I’ve been writing T-SQL Tuesday posts for years and it is pretty cool to be hosting this month. I don’t make it every month, but that is one of the great things about T-SQL Tuesday – if you miss it there is another one coming up quickly. I debated what the topic should be for some time and I was really leaning towards something on the cloud or PowerShell, maybe PowerShell in the Cloud, or perhaps some Cloudy PowerShell, but after Ed Leighton-Dick (B|T) announced his new blogger challenge I didn’t want to limit the options for all of these new contributors. The topic this month is straight forward, but very open ended. Continue reading
PASSMN December 2014 Meeting
Next Tuesday (12/16) is the December meeting for the Minnesota chapter of the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASSMN). We are doing something different this month. Instead of doing a single presentation by one person we are going to have several local SQL people debate some SQL-related topics. the catch is none of us will know what the topics are ahead of time. We are calling it, SQL Improv: Who’s Line is it anyway? Or at least I am calling it that. Come watch me think on my feet along with Jason Strate, Mark Vaillancourt, Paul Timmerman, Dave Valentine, Ben Thul, and Jim Dorame. It is sure to be fun and if we do it right you might even learn something along the way.
Winds in the East (T-SQL Tuesday #61)
This month’s host for T-SQL Tuesday is Wayne Sheffield (blog|twitter). Since it is the season of giving he has asked the #sqlfamily to write about how we plan to give back to the SQL community in the coming year.
Because my term on the PASSMN board is ending I may actually end up giving a little less of my time to the SQL Community next year, but there is at least one new development I am excited to share.
PASSMN November 2014 Meeting
Today (11/18) is the November meeting for the Minnesota chapter of the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASSMN). Our presenter this month is Microsoft SQL Server MVP Paul Timmerman (T). Paul is presenting on how SQL Server Database Snapshots will make our lives easier. I learned a ton when he presented on Read Committed Snapshot Isolation level last year so I expect to gain some knowledge tonight (evidently Paul only presents sessions with the word snapshot in them).
International Man of SQL
I can’t remember when I first started hearing about SQL Saturday Winnipeg – it may have been last year at the PASS Summit 2013. I work at the same company as Mark Vaillancourt (B|T) who is the PASS Regional mentor for Canada and he asked if I would be up for a trip north at some point to share some SQL knowledge with Canadians. I’ve never been to Canada which is hard to believe when it is just a short 8 hour drive to Winnipeg (or possibly 2 days depending on weather). I said yes and I even agreed to help with the planning. I may have over extended myself on that second part because I have found it difficult to contribute much from 500 miles away – perhaps it is the language barrier. Continue reading
Select ALL THE THINGZ!
There are some T-SQL best practices that I have been hearing about for so long that it surprises me when I run into people who don’t know about them. Then I remember “every single person in the world starts out with absolutely zero knowledge about SQL Server“. With that in mind I have decided to document some of the things I have been seeing a lot of recently. I have been working on a project refactoring T-SQL for the past several months and one of the patterns I replace without thinking about it is
SELECT *
Lets Hear it for the Board (T-SQL Tuesday #59)
This month’s host for T-SQL Tuesday is the Real SQL Guy, Tracy McKibben (blog|twitter). In honor of Ada Lovelace Day Tracy has asked us to write about our heroes. I think Ada Lovelace is a great example of a hero and an inspiration as the first computer programmer, but I’ve decided to make my focus a little more local.
A little over two years ago I was starting to get more involved in PASSMN. The people on the PASSMN Board inspired me with their commitment and willingness to donate their time and knowledge to the Minnesota SQL Server community. At the time I didn’t know the board members as people. I viewed them with a certain amount of awe and nervously volunteered to speak and to help with events like SQL Saturday. It was easy to see them as heroes and they inspired me to push myself.
Maybe it is all of the activity these days around planning the current SQL Saturday, but I realized that I am now working side by side with some of these amazing people. My heroes are my fellow board PASSMN board members. They all do work that no one ever knows about and put in hours of volunteer time to help create the great SQL Server community we have here in Minnesota. I can’t begin to list all of the work these people do, but I want everyone to know how great they are. In no particular order here are the PASSMN Board heroes:
All the Cool Kids Keep Enthusiasm Rationed
I started to write my normal SQL Life blog post about what I am doing in the next couple of months and I was going to casually add a bullet point about speaking at the 2014 PASS Summit (see the badge over to the right?)
Living The SQL Life, September 2014 Edition
Saturday September 6th: SQL Saturday #320 in Raleigh, NC
Saturday September 13th: SQL Saturday #300 in Kansas City, MO
Tuesday September 16th: PASSMN September Meeting
Wednesday September 24th: Presenting at MADPASS in Madison, WI
PASSMN September 2014 Meeting
Next Tuesday (9/16) is the September meeting for the Minnesota chapter of the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASSMN). Our main presenter this month is the Paula Merns. Paula will be expanding on her checklist presentation from last December and showing us how she uses checklists as a database professional. In addition to the main topic we will have a short presentation on using XML functions to create correlated lists by Riley Major.
A Coding Journey 