Three Things

OK. Here it goes again.

This Web 2.0 chainposting is brought to you courtesy of Mr. Paul Tripp and his post “What three events brought you here?“ He tagged me and several others (luckily he also tagged Kevin Kline, otherwise Paul would never hear the end of it). Paul’s question was a tough one for me to answer [...]

Updated PASS List of People I Want To Meet

UPDATED: I have not had a lot of time to blog from the Summit. Hopefully I can find some time today to assemble some coherent thoughts.
UPDATED: I will cross off the names of the people I have had the chance to meet already.
Here is an updated list of people heading (hopefully) to PASS that I [...]

Training Benefits

Everyone needs training. It does not matter what your level of experience. Everyone has room for improvement. The improvement could be something dramatic, such as going from being a novice to someone highly skilled. Or it could be that someone who is highly skilled wants to hone those skills even further in order to stay [...]

PASS Call For Nominations

Earlier this week Andy Warren blogged about how the call for nominations to the PASS Board of Directors will be opened in the next couple of weeks. Andy also mentioned a handful of people he felt would be good candidates and hopes will submit an application when the time comes. Fast forward to today’s PASS [...]

Thinking Differently

Many, many years ago there lived a little boy who showed a great aptitude for numbers. He loved numbers very much and was able to learn how to add and multiply even before he was old enough to go to school.
When he was old enough to enter school he found himself presented with a question [...]

The Silent DBA

Today I saw a great post by master blogger Buck Woody that talks about putting DBA’s into two categories: those you see and those you don’t. I have often subscribed to the theory that the best DBA’s are the ones you never see. The idea is that if you do need to see them, then [...]

Root Cause Analysis – Asking Why?

I have two children, ages six and five (Happy Birthday to the boy today, BTW), and they went through a phase where they would ask “why?” for just about everything imaginable. They either grew out of this phase or grew tired of my circular reasoning which resulted in conversations such as:
“Papa, why [whatever]?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why?”
“Because [...]

Luck, Preparation, and Opportunity

Last month I made the pilgrimage to Lake Placid, NY, to celebrate my 12th wedding anniversary with Congress. We made the same trip two years ago, and I am thinking we will keep making the trip again in future years. There are two reasons why. The first is that it is quite peaceful, relaxing, and [...]

What I’ve Learned at PASS

In case you have not yet heard, PASS is running a contest and asking for people to submit their stories regarding the best thing they have learned by attending a PASS conference. The contest runs through July 1st and the winner will get their choice of a free registration to the 2009 PASS Community Summit [...]

The Value of Your Network

For whatever reason, the older I get the more I understand the power of networks. I seriously wish I had understood this dynamic a lot sooner. Although, to some degree I did understand it as it related to coaching basketball. See, I was well aware that your next job was out there, waiting for you, [...]