My friend Steve Jones (blog | Twitter) asked for SQL Server professionals to write four blog posts describe those days. His request can be found here. People are using the #SQLCareer hashtag if you want to see what other folks are posting.

As some of you know, Max Myrick and I are both managing partners at SQLHA. We don’t have other employees, so we do everything. I’m not a traditional DBA, or IT admin, or anything for that matter. When working with customers, I do a lot of different things. If I’m not onsite, my schedule can vary depending on what is going on with the business, our customers, and so on. When onsite I have more standard hours like anyone going into an office would. I’m adaptable.

11:00 AM (July 19) – Wake Up

Yes, I live on the East Coast. This isn’t some alternate time zone. But I also generally work until very late at night and am naturally nocturnal. If I don’t have any early meetings or stuff going on (doctor’s appointment, et al.), I tend not not up early. If I’m up before 10, it’s generally because I’m a) still up (which means I’ll need some kind of power nap in the afternoon) or b) see previous sentence – some kind of commitment. It’s that simple. When most people are getting up at 4 or 5 AM, I’m either still up or just thinking about maybe going to bed. It’s not rare for me to go to sleep somewhere between 6 and 7 AM. I think I passed out around 6:30 on the 19th.

11:15 – 12:00 PM – E-mails and various tasks

I get a lot of e-mail over the course of teh day, but not a crushing amount. I can generally handle it when it comes in. I do think handling a lot of it early clears your plate to actually get stuff done.

12:00 – 1:00 – NDA Call #1

Sorry, if I discussed what I learned on this call, you’d have to disappear … or I may disappear. Neither is a pleasant thought, so dream up your own scenario of what was discussed.

1:00 PM – 1:15 – NDA Call #2

This one was not so successful. Audio was a mess, so I dropped off.

1:15 – 1:30 Grab a quick bite

I generally don’t eat much, if at all, during the day, to be honest. I also don’t drink coffee or tea. I don’t understand why people do but hey, everyone ticks differently. I don’t need much sleep and stay up all night. I just poured myself a bowl of Puffed Rice with cashew milk and also had an apple + cherry That’s It bar.

1:30 -2:00 Test new microphone

I have some recording to do soon and got another microphone (the Countryman B2D) to add to the arsenal. This one I’m trying to see if it will eliminate a certain problem I’m having. I learned the hard way (RTFM, Allan!) that my interface (the Audient iD14) needs to have AC power to give the mic phantom power; it can’t come via the USB bus. Boo!

2:00 – 5:00 – Continue Work on Review and Content for an Upcoming Whitepaper

I’m helping review an update to an existing paper and contribute some content to it at the same time. Can’t talk about it just yet, but it should be out soon. I have to update some other content, but that’s after this is done. Before you ask: this work was paid for by the ones publishing this paper.

5:15 – 5:45 – Talk with a vendor about some stuff we’re doing for SQLHA

You’ll all find out soon enough …

5:45 – 6:45 – Catch up with Max

We sync up nearly every day. And yes, this was using the phone and our voices. Some of us prefer to actually talk on it.

7:15 – 7:45 – Break/Dinner

I made myself a chicken salad sandwich with some chips and washed it down with some cherry juice and some Hot Tamales for dessert. Fun fact: you can get kosher canned chicken from Amazon.

8:00 – 12:30 AM (July 20) – Finished Review and Content for Said Upcoming Whitepaper
Sent out my edits so that’s off of my plate.

12:30- 1:00 – Get music in order for tonight’s gig

I’m playing a gig as part of a quintet tonight so I extracted the individual songs and made set-based PDFs so things will go smoothly. I use my older Surface Pro 3 with a bluetooth pedal as my sheet music viewer. I got a new stand that is specifically made for tablets but is still a normal music stand (it’s been a bit of a journey there … I’ve tried a ton of different things), and am excited to give it a whirl tonight.

1:15 – 2:00 – Work on this blog post

2:00 – 2:15 – Ice cream break

2:15 – 4:30 – Work on presentation for the South Jersey SQL Server User Group for Monday

I was going to just tweak an existing presentation, but shocker, I’m basically building it from scratch.

4:30 – 6:00(?) – Watch most of Windows Weekly until I pass out (I think it was 6ish)

Windows Weekly can sometimes be entertaining.

10:00 – Wake up
No alarm, body just did its thing.

10:05 – 10:45 – Do some e-mails which include some scheduling/logistics of things you guys will see soon

This is related to, but not the same as, some other stuff

10:45 – 11:00 – Pay some bills and search for more information (other than the Amazon pre-order) on the Batman : the Animated Series blu-ray coming in September.

The SDCC panel for BTAS I think is tomorrow so we’ll know more. Other than the kinda lame cover, I’m pretty excited. I’ve got one cel from my favorite episode as well as a pencil drawing from it (one is in my office, one in another room).

11:00 – 11:20 – Finalize and post this blog

I’m not going to post the rest of the day but I can tell you how it’s going to go:

• I have to run to MicroCenter in Cambridge to pick upa longer power cord for something
• I plan on finishing the SJSSUG presentation
• I will eat at some point
• I need to head to the gig around 6:15 PM to ensure I’m there and set up for downbeat at 7:30
• We’ll finsih somewhere between 9 and 10, after which I’ll get home around 11

I’ll do the other two days sometime soon …