Category Archives: #SQLFamily

“Remote DBA Wanted”

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Since I have not really deactivated or updated my LinkedIn profile, I still get emails and the occasional text tempting me with a job offer of some sort. And as I sit here, trying to contemplate my study plans for the night and weekend, I have to say the idea of responding to one of them is appealing. For one thing, the money would be far better. Instead of burning through savings, I’d be building savings back up.

But the truth be told, that thought is only a fleeting one. Firstly, I’ve been away from active DBA work for a couple of years now. I’d have to take time to come up to speed and that would be stressful in and of itself. But also, ultimately I suspect I’d be bored or frustrated again.

And there are definitely nights I miss working as a Tech in the ED. Yeah, there were shifts I hated, but overall I enjoyed it. However, I’ll still pick up some over holidays over the course of the next year. That should sate some of my desire.

My biggest doubts come on nights like tonight where the doubts creep into my head. One of my classmates has tracked how many tests and quizzes we’ve had and the approximate number left in our didactic year. I don’t know the number, but it’s up there. Each one brings a new period of stress. And of course, after our didactic year comes our clinical year, 10 rotations, 4 weeks each. Not only will I be stressed about each area I’ll be assigned to, I may often have to figure out housing for that period of time (and how to pay for it!)

But I remind myself, that it’ll be worth it. That the ED is where I want to be, and while I think I’ve done a lot of good as a Tech, I hope to do even more as a PA.

But those regular hours, and higher pay, they are tempting. Just not like they used to.

Another Regret and Another Milestone

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I blogged a few weeks ago about a few regrets I’ve had since leaving behind being a DBA but I was reminded of another just over a week ago. It’s an event that combined two of my favorite things: SQL (or more accurately #SQLFamily) and trains! And that’s… SQL Train!

No, it’s not a new Microsoft product or something. It’s an event when a bunch of SQL DBAs and others take the train from Portland Oregon’s SQL Saturday event up to Seattle in prep for the PASS event. So you already know it’s a great group of people. And of course I love riding Amtrak and that’s one segment I haven’t ridden yet, so I would have enjoyed it. It’s something I have been meaning to do for years but never got around to it. That said, I’m sure if I showed up in a future year, I’d be welcomed by my SQL Family, it’s how they role.

That said, this weekend I did something new: I acted in a movie. Technically it’s not my first, but it’s by far the most involved I’ve been. A bit of acting, my daughter is in her senior year of film school and needed a “dad like person in their mid 50s” for a role. After not being able to find someone local to fill the role, she asked me. This involved me leaving work at 3:30 AM Friday after my shift ended, driving a bit, napping for several hours, getting gas, a bit more of a drive, napping again, driving, getting some food, I finally showed up on set. Total, I spent about 6 hours on set on Friday, and 10+ hours on Saturday and 8+ on Sunday.

I’ll admit between short notice (less than a week) and little time (5 12 hour shifts in that week) I wasn’t as prepared as I’d like, but I managed to get most of my lines right.

I’ll say this, as much fun as it was, I do hope I’m a better PA than I am actor! I’m not about to give up my night job.

And that’s it from here this week.

“Regrets, I’ve had a few…”

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With apologies to Frank Sinatra.

Last week I was reminded of one of the few things I missed out on my IT career. A number of friends and colleagues posted about how they had achieved or been renewed for their Microsoft MVP status. It’s one achievement I never obtained.

Let me be clear, I’m not bitter or upset. The honest truth is, I never really worked hard at achieving it. So to me it’s most like seeing friends making the Olympic team and wishing I was there but also recognizing that they worked at it and earned it while I really didn’t. So this is on me. And I’m VERY excited and proud for them. They’re amazing people and they deserved it!

But, with my career change, I’m even less likely now to make it. And… I’m ok with that.

One thing that I’m finding remarkable to me about this career change is how few regrets I’m having. I’m reminded all the time it’s the right move. I was tired of IT and tired of data.

But, the one thing I never tired of was the community, aka #sqlfamily. Honestly, this is what probably what kept me going the past few years: being part of such a community. Let it be said, the #sqlfamily is an amazing group of people: they mentor, they teach, they push the state of the art forward, they make everyone better. I’m a better DBA and IT person because of them.

In fact, in a way, I’d say #sqlfamily probably gave me the inspiration and courage to move forward and change careers.

So regrets, I’ve had a few, one being perhaps not working hard enough to earn an MVP, but meeting, getting to know, and loving my #sqlfamily, I will never regret.

2024 A Year in Preview

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Ok, yesterday I looked back at my goals for 2023 and reviewed what I had achieved and what I hadn’t. There was a smattering of accomplishments and a smattering non-accomplishments. Happens every year.

So, that said, what am I looking to do for 2024.

  • Get into PA School! My goal had been to be accepted in 2023, but that didn’t happen (though I did get waitlisted at one!) This is going to be perhaps the hardest goal to achieve, but the one I’m most focused on. What makes it hard is my undergrad GPA is holding me back. This has been an ongoing issue, one I can’t really change. But I’m working several avenues to get in anyway.
  • Keep working in the Emergency Department. Technically this is a part-time job, but because they’re often chronically short of techs, I’m often able to pick up extra hours. Last year for example (including training and a few days I took off for vacation) I worked 2200 hours. I’m not sure I’ll work that hard this year, but my goal at least is to be at over 3000 hours by the time I start my second round of PA School applications (this includes the 300+ I achieved in 2022).
  • Keep my Red Badge certification in the ED. This allows me to be the Lead Tech on Traumas. This won’t be hard. I simply need to lead 3 traumas in 2024 and I’ll have my Red Badge for 2025. I’ve honestly had shifts where I’ve done that in one shift.
  • Cut back on my IT consulting. This is a mixed bag for me. It’s honestly where the bucks are. But I’m enjoying it less and less. That said, to any of my #SQLFamily members reading, if there are quick projects you need help with or short term items, let’s talk.
  • Work on me and be a better person. While I think I’m generally a pretty decent guy, I’m aware of some issues I want to work on. That’s about all I’ll say for now.
  • Meditate – even if it’s just a minute or two a day. This is related to the previous goal. I want to be more relaxed in life.
  • Relax more. Sometimes it seems like I do that a lot, but honestly this past year I took a number of classes, did my IT consulting and worked in the ED. I want to slow down just a bit. And honestly, my 56 year old body is telling me this a bit more.
  • Hiking – I put this down every year and rarely get out and do more. But perhaps this is the year.
  • Biking – I definitely didn’t make my goal last year. Perhaps this year. My new schedule for work might actually allow me to bike to/from work. We’ll see if I actually do that at all.
  • Caving – again, need to do more. With the NCRC weeklong in NY this year, I’ll be busy planning that.
  • See friends – twice in December we had friends over for an evening of hanging out. We’re going to do more of that. We used to do more pre-Covid, it’s time to do more. In fact, I think we already have a night setup to watch a few episodes of From the Earth to the Moon (Spider and Galileo Was Right for those wondering).
  • Travel – nothing big this year due to budget and time. Though, if I get accepted into a PA School, I may take more time off from my work in the ED to do more travel.
  • Get our new septic system in. This was a goal last year that didn’t happen for a variety of reasons.
  • Finish several projects around the house. I think once I’m done with the IT work, I’ll try to focus on this.
  • MAYBE take a class or two. I’ve taken pretty much every conceivable pre-req I can for any PA school I’ve looked at, but it might be fun to take more classes anyway.
  • Blogging – I definitely won’t be doing this every week, but I’ll continue from time to time.

Missing SQL Summit

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I’m not going to be at Summit this year. And I have mixed feelings about that. This would have been my first in-person Summit since 2019.

I had hoped to go. In fact moreover, I had hoped to present. I even had a topic submitted on exiting the industry. As many of you know, my plans are to get into Physician’s Assistant school and change careers and become a PA. You can read about my adventures in numerous posts here. So I figured, instead of the plethora of talks on “So you’re new to being a DBA” or similar, I’d offer the opposite, how to exit the industry in a positive and productive way. But as a hedge, I made sure to buy a ticket at the early bird pricing, figuring if I was accepted to speak I could get a refund then.

Sadly, my topic wasn’t chosen. That said, if you’re interested in hearing it presented, let me know. Just give me enough time to actually finish writing the presentation.

But at least I had a ticket. I was set.

But then I started to wonder. Was it worth the time and money? I don’t make a whole lot as a ED Tech, and I’d be using vacation time, so I wouldn’t actually lose any money, but I also wouldn’t be able to pick up extra shifts. And of course I’d need flights, and a rental car (I stay with friends so lodging was covered). And I realized that the main reason I wanted to go was to see my #SQLFamily. And I’ll say, that’s not a bad reason. But it’s also not inexpensive.

I finally started to put feelers out about selling my pass, but wasn’t really pushing it. And then, Grand Jury duty happened. There’s a decent chance I could have impressed upon the judge how important it was for me to attend Summit, but I didn’t think that was really right. Though, had I been selected to speak, I think I’d have made that argument. It wasn’t clear exactly when my Grand Jury commitment would end, but it was fairly clear it would overlap with Summit, and it has. Though, in a cruel twist of fate, it appears that we will in fact finish up this week!

But enough about why I’m not there. I’m here to say, I miss you all. I miss the lack of sleep, the plethora of food, hanging out on the couch at Minionware, getting massages at the VMWare booth, catching up with friends, oh and actually learning about SQL Server and the entire Microsoft data platform.

I’ve been giving my departure from the SQL arena a lot of thought and a phrase keeps popping into my head, “the long goodbye”. For now it’s not a binary process. It’s not “one day I’m a DBA, the next a PA”. For now it’s more of a DBA by day (and sometimes nights and weekends) a student taking pre-reqs (and in fact just took notes on a prerecorded genetics lecture this morning) and an ED Tech by night and weekends (and sometimes days). But I’m drawing back. I can’t recall the last presentation I gave. I haven’t signed up for SQL Saturdays. I barely attend my own local User Group. Even my consulting hours have been cut back.

But every day I’m more and more sure I’m making the right career move. I find myself missing my IT work less and less.

I’m saying good-bye, slowly. And sometimes it’s bittersweet.

This is not my final goodbye. I don’t know if there will ever be a final goodbye to any of you. But for now, however, you all… I miss you. Enjoy Summit for me!

2023 A Year in Preview

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Another quick post because another day where I have to be in the ED acting as a tech.

As I mentioned yesterday, I need a minimum of 1000 hours of patient contact time to apply to most of the PA schools I want to apply to. I’m literally hours short of 1/3rd of that. I’ll pass the 1/3rd mark today. This is just over 2 months. I’m confident I’ll make the deadline and add many hours to spare.

  • So that’s goal 1. Getting enough patient contact hours to apply to PA school. I’m well on my way!
  • Next, is finish my academic prereqs. I had to add a class to my list. I had taken Microbiology as an elective for my undergrad. In fact, it was my final exam of my undergrad career. However, to save money (since I was paying for this class out of pocket) I elected not to pay for the lab. Well, the professor made it clear he expected us to show up for lab anyway. So, I’ve done Microbiology, including the lab, but the transcript doesn’t show the lab portion and I need that. So I’ll retake micro. I’m OK with that. It was a fun class after all.
  • I’ll definitely keep working on my TOTS class I want to present at the NCRC. We’ll see how that goes.
  • Continue Blogging: I’ll continue my switchover from a focus on SQL and IT related posts to PA/ED Tech type posts.
  • Biking: We’ll see how my schedule works. Perhaps only 600 miles this year, not 700 as a goal. Ironically, one benefit I get at work is a secure bike storage area. Sadly, my shifts end at 11:30 PM so I don’t think I’ll be biking home much, so it means I won’t be biking to work much!
  • Hiking: Since my schedule is every other weekend on, it also means every other weekend off. I hope to squeeze in some hiking.
  • In fact: I expect to slowly wind down my IT work over the coming year so I can focus on applying to PA School and focus on other skills. Honestly, two big reasons I’m continuing my IT work is that it pays much better which helps since I’ll need the money for PA school and other expenses over the next few years (goal is to avoid as much debt as possible) and also because I do have some commitments to existing customers I want to fulfill.
  • Read more: I’ve found myself for a variety of reasons reading less in the past two years than I’d like. So I resolve to get books off my reading list. Right now I’m reading American Sirens, which is basically a history of how the paramedic service started in the US. I highly recommend it.
  • Speak at least once in the coming year. I’ve got a great talk in mind. But I won’t drop hints just yet.
  • Get Accepted into PA school. This of course is the big one. It’s what I’ve been working towards for the past 12 months. I’m confident that with my background and the experience I’m gaining I’ll get in someplace. It’s just a matter of where and what if any aid they’ll add.
  • See friends: Again, with that every other weekend off, I’m hoping to travel to see more friends. (That said, my schedule currently has me working every Friday, which I’m hoping to change so I can ensure a 3 day weekend.)
  • Get our new septic system in. Yeah, I didn’t mention it before, but the old one has basically failed (though not horribly so) so it’s time.

Finally, I realized I should have done this yesterday, but I want to thank EVERYONE who has given me encouragement and support in the past year. It’s meant a LOT. From blood family, to #SQLFamily, and NCRC family and others, I’ve had more than a fair share of folks say they believe in me and support me. It’s given me a lot of confidence. Thank you.

And with that, now time to shower, get into my scrubs and head back into the mix.

T-SQL Tuesday #152 – My Rant

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Thanks to Deb Melkin for hosting this month’s T-SQL Tuesday and developing the topic. Instead of calling this a rant, perhaps I should call it a “I told you so.” There’s a common refrain among DBA of “It depends” when asked a question. And that’s generally accurate. But this is the case of me saying “it doesn’t depend, do as I say” and being ignored.

Ironically when I took my Database class in college, it was long enough now that the idea of a “Sequel Database” (that along should tell you how long ago this was) was basically described as an up and coming technology that perhaps had a future. Talk about a bold and accurate prediction! That said, one of the things then that fascinated me, and still does, is that SQL (in general, not the product SQL Server) is based on work done by Edgar F. Codd and has a fairly strict mathematical basis. (Which is another reason I rail against those who claim that RDBMS and SQL will eventually be replaced. That’s like saying Algebra will be replaced. There may be other branches of mathematics developed that are far better for their specific domains, but the validity and usability of Algebra will never go away.).

In any event, one of the key concepts that Codd developed was that of “a table”. A table has several particular parts to its overall definition. The one critical for this blog is that a table itself has no implicit order. Now, many folks will do a query multiple times and always get the same results every time. But that’s more a factor of how SQL Server happens to handle reads. At my last full-time job, I was easily able to prove to the programmers that a query on the UAT box would result in a different order than on Prod because of the number of CPUs and disks. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

My “I told you so moment” goes back further to a table that was about as simple as you can get. It had a single row. Now, I think we can all agree that a single row will always return the same order, right? I can’t recall exactly why the developer felt that this table was the solution to his problems, but I pushed back. I asked at the very least he put in a where clause. He felt that would impact performance too much and besides, with one row, it would always return his results. I of course asked, “What happens if eventually the table has two rows?” “Oh, well my row will return first anyway.” “No it won’t.” Well he wouldn’t budge and I had bigger fish to fry. At the time there really was no reason to expect this table to grow. But I tucked it away in the back of my mind.

Sure enough, about a year later, which was 3 months after the developer left, we started to get really weird results on the webpage that was relying on that table. It seems that another developer realized this table was a perfect place for him to store the data that he needed (I’m assuming it was some sort of config data, but it was honestly so long ago I can’t recall) so he added a row. Now HE was smart enough to add a where clause to his query. But the original “Don’t worry about it query” still had no where clause. And sure enough, sometimes was returning the new row instead of the original. Fortunately this was a 5 minute fix. But I can only imagine how long it would have taken to find the problem if I hadn’t remember it in the first place.

So, while as DBA I will often say “it depends”, I will always be adamant in saying that tables are unordered by definition and you absolutely need a where clause or an order by if you want to guarantee specific results. Though, I suppose it depends, if you don’t care about the order or need a specific set of data you can ignore my rant. There are cases where that’s valid too.

Thus ends my TED talk.

SQLBits – My Thoughts

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Many weeks I struggle with what I plan on writing about, but this post came to me last Thursday or Friday. It was clear to me that I should write about 2022 SQLBits.

Now, the more astute of you are probably thinking, “But Greg, you weren’t there. How can you write about it?”

Well you’re right. I’m not going to write about my experience attending it. Rather I’m going to write about my experience not attending it.

I had applied to speak at SQLBits, but didn’t make the cut this year. That happens. But this time there was more than mixed feelings. Had I been selected, I almost certainly would have tried to find a way to do so in person. However, as many of my readers know, I’m back in school taking classes as prereqs to get into PA school. And frankly, I’m loving it. But it is taking time and focus. This week, March 14-18 is Spring break for my fellow students. But last week I did have classes and I’m not sure I could have taken the time off to fly to the UK. And I’m not sure I would have wanted to; if only because of missing my A&P I lab this week (learning about the bones of the head and spine, including the axis and atlas (C1, C2 vertebrae).

So in a sense, I’m almost grateful that I wasn’t chosen to speak. It solved me the pain of trying to solve the dilemma of do I attend in person or not?

But dang, did I miss people. I saw posts from so many of my #SQLFamily that I was sad I couldn’t see them in person. And then, looking at the calendar, it dawned on me, I’m not entirely sure I can make the PASS Summit this year, again due to classes.

It just drove home how much so many of you have become family and how much I miss so many of you. And in some ways its just the start. As my plans continue, I’ll find myself making the slow transition from the #SQLFamily to hopefully a #PAFamily or whatever community I find there. And while I have often found myself in many communities, for example besides #SQLFamily I’m also heavily involved with the NCRC and plan on continuing my efforts there, I know over time my active involvement in #SQLFamily will slowly diminish. That said, I’m not walking away just yet and will continue to be involved as much as I can, both in presenting when I can and in running my local user group.

But that said, I miss you all. And do look forward to seeing any of you when I can.

Fair and Equal Medical Treatment

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Today is International Women’s Day. I was reminded of this from a semi-unrelated post by a fellow #SQLFamily member, but this post is an intersection of a variety of Facebook posts and discussions I’ve had over the past week that touched upon women’s health. In the interests of privacy and protection I am going to anonymize a bit what happened. I’ve mentioned in past posts how we as DBAs have to take into consideration topics such as gender and more. We’re here to describe the world, not to prescribe it. But, if my hoped for career change to become a Physician’s Assistant passes, topics of women’s health will become even more important for me to take into account.

Let me start with the first discussion I had: menopause and Nuvaring. A friend mentioned she’s going through menopause and her physician had suggested the Nuvarin as a form of hormone replacement to help reduce the effects such as hot-flashes. She looked into what her insurance covered and found out that it would cost I believe $360 for 3 months of coverage. But, Viagra was free. That’s health insurance in America. Want to get an erection, if you have good health insurance, it’s free. Want to avoid feeling like you need to rip off your clothes in public because you’ve gone from cold to sweating hot in seconds, sorry that’ll cost you $120/month! Perhaps it’s time to rethink how we allocate some of our funds.

The other discussion that came up was someone that I know more vaguely, but who is a trans-woman. She mentioned how doctors have turned her away. Pharmacies have refused to fulfill prescriptions for her that they routinely fill for cis-women. In general, because in their minds her physical presentation doesn’t match their expectations, they treat her as an outcast. Let me be simple and blunt: I’m offended and angry. She deserves access to the same treatment as any of the cis-women around her (and as the above discussion suggests, women in general deserve better treatment).

Writing this, I realized, I lied a bit, unintentionally. The above paragraph was prompted by a particular post, but I know several women to whom it could apply. So no need to try to guess who she is among my friends. She could be and is in fact a compilation of several.

Before I close, I want to recommend a Youtube channel I spend some time on: Dr. Momma Jones. While I don’t think my specialty will involve Ob/Gyn (I’m more interested in emergency medicine), I love watching her posts because I learn a lot, both medically and about gender bias and topics that I’m generally less familiar with.

That said, in closing, if I become a PA, I will work at treating all my patients equally and equitably and to the best of my abilities, regardless of their identity. Even if I don’t become a PA, I will continue to work to fight for the rights of all and to treat all equally and equitably .

So on International Women’s Day, let’s celebrate and remember all women.

P.S. and in the meantime, let’s fight against the rules put in place in Texas regarding medical treatment and discussion around trans-children and against the “Don’t Say Gay” law being voted on in Florida. I will say right now: children will die because of these rules. They will commit suicide.

2022 in Preview

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I started last year’s version of this post with the suggestion I should leave it as a blank page and I’m tempted again, but no, I actually have goals for next year.

By words, thoughts become actions, and by actions words become deeds.

I’m going to start with the usual list of items and then have a big reveal at the bottom (you can skip to that if you want).

  • Like last year, I’m going to continue to write for Red-Gate. Even if it’s just one article. I will also attempt to keep my “Friends of Red-Gate’ status. In fact, I vow to be even more involved if I can find time.
  • This year for the NCRC, I’m looking to premiere a new class we’re calling “Tip of the Spear” aka TOTS. The focus of the class will be to work with medical doctors, nurses, physicians assistants and other medically trained personal to get them (the tip of the spear) to the patient deep in the cave as quickly as possible to provide the best possible medical care. Unlike our normal classes where there’s a strong focus on things like setting up communications, rigging, searching, etc this will focus solely on getting them there to use their skills. I’m excited about this, even though there’s a fair amount of work required to fully develop the curriculum.
  • Yeah, I’ll continue blogging. ‘Nough said. (Hey no one says you have to read it!)
  • Travel: While I do plan to do more, the big trips may be out for reasons to be mentioned below. But we’ll see.
  • Biking: Yeah, I hope to hit at least 700 miles this year (that has sort of been my minimum goal for years and I’ve beat it every year. I’ll continue to do so).
  • Hike More: I hope to do at least one overnight this year. And of course day hikes. So if you’re interested in doing a hike, let me know.
  • Caving: There’s a few caves I want to get into this year. So I’m looking forward to that.

Changes are Coming!

And now “the big reveal”. I’m going to start by saying that while I enjoy consulting and I think I’m pretty good at it, I am not enjoying it as much as I used to. I’m also simply not finding it fulfilling in a way I’d like it to be.

Among the reasons is that at the end of the day I look at what I’ve done and wonder “what difference does it really make?” Yes, I’ve written some solid code. I’ve helped with projects that have saved my clients thousands of dollars or made them tens of thousands. Financially, they’ve obviously made a difference. But, on a personal level they haven’t.

One reason I’ve enjoyed teaching cave rescue so much (and participating in the few I have, including a body recovery) is because at the end of the day I know I’ve made a difference: I’ve taught someone valuable skills, helped someone get out safely, or even in the most extreme case, been able to help others find closure.

I’ve been contemplating a change for awhile. I had toyed with a few ideas, such as going back to being a full-time employee, ideally in a management position for awhile. And I may still end up doing that, but that’s not where I am planning on heading right now. Financially it would probably be the right move, and honestly, I think when I’ve had the right environment, I’ve been a good manager (on the flip side, in a bad environment I’ve found it hard to be an effective or good manager).

So, instead, I’m going to pivot a bit and attempt a career change. I’m going to to try to move into a field where I think I can make a direct impact on people’s lives. I’m going to start taking prerequisite classes so I can apply for a Physician’s Assistant program. This is an idea I’ve toyed with off and on for years. Or rather one of several. Besides enjoying working with computers, I’ve been fascinated with two other fields: medical and law. I’ve thought for quite a few years if perhaps I should explore them. This really came to a head during my dad’s fatal illness 6 years ago. I’ll brag a bit and say that more than once I had one of the attendings or nurses ask me (after discussing his condition or treatment) “Are you in the medical field?” Once even when students were rounding, the attending asked them a question and none answered it to his satisfaction, I was able to step in and correctly answer it. Yes, one or two students scowled at me.

Now, having said that, I’m quite realistic in understanding that while I do claim a greater than a laymen’s knowledge of things medical, I have a LONG way to go and I’m entering a difficult field later in life and have a bit of catchup to do. I have no illusions that this will be easy for me. But to perhaps channel a bit of John F. Kennedy “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…”

In the most optimistic timeframe, I’ll be completing my PA work in mid 2025. In a more realistic timeframe, probably 2026. This is a serious investment of time and effort. This is arguably going to be one of the hardest things I’ve done in years. There’s no guarantee of success (heck, there’s no guarantee that even after doing all the prereqs I’ll be accepted into a program). But, I’ve decided I have to try. Ah but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for? I won’t know if I can do it unless I try and I don’t want to be a 4 years older wondering “what if?”

I’d been having thoughts about this for a long time. I finally put the thoughts into words, which made them that much more real. Now I’m starting to put the words into actions.

And one of those actions is to write the words down here for others to read. I do this for a multitude of reasons.

  • By writing this down and revealing it to the world (or at least to a small part of it) it holds me a bit more accountable for trying.
  • I’ll freely admit, I could use any and all support and help any of my friends, family, including #sqlfamily, and others are willing to give.
  • And honestly, perhaps it’ll inspire others in a similar position to stretch for their own goals.

For the coming year

I’ll keep working in SQL, you’ll see me at events and I’ll probably do some speaking, but I won’t be seeking out new work. I simply won’t have the time.

I’ll still keep running my local user group and looking for speakers

I’ll be blogging about my successes, and failures.

And I’ll be busy.

Wish me luck.