#TSQL2sDay Resolutions

As part of my 2011 resolutions I feel the need to participate in T-SQL Tuesday (we’ll get to more about that later).  First some of you reading this are expecting a recipe and some FOOD PORN, sorry not today I am a geek and sometimes like to show that off and today is it!!!  T-SQL Tuesday was started by Adam Machanic (guess what? He has a blog and is on twitter!)  and the basic rule is that someone new each month host and chooses a topic.  This month it is our friends MIDNIGHTDBA (Jen and Sean – guess what they blog and twitter too!!).  If you are able to stay up that late on Friday night I highly recommend you stop by, it’s generally a good time.  So here it is January 2011 and it’s the second Tuesday of the month therefore T-SQL Tuesday and this month topic RESOLUTIONS! What techie resolutions are you pondering, and why?

I know, I know I already did something simular to resolutions but in my defense those were pretty general and not as work/career/geeky as they should be.  But I have a few things up my sleeve that I have been thinking about and mostly it’s a good idea. You have to be careful, if someone at work reads your blog and you “resolve” to look for a new job that might just not work out so well.  😀

In my list of items to concentrate on for this year I included : #3 Keep up with the new blog, off to a good start here at the end of the year now just to keep it moving. Now what wasn’t detailed here is that I would really like to include a sprinkling of SQL post to go along with the food.  I mean anyone who knows me and has to talk to me for very long I am all about geek, food, my dogs and a few other misc. things.  Participating in T-SQL Tuesdays is a great way to do this.  So here we are and now you know why.

Also included in the list was this: #4 Professional development shall be worked into my work week.  Every week.  Will need to work this out with the boss. But I got a Kindle to help with this.  I don’t see this as a problem as she’s all about it. This week she issued a challenge “JIRA-123” is a report currently on BOE go redo it as an SSRS report, it’s not a group project and I will buy the winner a $25 gift card to the place of their choice.  Hands down I have more experience than any of them with SSRS so this should be fairly easy.  But using your brain to think out the obvious 1 we only use SPROC in our reports for production and I have never done this 2 SHIT! who knows if we even have access to do any of this 3 there is a list of standards we are suppose to adhere to and 4 there appears to be a “design” issue to work with.  Well I did the research and obtained the access.  I now have an SSRS report on the DEV server with a SPROC on our reporting server and I fixed the design issue properly not like the “hack” my co-workers used.  This should be fun and help my goal.

So for new items.

I am going to make it a life-long resolution to start looking for a new job at any point in time if the job becomes not challenging (I don’t mean a pain in the butt challenging I mean for my brain) or I figure out that I am no longer growing with no future growth.  I was in my last postion for more than 5 years and many of those at the end would of allowed me to waste away to nothing but I took that stupid bull by the horns and hopped on for a ride. I used that last 2 years to develop skills on their dime.  I watched online presentations, practiced and read.  So that time it was worth it and okay but never again will I let myself start to wither.  THANK YOU SQL Server community for providing me such great opportunities to learn!

Which brings me to another resolution, I wasn’t sure how ready I was to say this outloud but here it goes.  I would like to present something at our local SQL users group.  Whew, that was painful.  Actually it will be more painfull if I get to November and haven’t done it yet.  But yes I want to give back. Currently my giving back is by answering questions when I can and providing morale support.  I am usually pretty good at being the team cheerleader so I guess that isn’t always bad.

So to make my life geekier, errr I mean easier I would like to get a few of those random .xls files laying dumped into SQL and turned into something I can access online.  Now that KLT (guess what? He blogs and is on twitter too!) has set up a SQL server and given me access we can work on this.  Currently we have a wine list that includes the qty, location, where to find the tasting notes and cost if we grabbed it at the time.  I also have a material list for sewing and we are going to make an inventory of the freezers in the basement,you guessed it I have started the list in excel. Hey it isn’t a bad program there are actualy a couple really cool features, like conditional formatting.  If the bottle count is <1 it turns red so I know to buy more.  😀

Well this is all I have to say about resolutions.  Of course I could make a list that is a mile long but when 2012 rolled around I might be sad that I didn’t get it all done.  You really should keep the goals to obtainable and not overwhelming.  I mean I already have to get less fat and cook some vegetarian stuff.

 Good luck everyone with your 2011 resolutions, may you be safe and successful all year!!!