Hello Dear Reader, what a week! On Thursday my wife and I closed on a new house. We are so incredibly excited! We owned a house for a very short period of time. When we bought the house we did not look at the school districts.
When the kiddos came to live with us full time during the pandemic we quickly found out the schools were..... really bad. Great neighborhood, beautiful house, bad schools. So we quickly came to the conclusion that we would have to move.
We found and even better neighborhood, AMAZING schools, but the cost was the house. We hadn't owned long enough to get much equity. As a matter of fact we lost quite a bit of money. We sold during the pandemic before the housing market went crazy. We thought we would save for a year and then buy a new house in this great neighborhood. What's the old phrase? "Man plans, God laughs". Yeah, the housing market went nuts. One year turned to two, two years turned to three, and three looked like it would turn into four. With three months left before our lease expired I did a lot of calculations and found we might be able to get a house. AND WE DID!!!
We had just started to really enjoy doing the small things that make a house yours. The best part is we only one mile away from our old house, so we get to keep the same awesome schools, we stay in the same neighborhood, and I get to keep my same running & walking routes!
Josh Luedeman (Twitter | @JoshLuedeman), Neeraj Jhaveri (Twitter | @Neeraj_Jhaveri), Daniel Taylor (Twitter | @DBABulldog), Andres Padilla (Twitter | @nodestreamio), & myself all decided we should submit to the conference. The really amazing part, as much time as we've spent with online we've never all gathered together before. Josh, Neeraj, & I had met pre-covid during work trips, but Andres & Dan had joined our team during the pandemic. Our good friend Bradley Schacht (Twitter | @BradleySchacht) from the Azure Synapse Product Group joined us!
We started out with a nice dinner on Thursday and the in person preparations began for our pre-con DBA 101: A Full Day of Fundamentals. We had a great group of gentlemen that joined us for the day. We covered a lot of basics about SQL Server and the Cloud, specifically Azure, but we made sure people understood how to translate that skill set.
We did a lot of group exercises, starting with building on premise, hybrid, and cloud architectures. Then applying SLA's, RTO, RPO requirements so we could discuss how to configure backups, high availability, and then disaster recovery.
We reviewed basic security within SQL Server which translates to Azure SQL, as well as some basic Identity topics covering AD & AAD. Great group of people and a great way to kick off Friday.
Friday night took us to the SQL Saturday Speaker dinner and then a group activity we had planned together watching the Guardians of the Galaxy 3. No spoilers. Great movie and a really nice send off to the trilogy.
After that we headed back to the hotel, hung out, had some nice conversations, and then went to sleep so we could start the big event, SQL Saturday.
All of us who have been in the community for a while have seen the ups and downs that happened during the pandemic. We all had a lot to deal with in that time, and there were some devastating losses for me personally. Maybe next year I will write about it, but there are some areas that are still to raw for me. I'm sure there are for a lot of people. I tried to remind myself during that time that in the middle of something you cannot see the end, nor can you see the recovery. I held fast to the idea that they would occur.
In the SQL Community I have made so many close deeply personal friendships, that calling people "friends" hardly does justice to what I feel. Of those people Karla & Rodney Landrum are up there at the top. The last time I saw them they came to Orlando to visit. Karla, Rodney, Sue, and myself went to Chef's in the Paris district of Epcot. We also had them over to the house. I cooked, Karla mixed the drinks (which I loved still to this day!) and we had a fantastic time. That was 2019. There is no way we could have known how long it would be until we saw each other again, what we would have encountered. It was all I could do not to breakdown crying as I hugged Karla.I didn't realize she would be there, and the joy I feel even know days removed is palpable. I'm so glad we are having in person events again. I'm so glad I get to see my friends, donate my time, and teach people. If you have a SQL Saturday happening near you, you've got to check them out, I cannot recommend getting involved enough.
Ok, over to the recap.
MONDAY 5-1-2023
On Monday Josh Luedeman published his first video, way to go JOSH!! Josh's video Setup Windows with Chocolatey for Data Developers walked us through using the Chocolatey packages to install and configure post-Windows installation tasks easily!
He installed Git, WSL 2, Ubuntu, Spotify, Discord, PowerShell, Azure Data Studio, SQL Server Management Studio, and Signal! If you find yourself setting up a new Windows computer, this is a fantastic shortcut to the installation process.
WEDNESDAY 5-3-2023
On Wedneday we released my latest video on creating a Dynamic Pipeline in Azure Synapse & Data Factory!! This is a process that I've walked many customers through over the years. The key is we are trying to minimize the number of Source & Sink data sets created to import data in this video.
Dynamic Pipelines are incredibly powerful and can be used in many different ways. This was just one of them, but based on the reaction from you Dear Reader, we will be showing a few additional ways this can be used!
What an amazing week we had last week, and it's only going to get better! This week we have Andres & Neeraj presenting Computer Vision with Azure ML Studio that will be live today at 1 PM EST.
I will have another video this Wednesday, and of course our Tales from the Field Azure Data Community Round table will be this Tuesday Live at 1 PM.
I'm sure we will figure out some adventure to have this weekend, alright Dear Reader. Time for me to head out, as always Thank You Dear Reader for stopping by.
Hello Dear Reader! We had a great last week on Tales from the Field. This weekend was also a really nice one. On Saturday a group of friends gathered to share some friendship, conversation, and remember a dear friend that is no longer with us at one of my favorite places in Orlando, Lee & Rick's Oyster Bar.
Lee & Rick's has been around since 1950 and it doesn't look like much has changed in that time. That's just the way I like it. My friends Juan, Dan Taylor (Twitter | @DBABulldog), Brad Schacht (Twitter | @BradleySchacht), and myself had a great time.
That wasn't the only thing going on this past weekend as it was also Super Bowl day. That's sports ball for the non-sports followers. The one day of the year that even non-sports ball fans will at least watch the game to see some of the best commercials we will get all year. Not to mention the halftime show is always amazing. It did not disappoint! The game was incredible, two amazing teams playing their hearts out. Or as I would translate to my friend Buck Woody (Twitter | @BuckWoodyMSFT), one sports ball team sports balled better than the other sports ball team. Which is fairly normal.
On to the show!
Tuesday 2-7-2023
On Tuesday we had iAsia Brown (Twitter | @TechPicasso) Producer at X-Box Game Studios Publishing on the show! Neeraj had won and was the host this week. Our topic was Diversity and Inclusion. iAsia is a brilliant, wonderful, amazing human being. She is a Veteran of the US Airforce & the Marine Corps. and we THANK her for her service! Our discussions were wide ranging, poignant, and incredibly valuable.
I understand that this topic could be a trigger to many people because of current events. If that is the case please take the time to watch this show. When we make things better for everyone we open them up to have an amazing experience. Inclusivity opens new markets and individuals to capitalistic opportunities that they may not otherwise have access to.
If you feel I'm wrong, its not hard to find me and I am open to your feedback.
Wednesday 2-8-2023
On Wednesday we dropped our second February video for our MS Tech Bits! Neeraj Jhaveri (Twitter | @nodestreamio) and Andres Padilla (Twitter | @neeraj_jhaveri) share with us the Tips & Tricks for Azure Data Lake Gen 1 to Gen 2 Migrations.
This topic is a big deal! Andres worked with the PG to develop the program and work with some of our largest customers in the world to migrate off of ADLS Gen 1 to ADLS Gen 2. He and Neeraj share their experience and many links that will help you through this journey. Speaking of which, if this is a situations where you find yourself or your company finds itself, then you should DEFINITELY be working with our team Azure FastTrack CXP. We are a complimentary Product Group in Azure Engineering that works directly with customers on their move or adoption to Azure. Here's a link to a video on how you can engage with us!
Thursday 2-9-2023
On Thursday we had our Community Round Table featuring incredible content from you the community.
I could write more about what we did on the show but I'd rather share all the amazing content that we covered in the order of appearance:
We hope you will all join us this week, on Tuesday we have a BIG guest. No spoilers on who won and will be the host, but the one and only Patrick LeBlanc (Twitter | @PatrickDBA) from Guy in a Cube on the program on Tuesday at 1 pm EST.
I've known Patrick for well over a decade at this point in my life. He's an incredibly man and I cannot wait for the conversation!
Don't forget we will have another MS Tech Bit this Wednesday and as always the Community Round table will be live on Thursday.
We hope to see you there. And as always Dear Reader, Thank you for stopping by.
Friday night took us to the SQL Saturday Speaker dinner and then a group activity we had planned together watching the Guardians of the Galaxy 3. No spoilers. Great movie and a really nice send off to the trilogy.
