This was the first year in 16 years for me that there has been a fall season without the PASS Summit to go to. Every year, during the fall, it has been a soul sustaining practice to pack up and head to the summit (typically, Seattle) and spend a week with friends – learning, sharing… Continue reading PASS Summit 2020 – My experience

This month’s T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by my good friend and data platform MVP Taiob Ali. Taiob’s challenge is very relevant to current season – he asks to blog about how we are coping with what life has dealt us during this time. I really wondered where to start on this..because this year has stuck… Continue reading T-SQL Tuesday 132: Coping with a pandemic

This month’s TSQL2sday is hosted by one of my favorite presenters, Rob Volk. His challenge for us is to use analogies and explain a database concept like you would to a five year old. I love this idea..because so many of us techies have challenges with getting down-to-earth and simple when it comes to explaining… Continue reading T-SQL Tuesday 131: Data Analogies, or: Explain Databases Like I’m Five!

There is no doubt that this is a time when we all have to be extra aware and work towards keeping our skills aligned with market needs. During this time of great crisis, the last thing we want is to lose our jobs or not have the skills necessary to land a new one. Multiple… Continue reading Azure SQL Championship

One of my colleagues/friends read my earlier blog post on the future of PASS and said he was not aware that being seen as a minority person was among my reasons for supporting them. In this one I want to explain that a bit more.There is a strongly held belief in the tech community atleast… Continue reading Being seen and why PASS helped

As most people reading this would know…the PASS organization is in a state of crisis now following the decision to go virtual. We are in a place where we are obligated to get very high attendance #s for the virtual summit, or risk going under if not. While on the face of it this seems… Continue reading PASS – Meanderings

This is a summary of potential resources for any tech person who is interested in working from home – temporarily or full time. It came about from a twitter conversation on subject. This is not an attempt to promote any way of working, nor does it mean you need all of these resources to telecommute.… Continue reading Telecommute Resources

This month’s T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by Jess Pomfret. Jess’s theme is ‘Life Hacks to make your day easier’. She talks of some things we do to make life simpler/easier. Two of mine are as below.1 Before I accepted the current gig I am at – I worked several years in telecommuting positions. I found… Continue reading T-SQL Tuesday 123: Life Hacks to make your day easier

This month’s T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by Jon Shaulis – the topic is an evergreen one, dealing with Imposter Syndrome. I learned of this word via Mindy Curnett a.k.a @sqlgirl in one of her presentations. I was aware of it in a different way for a long time. Trauma victims know what it is better… Continue reading T-SQL Tuesday #122: Being authentic

I attended my 16th PASS Summit this November 6th, 2019 at Seattle. It was a wonderful week of learning and networking. Below are my takeaways for key days. The keynotes by Rohan Kumar from Microsoft on wednesday, and Tarah Wheeler, Cyber Security Expert on Thursday were not ‘among the best’, they were ‘THE BEST’ i’ve… Continue reading PASS Summit 2019 Takeaways