2010 liner notes and my theme for 2011

The MorningNews asked the following question recently:

Who you would recognize in your 2010 liner notes?

To all the people in your lives (maybe you know them, maybe you don’t) who deserve shout-outs, a la the album’s notes, the book’s acknowledgments, the piece’s title, the award’s dedication. Who would you include in your 2010 acceptance speech? Maybe your fifth grade teacher, the buddy who got you through a brutal summer, the musician who had you walking tall during a particular slog.

A lot changed in 2010

Sometimes life moves fast, whether you expect it or not. In 2010 I changed jobs, moved house, and I’m in a new relationship. My last grandparent passed away. I remembered that life is finite.

2010 - The liner notes

To My Mamaw:

You not only taught me how to draw, you taught me how to love it, and how to be patient and thoughtful when it doesn’t turn out exactly like I planned. When I create art, I’ll always think of you. You also showed me what it is to love someone more than anything else, and how to live gracefully with loss. I love that about you.

To Crys Manson ( b / t ):

Thanks for convincing me to do things which I fear will make me: a) exhausted, b) terrified, c) nauseous d) all of the above. You’re a fantastic friend a the BEST DBA co-pilot ever. You make me a better person. I’ll fly into West Palm Beach with  you anytime.

To Organizers of SQL Saturday Nashville, Iowa City, and Washington DC ( b ):

Thanks for your volunteer hours and putting on a great show, and for the speaking opportunities. I’ve loved the chance to travel to places I’ve never been and meet all sorts of smart people. Thanks for helping me learn and improve, and for having a great time doing it.

To Brent Ozar ( b / t ) and Tim Ford ( b / t ):

Thanks for not just throwing an awesome party, but for really making friends. Thanks for being so helpful, not just to me, but to everyone you meet who needs it. I still owe you guys a ride to Tacoma.

To Richard Kim:

Thanks for believing in me so much, and for understanding me better than I know myself, sometimes.

To Len Cozza and Richard Fried:

Thanks for the honest, thoughtful, sane conversations, in a crazy place and time.

To Dev Nambi ( b / t ):

I love how passionate and good you are at what you do. I’m sure I’ll still think of calling you if I have crazy new performance issues to talk about. Except that’s probably not really appropriate now.

To Kevin Kline ( b / t ):

I’m not sure if you’re aware that I owe you an ice cream cone.

To Jeremiah Peschka ( b / t ):

Good choice asking me to be on your SQL PASS Quiz Bowl team! Thanks for helping me remember the books I love to read, and for helping me think about things differently sometimes. For getting me to listen to new music, and teaching me to talk in dinosaur. And for creating your own datatype. Let’s go get some tacos and I’ll tell you the rest.

2011: Theme for next year

My theme for next year comes from a blog post by Penelope Trunk from 2007:

Here’s some practical advice: Do not what you love; do what you are. …

Relationships make your life great, not jobs.  But a job can ruin your life – make you feel out of control in terms of your time or your ability to accomplish goals –  but no job will make your life complete. It’s a myth mostly propagated by people who tell you to do what you love. Doing what you love will make you feel fulfilled. But you don’t need to get paid for it.

In many ways, I’m lucky, because I love nerding out on SQL Server and talking about it. But I shouldn’t funnel all of my goals or too much of my personal fulfillment through my job. This next year I plan to be a great contributor at work (and my new job is interesting and exciting), but also to separate my hobbies out and make plenty of time for what I love.

I have two main goals:

Goal: Become a better speaker: because I love doing it. I want to develop more presentations and think through creating training materials around RDBMses, because I enjoy it.  I’ll probably learn plenty of things in doing this that make me better at  my job, and that’s icing.

Goal: Take time to have fun with people I love outside of work. Schedule it. Stick with it. Do it unless the world is on fire. And if the world’s truly on fire, take the time back within a week. I’m going to learn to be a better partner, to make plenty of time for zombie movies, and to sometimes think nothing at all about SQL.