moss (Blog/Twitter), and Randy Dyess from Solid Quality Mentors.

I attended parts of each and impressed by all of them. For the price you couldn’t beat the educational value of the North Texas SQL Server User Group Pre-Cons.

After the Pre-Cons the core volunteers went to the Region 10 Educational Center (great facility by the way) to set up for the event.

The blind leading the blind.

A special thanks to Heather Sullivan (Twitter), Head of SQL Server Tools for Idera Software, for bringing so many people to volunteer. I think the total number was 8 and those folks worked their butts off.

Natural Born Leader

Have I mentioned lately how much I love SQL Saturday Events? I’d love to be able to present more often. Attention SQL Vendors and Sponsors, that was a hint.

After that we went to the speaker’s dinner, which was held at Dave and Buster’s and a great time was had by all. Where else can you spend hours talking to Steve Jones (Blog/Twitter), Jessica Moss (Blog/Twitter), Andy Warren (Blog/Twitter), Wes Brown (Blog/Twitter), etc.

Scott Whigham and I playing pool. If you squint hard, I almost look like Tom Cruise in The Color of Money.

SQL Saturday always starts early when you are a volunteer. One of my responsibilities was registration, and everything went well. The success is mostly due to having so many committed volunteers, and they made me look good once again.

Throughout the day, things continued to go well. Speaker shirts were well received, the food and the Paciugo Gelato (fancy ice cream) were a big hit.

I want to give special thanks to a few people and groups. I apologize for leaving anyone out.

• I really appreciate the sponsors who make these events possible.
• Tim Mitchell (Blog/Twitter) who was not only a core volunteer and a presenter, but took the pictures as well.
• All of the volunteers, especially our core team.
• All of the presenters, many of whom traveled to speak at the event at their own cost.

Because I was so busy, I only attended a couple of presentations. Sean McCown (Blog) presented “How to Curse in an Interview” and it was one of the most intense talks I’ve ever seen in a technical setting. I also watched Sri Sridhara (Blog/Twitter), NTSSUG President, present “Turbo charge your DBA career” and he had the crowd mesmerized.

I presented “T-SQL Programming to Survive a Zombie Database” and it went very well. I love teaching, and I think it shows. In fact, Jen McCown (Blog/Twitter), who’s opinion I greatly respect, attended and tweeted the following:

Awesomesauce!

Of course I went to the party after the event and spent quality time with community members. Everyone should attend the after parties. There’s a wealth of help available there for free, not to mention those folks are fun to hang out with as well. Where else can you ask for free help like this?

• Adam Saxton (Blog/Twitter), Senior Escalation Engineer for SQL Server Support, about SSRS problems.
• Steve Jones or Andy Warren about branding.
• Tim Mitchell or Sean McCown about SSIS.
• Wes Brown about SQL Server storage.
• Jessica Moss about Microsoft BI.
• Tim Costello (Blog/Twitter) about data visualization and Tableau.
• Trevor Barkhouse (Blog) about performance tuning.
• Ryan Adams (Blog/Twitter) about mirroring.
• Kevin Kline about… well everything.

These events are free sources of SQL education, but that’s not the most important aspect. They’re about people, great people who share your profession and interests. How did I meet all of these great people? I joined PASS, participated in my local SQL server user group, and went the extra mile to be social.

You can do it too. Throw caution to the wind and talk to people, we don’t bite. Well, I’m not so sure about Sean.

So, now that I’ve taken [...]]]>

It’s been a crazy few weeks. As I mentioned previously, I presented at two SQL Saturday Events in back to back weeks. I’m on the core committee for the North Texas SQL Server User Group SQL Saturday, so I was overwhelmed with things to do and couldn’t stop to blog.

So, now that I’ve taken a few days to catch up and relax I’ll share some of the highlights of both experiences.

SQL Saturday Chicago

I had a great time at this event put on by both the Chicago SQL Server User Group and the Chicago Suburban SQL Server User Group. I flew in early Friday to attend my second Freecon event. Freecon is a free event put on by Brent Ozar (Blog/Twitter) in which he invites a small group of bloggers/presenters from the SQL Community to discuss issues important to us and the community. My Freecon experiences have been excellent, and I’ll go into those in more depth in a future post. I simply can’t thank Master O enough for including me. Oh, and the atmosphere at the The Catalyst Ranch was amazing too.

So, why mention it? Well, I learned an important lesson. I am never, ever flying out at 5:30am again. I was so exhausted after getting up at 3am that I never caught up. SQL Saturday events are packed with activity, especially if you’re volunteering or speaking. After the Freecon, Erin Stellato (Blog/Twitter) was kind enough to cart Karen Lopez aka DataChick (Site/Blog/Twitter), her hubby Rob Drysdale, and I to and from our hotel which was a bit of a distance from SQL Saturday.

SQL Sentry hosted the speaker’s dinner. The food was excellent and there were so many amazing database people to meet including Aaron Bertrand (Twitter) who works for SQL Sentry. SQL Saturday Chicago provided personalized shirts for the speakers with our names on the front. It was a classy touch which I intend to suggest to my local group. The problem with personalized shirts is the risk of typos.

Thomas LaRock (Blog/Twitter) was a good sport about being called RockSar all weekend.

I got up bright blurry eyed Saturday morning, scarfed some breakfast, and headed to the event. It was obvious that this was not the Chicago groups’ first rodeo as they knew what they were doing. Wendy Pastrick (Blog/Twitter) and her group had everything running smoothly. Noel McKinney (Blog/Twitter), whom I had met on Friday, had me through the check in process and I never saw a line up.

Unfortunately I didn’t attend many presentations because I was having laptop problems and had to re-build part of my demo. This was my second important lesson of the trip. I need better contingency plans so I’ve purchased VMWare Workstation and every one of my demos will be done that way. I’ll keep a backup copy of the VM on a USB hard drive so I can use another laptop at a moment’s notice.

I did see Grant Fritchey (Blog/Twitter) present “The Optimizer, Statistics, and Indexes.” Honestly, I think everyone saw him. The room was packed so full that people were standing along the walls and SQL Rockstar sat right next to him. Grant is amazing, if you ever get the chance to see him present, do not pass it up. In the speaker’s room after the presentation, we were laughing because one of the attendees commented that the “Sidekick in the corner was distracting” because Tom and Grant bantered back and forth a bit during his presentation. Hilarious.

Grant took this short video of me in the speaker’s room. It should be worth a laugh.

An old friend came to see me at the event. She used to work for Made2Manage support and she’s one of the many people I’ve encouraged to get out into the much larger world of SQL Server. Anyway as she and I were talking in the hallway, Grant Fritchey walked by and I introduced him as “The Scary DBA.” My friend scoffed and said that when she worked in support my phone calls would sometimes bring her to tears. Grant thought it was hilarious, but I was a wee bit embarrassed.

My presentation went well, and I had more than 40 attendees. Not bad considering I was scheduled at the same time as Brent Ozar, Datachick, Jes Borland, and others.

As promised the downloadable scripts and presentation can be downloaded here.

I learned something else from this trip. I normally take a lot of time creating geeky/funny Abstracts and Titles like “Data Warehousing – How to convince ‘The Bobs’.” However, when I asked how many people had seen “Office Space,” which is the underlying theme of the presentation, less than 10% had seen it. Ugh. I’m going to have to re-think my Title and Abstract Strategy and go with something closer to “Creating a Data Warehouse Proof of Concept” which has more widespread appeal.

I went to the after party and had a great time talking with Jose Chinchilla (Blog/Twitter) as the dude is hilarious. I hope to get him back down to Dallas to present again soon. I also succumbed to peer pressure and had a drink with Jose, Datachick + 1, and Noel McKinney and his wife. Apparently I get really funny even after having one drink. Anyway, I ended up at SQL Karoake, but wasn’t up to embarassing myself like I did at PASS last year, so I just watched with Datachick + 1.

I will tell you that SQL People let their hair down like no other at SQL Karoake. Jes Borland (Blog/Twitter), who has more energy than any three people I know, and Jason Strate (Blog/Twitter) belted out a duet and everyone had a good time.

I have no idea why more people don’t attend the after parties. It’s fun, and a great way to network with some of the best in the SQL profession.

What I want you to take from this is simple. Attending SQL Saturday Events is a lot of fun and great for your career. Take full advantage of them, including the after party.

Come Join Us.

SSIS work is not good for your self-esteem on Monday morning.

These things spread like wildfire, so I’m not sure who’s been tagged and [...]]]>

One of the cool kids, Thomas LaRock (Blog/Twitter), has started a new community blogging game called Meme Monday. My friend John Sterrett (Blog/Twitter) tagged me this morning, and my attempt is below.

SSIS work is not good for your self-esteem on Monday morning.

These things spread like wildfire, so I’m not sure who’s been tagged and who isn’t, but here goes.

I hereby tag Jorge Segarra (Blog/Twitter) and Jen McCown (Blog/Twitter).

Have fun folks.

Since the holidays are fast approaching, along with the end of the year, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on the previous year, discuss some small miracles that have happened recently, and share my New Year’s Resolutions.

My Girlfriend Missy and I [...]]]>

Santa was geeked to take the pic, but Anakin wasn't convinced.

Since the holidays are fast approaching, along with the end of the year, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on the previous year, discuss some small miracles that have happened recently, and share my New Year’s Resolutions.

My Girlfriend Missy and I at ICE Gaylord Texan

Christmas Miracles?

There have been several small miracles around me lately.

• Missy has recovered from a devastating injury and illness. Without going into details, this was one of the reasons why I haven’t been blogging as much as I’d like. She’s officially cured.
• An unexpected Day Off. I was waaaay behind in my Christmas Shopping and on Friday our building broke a water main. Since that means the bathrooms stopped working, we were “forced” to take the day off. Not really a “miracle” but it saved my butt.
• I won an Ipad. Thanks to Brent Ozar (Blog/Twitter) and Red Gate Software, I won an iPad loaded with SQL Monitor. All I had to do was admit an unhealthy obsession for Lady GaGa.
• I’m teaching again. I’ll be back home in Michigan during the holidays through the first week of January. The reason I’m extending the visit is that I will be teaching three days of SQL Server and Reporting Services classes for several companies in the frozen tundra. I am so grateful that I re-discovered my love of teaching.
• SQL University. In February, I’ll be teaching a week of Data Warehouse Modeling for The SQL University. I’m honored to be asked and really looking forward to contributing to that cause.
• The SQL Community. Joining and participating in the SQL Community with blogging, presenting, and networking with people has been a miracle for me, both personally and professionally. While I thanked Brent and RedGate about the iPad the truth is that every one of you deserves the credit for my “win” as well. If I wasn’t involved, I wouldn’t have won that, starting teaching again, or received the multitude of other blessings that have come my way.

Happy Festivus – The Airing of Grievances

Enough of the mushy stuff, it’s time to gather around and air our grievances Festivus style. Unlike traditional the typical Airing of Grievances my grievances are all with me.

Will You Forgive Me?

New Year’s Resolutions

• Blog regularly and become better at it. I’m on the verge of posting numerous blog articles on Microsoft Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, etc and will hit the ground running in January.
• Release M-Data Analytics to beta by the end of first quarter 2011. We’re currently re-working the ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) using a sophisticated SSIS Framework with built in logging. It’s not enough to get it done, I want it done right which is why this is taking so long.
• Work on my presentation skills. I want to be a world class technical presenter.
• Start posting instructional videos in SQL Server Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing. I promise to get that set up and you’ll begin seeing videos in 2011.

Happy ChristmaHanuKwanzaakah everyone! I look forward to “seeing” you in the New Year!