Unless you’ve spent the last two days hiding under a rock, you’ve heard the uproar around this week’s development in the PASS board election. The Nominating Committee (NomCom) published the list of candidates who will be on the ballot for this year’s three open board positions. Five candidates made the cut; two did not. The buzz – mostly negative –…
There are some questions that can’t necessarily be answered in a book or a training video. Those are often the questions revolving around “why?” rather than “how?”. A prime example from my own experience is my lack of understanding of the criticality of transaction isolation levels. As a very green SQL Server professional (and in this case, I define professional…
We’re three weeks removed from the first annual SQL Saturday Dallas event, so I’ve had a little time to gather my thoughts on our successes and shortcomings in this inaugural event. This was the first SQL Saturday event held in Dallas, and we expect this to be an annual event moving forward. We started planning this some 8 months ago…
This weekend I flew out to Pensacola, Florida to present a session at SQL Saturday 22. This was the second SQL Saturday that Pensacola has hosted, and I’ve been fortunate to have attended and spoken at both of them. I got in around 5pm, travelling with my friend and fellow Dallas area speaker Tim Costello on what might be the…
At the MVP Summit last week, I was talking with fellow Dallas-area tweep Sean McCown about our local SQL Server user group membership. I think our group is unique because of its sheer size; we typically have between 70 and 90 people at our monthly meetings, with a mailing list that goes out to between 600 and 800 people. So…
Way back during my days as a retail clerk, I had a customer who had a, um, clothing malfunction. The store was very busy one afternoon, and as he approached me to ask a question, it was readily apparent that his barn door was left open. As discreetly as I could, I leaned in and whispered to him that he…
A couple of weeks ago, it was announced that the SQL Saturday franchise was voluntarily transferred to PASS. This change of ownership could be a good thing for SQL Saturday, but I do have some questions and concerns. Let me say for starters that the SQL Saturday franchise is near and dear to me, since it was one of the…
So for the latest database geek meme, Paul Randal started this thing off and tagged Tom LaRock, who enlisted Grant Fritchey, who finally tagged me. This one simply asks, “What 3 things or events brought you to where you are today?” The Eyes Barely a year out of high school, I was working full time in retail and occasionally attending…
The new year is less than 24 hours old and I’ve already been blessed with two different honors. I shared earlier this morning that I received word of my selection as a Microsoft SQL Server MVP for 2010. Just four hours later, I was notified that I have been elected to the board of the North Texas SQL Server User…
I received a notification e-mail earlier this morning that I’ve been selected as a Microsoft MVP for SQL Server! I’m both surprised and honored by this distinction. This is my first MVP award, so I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, but one thing is for certain – I’m in good company. The SQL Server community just rocks….