Stress Thoughts-Part 6

I just finished up a nine month project. It was a long road with lots of challenges, set backs, and obstacles – I suppose it was a typical project. As I look back I can see a few different kinds of stresses during that time, all interesting, all maybe less interesting in hindsight, but this […]

Stress Thoughts-Part 5

Stress affects everyone, but it’s easy to forget that. Once you get sensitized to it, it’s amazing to pick up on the behavioral changes that happen to co-workers under certain kinds of stress. We may consider their issue to be stressful, but we don’t get to decide. Don’t dismiss their reaction or trivialize it, it’s […]

Announcing SQLSaturday #175–In Flight Edition

One of the things I like about SQLSaturday is that it’s a place to try new ideas. This year on the Monday prior to the PASS Summit we’re doing something totally new, a SQLSaturday held aboard a charter flight that will start in Orlando, then stop in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, and then finish up in […]

Presenting at SQLSaturday #107 in Houston in April 2012

I was just looking at the schedule for Houston, an amazing 10 tracks for this event on April 21, 2012. I’ll be doing two presentations, one on professional development plans and another on SQL security for developers. This will be my first time at the Houston SQLSaturday and really looking forward to it.

Stress Thoughts-Part 4

Recently I suffered through a frustrating and contentious meeting, and that was stressful. I needed a walk, a few minutes to sort out why I was stressed, but instead I had to step right into another meeting. It was a follow up meeting to build out an implementation plan for a plan the team had […]

Stress Thoughts-Part 3

It’s not fair. I hear it a couple times a day. Sometimes they are right, sometimes not, but it’s how they feel and that is real enough. The first thing I do is listen, because that’s the first thing they need. Once they’ve explained (vented!) then I can tell them what I think: I agree, […]

Stress Thoughts–Part 2

One thing I’ve learned is that even losing one hour of sleep or just not sleeping well degrades my ability to handle stress. It feels wimpy to say that, I should be able to handle losing an hour of sleep! Maybe I’ll get to a point where it won’t, but I suspect it’s just how […]

Stress Thoughts–Part 1

2012-03-25 14:20:45

Start Building Your Next Network

Take a look at your network right now and while it probably has some diversity, I bet it’s tied pretty closely to what you do right now. That make sense, right? You meet people that are in the same line of work because those are the blogs you read, the events you attend. It’s smart, […]

Gardens and Scarecrows

A few weeks ago I started clearing space for a small garden. Tedious work due to the area of the yard I picked, tons of some ugly vine that took hours to remove. I built four mini raised beds by using some 1×4” fence pickets and a small block of 2×4” at each corner. Not […]