Happy Thanksgiving! Take stock of the good things. Appreciate your loved ones.

I just watched a sci-fi movie from 2011 called, "I am number four." I thought it was a pretty good story and a nice break from reality.

The practical wisdom found in a very old way of life has been useful to me. Modern folks like Ryan Holiday, Donald Robertson, and Tanner Campbell are helping people understand the usefulness of this approach to living. www.newtraderu.com/2025/11/10/p...

My cat doing cat things. The box was empty for all of 10 seconds before she took up residency.

I'm thinking about buying a standing desk. What should I consider? Is there any particular thing to pay close attention to when picking one?

An interesting article about human sleep habits. Apparently, we used to sleep in two phases. www.sciencealert.com/humans-used-...

A few hours late - but the SQLServerFast Black Friday sale has now officially started. Until the end of the month, purchase prices for all my training videos are slashed in half! sqlserverfast.com/video

I have really been enjoying authors like Ryan Holiday, Massimo Pigliucci, and Donald Robertson. The most recent book I have been reading is by Joseph Piercy and is called "The Little Book of Stoic Wisdom." It's a very practical consideration of how a very old way of pondering life can bring peace.

Just submitted to the Nebraska.Code()2026 event on sessionize. I made my first submission for a full day pre-con.

Will be presenting in around a month at #DataSaturdayMadrid 2025. The topic is the Columnstore and I will do my best to deliver the session in Spanish datasaturdays.com/Event/202511...

I am excited to be speaking at SQL Saturday Saint Louis tomorrow. This will be my third SQL Saturday this year. I still have 3 more speaking engagements before the end of the year. Presenting sharpens knowledge, creates new colleagues, and, of course, can help attendees learn something new.

An interesting study on schizophrenia. www.sciencealert.com/50-year-old-...

Wow! This sounds pretty terrible. futurism.com/artificial-i...

Read the latest Data Platform WITH newsletter here and discover what's new: www.dataplatformwit.com/2025/10/01/w....

Having an easier time getting home than getting to Boston. I'm glad for that. One more flight and a short drive, and then I'll be home again in thenlate afternoon. It was great being at #sqlsatboston.

Waiting for luggage and then over to my car rental. Google Maps sats it's about an hour drive out to Burlington. Looking forward to getting dinner and settling into the hotel tonight. Also, I have to bring home a piece of Boston to the Mrs!

This was an interesting read: www.zdnet.com/article/this...

On my way to #sqlsatboston ! Already through security at Saint Louis. Going to Chicago Midway, then I'm shipping up to Boston.

Well, looks like I'll be getting to Boston for #sqlsatboston quite late. My flight is delayed almost 5 hours. They are saying it is due to weather in Boston later today. No flights yo switch to the day of. 😞 #sqlfamily

I may embark on a bold I.T. venture soon. I've been unhappy with GoDaddy for a long time now. So, I'm going to see if I can host my WordPress site on my own Linux servers. I suppose I could try to do this on Linux in AWS or Azure.

A bottomless mug of Fitz's Root Beer at Fitz's in the Delmar Loop in Saint Louis!!

Watching the last College Football Gameday for Lee Corso. He has had a wide and deep impact on college football, and it is so touching to hear how his colleagues far and wide talk about him and his impact.

I am in shock over how Star Trek Strange New Worlds followed last week's amazing episode with one this week that was so terrible and so un-Treklike.

Announcing the SmartPostgres Box of Tricks v0.1, with check_indexes and drop_indexes: smartpostgres.com/posts/announ...

Out with the Mrs. and just watched a tribute band called Skid Roses. They were really good. Waiting for the Aerosmith tribute band next.

This kind of amazing athleticism is why I love college football season!

As a Trekkie, I love this so much and also wish that addressing the problems we're experiencing with this administration was as easy as "Computer, end program."

I spent some time the last couple of days to make progress on finishing presentation slides. I've had several presentations in various states of progress, and it feels good to approach the initial finish line with some of them.

I have a new session to give at tech conferences. It is called "Buttons, Dials, and Levers: What to do with Key SQL Server Settings." It explains important server and database level features and settings. Hit me up if you are running a virtual group or know of a conference this would work for.

PowerShell to the rescue! Automate repetitive tasks to save time and reduce errors. #PowerShell #pwsh #Automation #TechHacks

I am hoping to make it to one of these in the near-ish future. I've been learning about postgreSQL recently, and it seems like a good platform.

Recovering from a wild summer? Me too. Our August event will help you get a little organized for your #Fabric project during the second half of the year. From Chaos to Order - Taming Your Fabric Architecture on August 12th at 11AM CDT time. data-platform-wit.sh...#Fabric

Here at the Saint Louis DevUp conference, I am now watching @savranweb.bsky.social talk about,"How much SQL do Developers need to know?"

I am at the Saint Louis DevUp conference today and tomorrow. It is a regional conference drawing over 600 people from all around. I am intrigued to see how various conferences operate, and I like meeting new folks. Two talks on SQL Server this year, and mine is one of those later this afternoon.

The writings of thinkers like Marcus Aurelius have really helped me re-frame many of my own thought processes. This concept of the goal of life being about becoming a virtuous person, which naturally contributes to the well-being of others, is a foundational one.

#Stoicism #Mindfulness"The only thing you can control is your response. Stop waiting for life to happen and start making the most of it, no matter what's happening."

If you are interested in A SQL Server event in the midwest, get this on your calendar for next year. This is within driving distance for me, so I should be a le to attend.

So, I just found out why I am not seeing hardly anyone's posts in here. It seems that that option for "keep me notified about posts and replies" are not turned on by default. Why is that?! Now I need to see if I can turn it on globally or if I will have to go to every account I follow to do it.

please help spread the word for SQL Saturday Houston. sqlsaturday.com/2025-11-08-s...

I noticed avg write stalls on tempdb of over 100ms. I raised the issue and was told it doesn't hurt user queries because those writes happen in memory. I always thought writes to data files were physical IO that happen during working in tempdb. Can someone clarify? #sqlserver #sqlhelp

If you have a Windows 10 pc that doesn't meet the hardware requirements, and you don't want to spend money on a new pc, then there are options. Setting up a familiar looking desktop is easier than you might think. I did it a year ago. www.zdnet.com/article/end-...

I have been a big fan of the KDE desktop environment on Linux. linuxiac.com/kde-encourag...

Here is the chair I got my wife recently. She is excited to sit comfortably and read. However, it comes with a side of kitty who thinks it is now her chair. 😀

All the signs are there to not trust AI but we keep plowing ahead like the Titanic. www.morningbrew.com/stories/2025...

This one snuck up on us: There is 1 week left on the CFS to be the #PASSDataSummit2025 Women in Tech Luncheon Keynote Speaker. Deadline is June 2nd. Reach out with any questions. We'd love to have you speak! More info here: reg.passdatacommunitysummit.com/flow/redgate... #datawit #sqlfamily

Call for speaker, call for sponsor, and registration details for Data Saturday Columbus (August 16th) are live at datasaturdays.com/Event/202508... #SQLFamily #Azure #AzureSQL

Reminder: I’m speaking this Saturday #SQLSaturday #SQL101 This is a reminder that this coming weekend, I'll be heading down to NYC for SQL Saturday. NYC SQL Saturday is my most-attended SQL Saturday event. It was the first SQL Saturday I ever attended back in 2010. This coming Saturday will be my…

I had a great time at #sqlsataustin. I met some new people, the attendees were engaged, and I got a few laughs out of the folks in my session. We learned stuff too! SQL Saturday's are great events. #sqlfamily

Checked into our suggested hotel for SQL Saturday Austin. I'm looking forward to the speaker's dinner tonight and all the great sessions tomorrow. ##sqlfamily

Landed in Austin for SQL Saturday. Now for lunch and a taxi to get to the hotel! #sqlfamily