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Last week a man jumped the fence at the home of the President of the United States. This is a fairly routine occurrence. Except he made it to the door to the “residence” portion of the White House – where the first family lives. And made it through the unlocked front door – where he … Read more

4 Attitudes I Wish I Had Earlier as a DBA

  Outside of Work is Really Important This one is first and longest  for a reason. Time – it keeps going. It doesn’t pause while you have a busy month at the office. That means the things that matter the most in life keep happening. Whether you are there or not. Right now. Right this moment – especially … Read more

DBA Tunnel Vision

One of the things hammered into you in Firefighting training, Law Enforcement training, defensive gun use training and many other forms of training is “Do not develop tunnel vision.” There is a reason they emphasize this concept so much, too. Lot of folks get killed each year by tunnel vision. Do you think this phenomenon doesn’t … Read more

More Soft Skills From The Ambulance

A couple days ago I posted some of the lessons I learned in the back of an ambulance that have translated into my career as a SQL Server Consultant or a DBA. I promised I had a few more.  Here they are. “I Don’t Know What You’ve Been Through” Empathy. My friend Tom LaRock wrote an … Read more

5 Database Lessons From The Bathroom…

sql server lessons from bathroom

I’m writing this post from my living room, don’t worry. A recent last-minute trip to replenish the household toilet paper supply had me thinking of this illustration. So… I’m a big fan of finding lessons for the day job from everyday life – call them illustrations, if you want. I’ve found inspiration preparing for planting … Read more