Spring SQL Saturday Sprint!

If any of you are in the Midwestern US, you can come see me speak both of the next two weekends. Both are new sessions, and they should be great!

On April 6, I’ll be presenting “Get Involved!” at SQL Saturday #206 in Madison, WI:

SQL Saturday is a great place to learn more about SQL Server. But did you know that it’s just the tip of the iceberg? There are a number of places you can learn about SQL Server and just as many ways to share what you’ve learned with others. Most don’t even require a lot of time or money. The SQL Server community is vibrant and growing, and it needs your voice. Come to this session to find out how you can get involved!

And then on April 13, I’ll be presenting “Service Broker: The Queue Continuum” at SQL Saturday #211 in Chicago:

Pop quiz: How can SQL Server help developers build scalable, distributed, and asynchronous applications? Service Broker is the answer! In this presentation, I’ll show you what it is; talk about when and why you might want to use it in your applications; walk through an example of how to set it up; and share a few lessons learned from our successful implementations.

There are a ton of other great sessions from great speakers scheduled for both events, too. Come get some free SQL Server training!

Reboot

Two years ago, I was first inspired to start blogging by a session at the annual PASS Summit.  It took me about eight months to finally get things together to start writing… and then I stopped.  Finding time for this has been difficult, between the demands of work, family, and leading a PASS chapter.  I started presenting earlier this year, and that filled up a fair part of the little time I had left.

I’ve spent the past week at the Summit again.  Once again, I’m inspired to start writing.  Being around over 3800 people in my field reminds me of all the conversations that there are to be had.  There are never too many voices in the community, and it’s time for me to find mine.

I’m presenting in Madison!

One of my goals for the year was to present at least twice. I’m happy to say that I’m making progress on that goal – my first presentation was selected for SQL Saturday #118 in Madison, WI!

I’ll be presenting “Practically Normal”, a practical introduction to normalization. Normalization is a key concept in a relational database. It’s not difficult in practice, but too often, it’s explained in very technical terms, which makes it sound extremely difficult. My goal is to explain the first few normal forms in layman’s terms and using plenty of examples so that those in attendance can walk away with an idea of how they can apply it in their environments.

I hope you can join me on April 21! It promises to be a great day!

The Year That Was, The Year That Will Be

“If it’s to be, it’s up to me.” – William H. Johnsen

“No! Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” – Les Brown

2011 was a successful year, but not what I would consider to be “wildly” successful. Don’t get me wrong – I did do some good things. But a lot of what I did was to lay the foundation for great things to come. A few examples:

  • At work, I moved a number of databases from SQL 2000 to SQL 2008 R2. Our data warehouse was among those. I also rebuilt our data warehouse’s nightly load routines in SSIS, learning a lot about that tool in the process.
  • I began a short “Tool Time” segment in our monthly PASS meetings, mostly to expose our members to some great tools that are out there, but also partly to give myself experience in presenting short topics.
  • I made great progress in clearing a rather large backlog of tasks, both at work and at home, to allow more time for more productive endeavors.
  • I began running, finally achieving a 5K in September.

I have no doubts that 2012 can be an even better year if I set some goals for myself. This is something I’ve never really been good at, and I always seem to come up with excuses why I shouldn’t take the time. As I get older, though, I realize more and more that it is an important exercise. After all, if I don’t know where I’m going, how can I possibly expect to get anywhere I want to go?

With that in mind, I’m going to follow the lead of some others in the SQL community and use a few “watchwords” to organize my thoughts:

Watchword: Focus

  • Go on an information diet. This is a recent buzzword, but the concept behind it (as I understand it) seems to make sense. It’s all about reducing the flow of the proverbial firehose to separate the signal from the noise. I’ve always had a lot of clutter in my digital life. If I’m going to be able to attack some of my other goals, I first have to get this under control.
  • Strive for Inbox Zero… and keep it there. The latter has always been a much bigger problem for me. I tend to use my inbox as a to-do list since it’s right in front of me. The problem then becomes identifying what needs to be done when, which wastes time and energy. I can definitely find a better way to keep track of tasks.
  • Reduce my backlog. I tend to hang onto tasks, sometimes much longer than they’re useful, in an effort not to let people down. That’s pointless, though; after a certain amount of time, I’ve already let that person down if what I said I’d do isn’t done. Getting rid of what’s no longer useful will allow me to focus on what’s still relevant.

Watchword: Learn

  • Attend SQL Skills IE1 in April. No brainer – I’m already registered for the class, and I’m really looking forward to it!
  • Read at least one career-related book per quarter. Even though this sounds easy, it could be one of my more challenging goals.  I haven’t had a lot of time for reading recently.
  • Upgrade my MCITP to SQL Server 2008.

Watchword: Create

  • Begin posting regularly. I’m making the blogging too difficult.  I need to get in the habit of posting something on a regular basis, even if it just a list of links.  From what I’m told, the more I write, the easier it gets.
  • Create at least one presentation this year; deliver it at least twice.

And finally, even though it’s not one of my watchwords, I might as well lay out my goals for running. I’m really enjoying that – amazing, considering my history with exercise – so I want to make sure I keep it going. These aren’t overly demanding goals, but they are manageable for me.

  • Run at least three times per week.
  • Increase to at least 20 miles per week this year.
  • Run at least three races this year, at least one of which is a 10K.

Meme Monday: What can I do for my #sqlfamily?

In the spirit of starting to write more on this blog (good or not), I’m answering Tom LaRock’s call for Meme Monday this month. His question: What do you want to do for your #sqlfamily in 2012?

I’m going to start by doing what I’ve been doing.  For the last couple of years, I’ve been the leader of the local PASS chapter, I-380 PASS. I love that position, and I plan to continue as long as they’ll have me. I’ve also taken an active role in organizing our three SQL Saturdays; assuming we host a SQL Saturday again in 2012, I plan to do that as well.

This is also the year I start to “pay it forward” for all the help the SQL community has given me over the last few years.  First of all, I’ve been given the opportunity at work to mentor some new database professionals. This blog is another piece of that – I intend to actively post here this year. Finally, I want to try my hand at presenting. Getting up in front of the PASS chapter has gotten me over some of my fear of public speaking; it’s time to see if I can take it to the next level. 

The #sqlfamily has given me so much, and I’m forever grateful for that help. Extending my hand to the next generation is the least I can do.