Learning the ropes
Sunrise from the shower!
SQL Cruise day 2 started earlier than I wanted, I believe the old naval term was ‘at sparrow’s fart‘.
I was up and in the shower when I got to watch the sun rise over the horizon. It was completely dark when I started rinsing my hair, then as I opened my eyes I was staring right into the sun. Holy lifting! That was worst than shampoo in the eyes! It took me a while to get my bearings back, and vision, but it was all good.
Today was the day the training on SQL Cruise was to officially begin.
OK, I admin, I use that term a little loosely. Training is what we are getting, but it goes far beyond that. Most people on the cruise are seasoned SQL professionals and I feel they all learn more from each other than from the formal sessions in most cases. Don’t get me wrong, the sessions are great. Being at least 2 hrs each, and up to 4 hrs you do get a lot of in depth knowledge, but it is all the non-training time that makes the cruise worth while. Truth be told, with this motley crew of SQL Professionals the sessions tended to break out into some very interesting conversations themselves. Anyhow, I digress…
We barely were on time to our first session. The NCL Epic is not a small ship, and even when empty we were looking at a decent walk to get to the training location. We are going to have to work on getting to the training location a little better. Due to other conferences latching onto the “let’s cruise while we ‘learn'” concept we were not able have formal conference room, so instead we took up the private dining area of ‘Shanghai’, the Chinese/Asian restaurant. Essentially we were ‘Shanghaied’ for training while on the cruise, at least until the last day.
The first session was Kevin Kline (blog | twitter) presentation on Influence versus Authority. I asked if my father wanted to attend and he did, so we headed down together. The main point of the presentation was to go over how, as a leader in SQL Server, one can build credibility and influence even though one may not have direct authority to make decisions. This is certainly a session worth attending if you get the chance.
When Kevin completed we had a short “bio break” and then it was time for Allen White’s (Blog | twitter | website) first session of 2 aboard this SQL Cruise: Powershell 101 for DBAs. Even though I have heard this session a few times I enjoy it each and every time I get a chance to see it. There is always something different, and it really helps to drive home how Powershell is the direction things are moving in and that it is a very worthwhile task to learn. Allen’s approach makes it very easy to understand and really inspires one to run back to their systems and start implementing Powershell scripts immediately.
Allen finished up and it was time for a quick lunch at the buffet and then back to more sessions.Now, quick lunch is a lie. Sure, it is a buffet, but there are so many choices it will take a good while to determine what you want, settle down, and eat before having to get back to the afternoon’s sessions.
The afternoon session was filled with Sean McCown’s ( blog | twitter ) session on “How to be an enterprise DBA”. We covered the concept of what an enterprise is, and he commented this was the first time he got to present this topic to as well seasoned a group as we are. Lots of ideas and opinions of attendees went WAY beyond what was required for answers to simple questions. It actually really helped to establish, and drive home, the points Sean was making. Tomorrow we will get to complete his session at the start of the day. It is nice to get the breather with some of the intense topics we are going through.
You may be wondering what the rest of my family was doing while I was in training all day. Apparently my wife and parents were having a blast on the ship,. They attended the comedy troupe’s murder mystery lunch and said it was a lot of fun. AS for the rest of the day, I have no idea. All I know is that they were having fun and enjoying the time on the boat together as well as spending time with the other families that tagged along with the SQL Cruise attendees.
Office Hours – One of the best things about SQL Cruise
The view from Office Hours on Day 2
We closed the ‘official’ training of the day with “Office Hours” all together at the outdoor bar Spice H2O. With everyone where we had a few fun conversations and got into a good deep discussion about the pros and cons of SQL Clustering and the newer SQL Availability groups. We even discussed the creation of a hybrid of the two. Once we had beaten that topic down a fair bit we all headed back to our cabins to change for ‘formal’ night and the SQL Cruise group dinner at the Manhattan room. Everyone, including all family members in the SQL Cruise group showed up: 37 people for this cruise, I think. We had so many people we had to split the group onto opposite sides of the restaurant. My family and I wound up seated with Allen White, his wife and Kevin Kline. Poor Kevin. The prior night at the tweetup my mother mistakenly identified him as Kenny Rogers. It has now become a running gag with us. I’m sure he wants us all dead now or at least muzzled.
After the meal we all gathered by the largest stairway on ths ship to take the mandatory SQL Cruise group photo. There were some logistics issues with getting an NCL official photographer to take the picture, so we did what all good DBAs do and we improvised. Tim grabbed his camera and some friendly folks helped us get a picture. My father at the bottom of the stairs said he heard many people asking what the line was for and maybe they should try to get into whatever was going on. If they knew it was SQL Cruise they would probably say “Uh….No”, but if you are a SQL person, this is the type of event that will change your life.
I discussed this last point to some detail with Erickson Winter (twitter) and Patrick Lynch (twitter), a couple of fellow cruisers. Erickson had to run to Blue Man group (Awesome show, go see it!), and my family retreated back to the Havens, but I stuck around and chatted with Patrick for a while. We discussed various things we had been up against in the real world, and what the cruise meant for each of us. We eventually parted ways to go get some rest before the next day started, bright and early again, but this time with Office Hours.