• My son Simon, was born 8 weeks early on February 10, 2013.  Both he and my wife are doing fantastically well.
• Planning & executing SQL Saturday #197 for April 6th, 2013 went off without any major hitches and it turned out GREAT!
• I start a new position within my company officially today, Monday April 15th.

Yup, in the midst’s of dealing with a premature baby and helping to organize another SQL Saturday event for Omaha, I applied for a Database Architect/Engineer position within my company, Farm Credit Services of America.

What does this mean exactly?

Well, for the most part it means that I’m going back to providing production database support.  I’ll also be helping with database migration, performance tuning, various database projects, process improvement, standards and assist with other teams with database related issue whenever they might need help.

Since July 2010,  I’ve been a member of Team Ziko (named after a Hero Rat) where I served as their Database Developer.  I was basically a database code jockey and I loved the team.  However, fate had a way of showing me another path.

In 2012, our organization was dealt a blow in the form of corruption of a database.  As luck would have it, we had an ongoing relationship with the SQL Skills folks and I had some free cycles so I volunteered to help out where ever I could.  Myself and another colleague, Scott, had the chance to work directly with Paul Randal (B|T) & Jonathan Kehayias (B|T) on the issue.  I loved every minute of it.  I know, I know.  It was very bad that we had corruption and data loss, but it’s like being a volunteer fire fighter.  Someone has to have an emergency for me to have fun.

Anyway, turns out, when it was all said and done, I was hooked.  Even more so than before.  I was hooked on the internals.  So much that I put together a presentation for a conference and spent a Saturday night digging through DBCC PAGE.

Yup, a Saturday night.  My wife thought that I was crazy.  10:30PM on a Saturday night, I’m at my computer with head phones on giddy like a school girl because it was making sense.  It was then that I realized that as much as I loved my team, doing what I would call true database administration was my calling.  I wanted more of the corruption, more of the log shipping/replication/mirroring, performance tuning, more everything.  MOAR DBANESS!

So when a position opened up, I decided that I had to follow my addiction.   Now several weeks later, I’m very happy to report that today will be my first day as a Database Architect/Engineer!

I’m excited to see what fate has in store for me next!!

Plus with the cold weather we’ve been having in Nebraska, it’ll be a good trip to get out into the warmer New Mexico weather!!

The day is going to be full of great speakers.  Speakers like Mike Fal (B|T), Chris Shaw (B|T),  Jason Kassay (T), Aaron Bertrand (B|T), Denny Cherry (B|T), Steve Jones (B|T) and many others.  The sheer amount of brain power from all of the speakers is simply incredible!!  Don’t miss out from learning from these folks!

Oh yea, I’ll be speaking as well! You’ve been warned!

Social Networking Is Alive!

This session is about social networking and how you can use it to improve not only your professional life, but your personal one as well.  This session isn’t geared to specifically database gear heads, but to anybody who wishes to improve their online presence through the use of social networking.  It’s a fun session and I hope that the attendee’s enjoy it!!  HINT: I’ll show you how to get free SQL Server help from one of the popular social networks.

Better yet, if someone in the audience would have a SQL question that they want answered, we’ll see if we can get the #sqlfamily to help out.

Free Training

When is the last conference that you went to that was chocked full of training and it didn’t cost you a dime? If it wasn’t a SQL Saturday, it probably didn’t happen.  This is a full day of FREE SQL Server training!  Did I mention that it’s free?  Ok ok, if you want lunch it might cost you $10.  $10 for a day of learning from some of the sharpest minds in the SQL Server world?  Worth it in my book!!

Remember that along with the free training, the speakers, organizers and countless volunteers are also donating their time to put on this great event.  Take a moment to thank them when you see them.  I assure you that they will appreciate it!

If you see me at the event, please take a moment to introduce yourself!  I won’t bite, I promise!

Recently I upgraded my Visual Studio 2010 to use SQL Server Data Tools, which is an add on to Visual Studio.  It replaced what was formerly known as ‘Datadude’.  While exploring the tool, I discovered that there is a section for TSQL Code Analysis, shown below.

Click on image for full size.

Now, maybe previous versions had something similar.  I don’t recall seeing an option like this, however it’s possible that I missed it.  As you can see it checks for a number of things and will help to keep certain “standards” in check.

Update: Thanks to Jamie Thomson (T) for letting me know that Code Analysis was indeed in Data Dude in previous versions.  As stated, I just missed it!

The other beautiful thing about this is that it will warn you of an issue right in the IDE so that you can resolve the issue quickly before you ever get to the build process.

IDE Messages

I’ve checked the “Enable Code Analysis on Build” (upper left hand corner of the first image) so that every time I build the database solution the code analysis will run.  If you wanted to leave that off, you could, however by enabling this option you ensure that you’ll at least get a warning message out of the build process if it determines that there is a violation.

Here’s what the warning messages look like in the Output window.

Output Window Warnings

You can also turn on the ‘Treat Warning as Error’ (right hand column in the first image) option if you so desire, thus completely stopping the build process until the issue has been resolved.

These tools will also help those that might not claim to be full fledged DBA’s but wish to adhere to some level of database standards in their coding process.  I know that the list of options isn’t extensive, but at the very least it’s a start.

Unfortunately, at this time of this writing you can’t add to this list as SQL Server Data Tools doesn’t have any extensibility at the moment.  However, according to the MSDN forums it’s on the white board for a future release.  When the ability to add custom rules becomes available, this feature will totally rock and offer up a slick way to do an instant code review straight out of the box!

If you’re interested to learn more about Data Tools, you can find it here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/tools.aspx

The SSDT Team also blogs here http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ssdt/ so you can watch that space for future updates and information!

Enjoy!

The day is going to be full of great speakers.  Speakers like Mike Fal (B|T), Chris Shaw (B|T), Jason Kassay (T), Christina Leo (B|T), Kevin Kline (B|T), Mark Stacey (T) and many others.

Some local favorites will be speaking as well so make sure to check out Phil Brammer (B|T), David Klee (B|T), Sudhir Gajre (T), and Andy Galbraith (B|T) for their sessions!

Oh yea, I’ll be speaking as well! You’ve been warned!

Backups & Restores: You’re Not In Kansas Anymore!

This is a new presentation that I've put together.  Backups & Restores is probably one of the most critical things that a DBA can understand and implement.  In this session we will look at understanding the basics of backups and restores along with ways to use them to prevent a disaster! This session may or may not have a Wizard of Oz theme.  I haven't decided quite yet.  ;-)

Social Networking Is Alive!

IT'S ALIVE!

This session is about social networking and how you can use it to improve not only your professional life, but your personal one as well.  This session isn't geared to specifically database gear heads, but to anybody who wishes to improve their online presence through the use of social networking.  It's a fun session and I hope that the attendee's enjoy it!!  HINT: I'll show you how to get free SQL Server help from one of the popular social networks.

This session is one of the last sessions of the day, so I can neither confirm or deny that a cow bell from SQL Saturday #144 will make an appearance in order to make sure people stay awake!

Free Training

When is the last conference that you went to that was chocked full of training and it didn't cost you a dime? If it wasn't a SQL Saturday, it probably didn't happen.  This is a full day of FREE SQL Server training!

Remember that along with the free training, the speakers, organizers and countless volunteers are also donating their time to put on this great event.  Take a moment to thank them when you see them.  I assure you that they will appreciate it!

So go, register and learn. Enjoy the day. The event is located downtown Lincoln and take a moment to walk around and enjoy the home of the Nebraska Corn Huskers!

Don't let the awesomeness of what is Lincoln, Nebraska scare you away!

Come get your learn on!

If you’ve never been to Colorado, you’re missing one of the most beautiful states in our great nation.  I’m going back this weekend.  The fine folks putting on SQL Saturday #169 has selected me to speak.  I can’t wait.

I was honored to be selected to speak at the Colorado Springs SQL Saturday early this year and I’m once again honored to be speaking at the one in Denver.  So, on this Friday I’ll be flying out to Denver to get my speak on.  Oh and I’ll be spending some quality time with the #sqlfamily to boot!

This event has a number of big name speakers who are masters at their craft and great people as well!  You’ve got people like Sean (B|T) & Jennifer McCown (B|T), Glenn Berry (B|T), Jessica Moss (B|T), Steve Jones (B|T),  Mike Fal (B|T), Jason Horner (B|T), Jason Kassay (T) and the list goes on!

So if you have nothing better to do on Saturday, September 22, 2012, come on out and get your learn on.  The schedule for this event is quite impressive and there will be a TON of things to learn.

10 Things Every DBA Should Know!

This session is one that I’ve given before and very much enjoy giving it.  There are a ton of things that DBA’s need to know, but in this session I go over some of the things that I’ve seen in the trenches as a consultant.  We’ll talk about things such as SELECT *, data types, backups & restores and a couple of other things.  I don’t want to ruin the whole thing for you.  So, if you are new the DBA realm or just want to come watch me present, please stop by.  Bring your energy and your questions and we’ll get it done!

I’ll be in the DBA Room – Pyramid Peak/Middle School at 1:15PM.  It’s a session right after lunch so I reserve the right to throw things at you if you fall asleep from lunch! I’m a former lineman so I can’t throw worth a darn so you might be safe.  Your neighbor on the other hand might be in trouble.

A cow bell from #sqlsat144 may or may not make an appearance.  I can neither confirm nor deny this rumor.  =)

Free Training

Remember that this event is a FREE day of awesome SQL Server training and professional development.  Check out the schedule and register.  In today’s economy, how can you afford to pass up FREE training?!?! And it’s in DENVER!

If you make it out my session, make sure to come up and introduce yourself as I’d love to meet you! I look like a mean DBA but I promise that I’m not.  =)

This will be my first time out in California so I’m excited to go and speak.  I’ll be picking up one of my #sqlbrothers, Mike Fal on my way through Colorado and we’ll be tearing up the town early Friday morning.  Another one of the mid-west #sqlfamily Jason Horner will also hopefully be joining us! This will be a great trip!

Social Networking Is Alive!

IT'S ALIVE!

This session is about social networking and how you can use it to improve not only your professional life, but your personal one as well.  This session isn’t geared to specifically database gear heads, but to anybody who wishes to improve their online presence through the use of social networking.  It’s a fun session and I hope that the attendee’s enjoy it!!  HINT: I’ll show you how to get free SQL Server help from one of the popular social networks.

Fair warning though, I’m one of the last sessions of the day, so I reserve the right to throw things at you if you fall asleep in my session.  Just kidding.  I’ve got horrible aim.  I will feel sorry for your neighbor attendees as my projectile was not meant for them. 

Free Training

Remember that this event is a FREE day of awesome SQL Server training and professional development.  The schedule is packed with an impressive list of speakers, such as Kalen Delaney (B|T), Mike Fal (B|T), Rushabh Mehta (B), Meredith Ryan (B|T), Jason Horner (B|T) and many others.

Check out the schedule and register.  In today’s economy, how can you afford to pass up FREE training?!?!

So if you are in the Sacramento area on July 28th, please stop over and say hi! Make sure to come up and introduce yourself as I’d love to meet you!

Do it.  NOW!!  I expect to see all of you there!

It’s that time of year again.  The fine folks in the Kansas City, Missouri area is going to be putting on another SQL Saturday.  This time will be held on Saturday, August 4th, 2012.  It’ll be at the same location as last year, the Cerner Corporation’s Riverport Campus.  If you’ve never been there, go.  The venue is an old casino and it has a TON of charm and character to it.  If you can find the time to come out, please do so.  I assure you that you won’t be disappointed.

This year’s event holds a special meaning for me.  You see, last year’s SQL Saturday in Kansas City was my first ever as a speaker for a SQL Saturday event.  I had just started to get into speaking having done so at the annual Heartland Developers Conference in Omaha, talking to about 130 developer folks about various database topics.  After that event, I decided to submitted two sessions for the Kansas City SQL Saturday and they picked them both! Ever since that fateful day on October 30th, 2011 I’ve been hooked on presenting, especially at SQL Saturdays, partly due to the organizers having faith in my abilities.

This SQL Saturday will be my 4th SQL Saturday as a speaker and I’m not looking to stop any time soon!

Anyway, my sessions are:

10 Things Every DBA Should Know

This is one that I’ve given before and very much enjoy giving it.  There are a ton of things that DBA’s need to know, but in this session I go over some of the things that I’ve seen in the trenches as a consultant.  We’ll talk about things such as SELECT *, data types, backups & restores and a couple of other things.  I don’t want to ruin the whole thing for you.  So, if you are new the DBA realm or just want to come watch me present, please stop by.  I’ll be in Room 1 bright an early at 8:00 AM.  Bring your energy and questions, other wise I reserve the right to throw things at you to wake you up.

Social Networking Is Alive!

This is also another fun presentation.  It’s one that isn’t really geared 100% towards SQL Server or DBA’s, but rather technology folks in general.  Social media & networking is VERY prevalent in our world and if you are not using it, your missing out.  We’ll discussion the pro’s & con’s of social networking and go over a couple of tools that I use to promote not only my personal life but my professional one.  So if you don’t have a clue as to what Twitter is or how to work LinkedIn, come on by and we’ll go over those.  I’ll be in Room 5 at 10:45AM.

If you come by either session, please feel free to come on up and introduce yourself.  I’m  not shy and I don’t bite.

An Event You Don’t Want to Miss

Last year’s event was top notch and I don’t expect anything else from the folks in Kansas City. As I mentioned before, the venue is totally awesome and I would bet that you might see some fine Kansas City BBQ make an appearance.  What else could you ask for?  Free training, great food and a great atmosphere!

Keep in mind that SQL Saturday’s is a day of free training and it takes a lot of effort to put on one.  If you happen to see one of the event coordinators wandering the halls, take a moment to tell them thank you.  They volunteer their time to put on the event for free.  Don’t forget the speakers as well.  Most of them volunteer their time to present for you and probably even pay their own way to get there.  Tell them thanks if you get a moment.  I promise that they will appreciate it.

So come.  Learn.  Innovate.  I dare you.

However, I’ve got nothing to worry about, my abstract was rejected.  Here’s why:

“Not Accepted – Poorly written abstract”

Now, I am not one to shy away from rejection nor do I fault (it’s my fault after all) those that made this decision.  For an event of about 170 session, I believe that there were over 650 abstracts submitted, someone had to get the axe and this time it was me.

It was a slight blow to the ego, I won’t lie.  This was a session that I’d given on a couple of occasions and no one ever told me that my abstract sucked (my words, not theirs).  I even had a group of colleagues review it for me before submitting and they thought that it was fine.  I digress, I know.   Writing is tough for me.  It really is.  That’s one of the reasons that I started this blog is to push myself further in the envelope.  However, this was a harsh reminder that I need to continue to work on my weaknesses and push forward.

In this instance, I’m reminded of the words of  Thomas Edison,

“Results? Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward….”

I’ve found one way to not write an abstract . . 9999 more ways to go! This will not stop me from continuing to push myself in both my writing and my speaking.

Don’t let failure stand in your way of anything.  Learn from your mistakes, accept any and all criticisms with class.  Be a warrior, find a way around them and push on. I’ll be re-writing this particular abstract and I am also going to ask for others to review it.

The Buck Stops Here!

Go now.  Write.  Speak.  Do whatever motivates you.  Follow your passions and don’t let failure stand in your way.

Even if you didn’t vote for me, thank you for voting in the election.  The leadership of PASS can’t change things if people don’t get their voices heard.  Voting is just one way to do just that.  So from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!  Watch for the Connector on June 27th to announce the winners of the election.

I wish my fellow candidates the best of luck and I have absolute faith in the 11 of you that if elected, you’ll do awesome!

The dash was 3.3 miles (about 5K) through some rough terrain, up and down terraces, through some woods, up and down some very steep slopes, and not to mention the 92 degree heat beating down on us. That doesn’t include the obstacles. Oh yes, there were obstacles. 12 of them to be exact. These obstacles ranged from jumping over 4′ tall walls, crawling under barbed wire fence, scaling walls with ropes, jumping over open fire, and crawling through some of the slickest mud I’ve ever encountered. You can check on the link above to see some of the obstacles.  You get the idea though.

Anyway, as my wife and I were at the back of the pack walking (we weren’t there to set speed records, just to finish) I had some quiet time as we huffed and puffed our way up the hills. In the midst’s of this quiet time, I had some things come to mind that applied to just about anybody and I thought that I’d share.

There’s a Warrior In All of Us

When I was first told about the dash, I thought “Hey, it can’t be that hard. I can do it”. As we came closer and closer to the day of the event, I started to get cold feet. I didn’t want to face the heat or the hard work, but I had committed to it and darn it, I was going to do it. However, as we started up the first of several hills, I had even more second thoughts that maybe I just just bitten off more than I could chew. But I continued to trudge on.

Well, see the Dash isn’t about physical toughness, it’s about mental toughness. The Dash is designed to challenge you physically, but even more your ability to push through your mental road blocks of “I can’t do this” or “This is too hard” and finish it what you started. It continued to throw things in your way to derail your from your objective, the finish line. It was designed to tempt you with an easy way around the obstacles but it’s the true Warrior that at least attempts them and not takes the easy way around.

In life, there are always obstacles in our way. No money, no time, too much work, not enough work and the list could go on and on. Does this sound familiar to you? The point of it is that you have to find ways around your obstacles and push through them.  Set a goal and stick with it!  My goal for the Dash was to not set a speed record but to 1) finish the race and 2) do as many obstacles as possible.  I’m happy that I did finish and I did 11 out of the 12 obstacles.

So with that, there are some obstacles in my way that I’m going to push through and get them done. It might take me a while, but it’ll happen. And here are some in no particular order:

1. Finish my SQL Server 2008 Certification track. I’ve been putting this off for various reasons, but one of them is the fear of failing. But no more. I’m going to get signed up for the tests, study for them and if I fail, then take them again. There is no fear in failing!  I’ve already schedule my next exam.
2. Finish projects around the house that I started but never finished. Yup, I’ve got projects that never got down because of whatever obstacle was in my way (money, time, commitment, pick one). Well, I’ve started a list of things that I need to wrap up.
3. Learn how to say no. I’m always that guy that will help at the drop of a hat. It’s me, what can I say. But this puts a very large “time” obstacle in my way. I’m getting better at this, but it’s still one that I want to focus on. Learning how to say “No” is a tough thing to do.

I could probably go on and on with items that I need to take care of.  My list seems to be changing just about every day, but I’m going to start to document things and slowly work through them.

Teamwork

The second thing that came to mind was about Teamwork. You see, my wife and I signed up for the Dash as 1) a challenge to accomplish and 2) to do something together. When we started the dash together, we had different speeds in which we walked/ran. I’m 6’3′ and she’s 5’2. That’s to be expected.

In the first mile, she told me to go ahead and she would follow behind. I told her “No, this was something that we set out to accomplish together and we would finish it together, one way or another.” I refused to leave her behind and told her that.  Did I want to go faster to try to push myself?  You bet.  However, the success of our little team as a whole was much more important to me than my individual score, so I acted accordingly. So, for the next hour or so, we walked the course together.  Helping each other when need through the obstacles and pushing each other to finish the race.  If I had left her behind, I wouldn’t have gotten that push, that encouragement from her and I’m not sure that I would have accomplished my goals.  Note:  About 50 feet from the finish, she hurt her knee jumping over a row of fire and had to be taken to the medic tent.  She told me to finish and so I did, although I went straight from the mud pits to the medic tent.  I don’t think they appreciated that!

Anyway, being a part of team means that you sometimes forgo your own personal objectives for the betterment of the team. A true warrior recognizes not only his strengths but his weaknesses.  Being apart of a team is a very powerful tool if you know how to use it and will help you to promote your strengths as well as shore up your weaknesses.  Take a moment to look around you and see what “team” potential you might be apart of.  You might be surprised as to what you find.

Be A Warrior

So I challenge you to be your own Warrior.  Whether that’s a warrior for your work, your family, or for just you, be a warrior.  Recognize your obstacles and find ways around them.  Recognize your teammates and use them when you need to and be there for them when they find their inner Warrior.  Support them as they do you. I assure you that you can accomplish anything that you set your mind to.  Don’t be afraid of failure as that’s going to happen.  Accept it, learn from your mistakes and move on.

Oh yea, and don’t be afraid to get a little dirty.  A little dirt never hurt anybody.  At least I don’t think so.

A little mud never hurt . .