Oracle Open World is over for me now, but what a great event it was.  I met so many people and actually was able to spend a little time getting to know a few of them.  I attended parties, dinners and meetups.  I networked myself, my company and RMOUG.  It was a phenomenal turn out, even with a few folks missing that I knew we’d miss terribly

Arriving-  California Zephyr

If you hadn’t heard, we decided to take a train from Denver, CO to San Francisco, CA. via Amtrak, called the California Zephyr.  This was a 33 hour train ride, slowly trekking at times, racing traffic at others, through beautiful scenery, all from a second floor sleeper car.  We had lovely meals with folks in the dinner lounge car and visited with others on the observation deck, (specialized car with a glass, domed ceiling.

Upon our arrival in San Fran, we quickly rented a car and headed up to a lovely party at Oracle’s one and only, Graham Woods.  I quickly found Gwen Shapira, (we’ve been trying to meet for awhile now, so was glad to FINALLY have the opportunity met…) caught up with Alex Gorbachev and teased by Cary Millsap about our challenges with understanding that we needed to PAY for our bottle of wine on the train and that it was not included in the price of the meal, (glad they couldn’t figure out how to pronounce my name over the intercom, but quickly figured out that it was me and my wonderful companion they were looking for-  his name is not so difficult to pronounce!)

Debra Lilley arrived soon into the party and many found fun as she brought me from room to room in search of those she wanted to introduce me to.  I’m to ensure she has a great birthday at February’s RMOUG, so it’s important she and I bond, ya know…

I ended up with a lovely embarassing situation upon being introduced to “Greg Brown” who I had to ask repeatedly where I knew him from, which he found quite hilarious, considering our emails until it hit me I was speaking to “Greg Rahn”.  He was a good sport about my lack of IQ after the long trip and I appreciate his patience.

Sunday, OOW11

The first day consisted of me attending a few of Tim Gorman’s sessions that I, as a VLDB DBA, had lived, but had never really sat through before.  I still picked up a few things from my first DBA God and yes, the Gods are good to me.  At his second session, Tim pointed out Andy Klock and I to each other, knowing we’d been tweeting back and forth about meeting up, so we sat together and it gave me an opportunity to physically meet one of the major clients I supported while at Pythian.  It was a pleasure to speak to her in person and glad to see someone not as indepth in the database world revel in the festivities and presentations of Oracle Open World.

Sunday evening was the ACE dinner and attendance was fantastic, (along with the food!)  It was easy to see why no one sat at any one table for very long and I did get to spend a good amount of time speaking with Mark Bobak, Kent Graziano, Doug Burns, James Morle, along with many others.

Monday, OOW11

I didn’t do to well on my schedule builder for Monday or Tuesday and if I go back over the actual schedule of sessions, I’m sure I’ll find a few that I should have gone to.  Monday night was the Oak Table dinner which was great fun.  We started out meeting up with Mike Swing and Craig Shalahammer for drinks before heading to the dinner.  Craig showed me some of his mathamatica graphics for buffers and latch visuals, (yes, his is one of those sessions I obviously missed adding to my schedule!)  We spoke about databases a bit, but the conversations regarding life were much more interesting.

Upon heading over to the Oak table dinner, there was a huge line of people waiting for taxis, but Mike Swing, Tim Gorman and I went up to the bellhop instead.  I’m not sure if it was Mike or Tim, but one of them asked if there was a better option and we had a personal SUV taking us to our dinner in just a few minutes for a few dollars more than a taxi would have cost, (note to future OOW attenders…screw the lines! )

As soon as we entered for the dinner, the gracious Carol Dacko ensured us our places and Mogens Norrsgard was busy entertaining everyone.  He and I quickly attained a quirky regard for each other and the jokes about Tim,  “I saw him first!” as the game of us challenging each other for Tim’s affections commenced.

I was seated next to Jeremy Schneider, who I thoroughly enjoyed conversing with.  He’s a brilliant young DBA, so his company, along with Gwen Shapira, Robyn Sands, Tim Gorman, Andy Klock, Rihaj Shamsudeen and Alex Gorbachev guaranteed a lively conversation.  This was also my first opportunity to meet up with Yury Velikanov from Pythian. I’ve only worked with him virtually, so this was a great chance considering he resides in Austrailia.  He is technically skilled, easy-going and quick to make friends-  a great representative for the Pythian name, like Gwen and Andy.

Tuesday, OOW11

Tuesday was the start for most of us feeling the heat from staying up to late and eliminating sleep from our diets.  My voice was starting to sound a bit horse at this point, so I’m sure folks were starting to wonder how well I had fought off my cold, (not very well in the colder, wetter weather of San Francisco…)  We met up with Ben Boise from Quest Software and spent a bit of time at the Enkitec booth.  The Enkitec booth was hands-down, the winner for me.  Kerry Osbourne had told me at Graham’s party, after I had finished teasing Frits Hoogland that he’d been given my copy of the Exadata book via Tanel, that if I came by, he’d have a copy for me.  Yeah, wasn’t turning that down…   So while there, spoke to Kerry about what a great DBA and all around good guy Karl Arao was.  He’s succeeding there and post the converation, asked Kerry and Randy Johnson to sign my copy of the book.  I went back a bit later to talk with Karl a bit more and for the fun of it, forced him to sign my copy, too.  Tanel had tweeted that he was going to have a secret Exadata hacking session that day, so I headed out with my book and was able to get Tanel’s signature, too…  No, none of you can have it…

On our way out of Moscone for the night, spent about 20 minutes speaking with Jonathan Lewis.  Dr. Steve Dorsey and a guest joined Tim Gorman, Jonathan and I to complete the conversation about the evenings plans.

We traveled down to The Stinking Rose for a wonderful dinner of wonderful dishes with way too much garlic in them.  I truly feared anyone who would come near us post the meal, but it was well worth it, (and apologies to anyone near us afterwards…)

Wednesday, OOW11

The day went quickly and the evening was the blogger meetup, there was a break between networking, dropping off postcards promoting RMOUG 2012, where we were able to head over to Mogen’s office, (i.e. back of Chevy’s restaurant this year…) where everyone had been hanging out throughout each day when needing a break from the chaos.  Throughout the day, there was some conversation via Twitter on who was going to get my wristband, as we were bowing out of the concert/chaos that night.  First it appeared that Greg Rahn would need it, but I had already pointed him towards Mike Swing who was offering him up one, so Doug Burns was the lucky winner and new owner of my band.  The group at Chevy’s, as always was fun to simply observe, let alone partake in conversation with and how can you say no to Mogens?

The meetup was a quick hop and a jump over to Jillian’s where there were a number of private parties going on, but the bloggers meetup by Pythian was the top deal.  We were all given a bandana and sharpies to get each other’s signature, which I was a happy blogger to just go around and meet as many as I could.  I enjoyed writing “Kellyn was here” and pointing arrows to the Pythian logo on the bandana or as everyone was wearing them on their heads, it had humor all in itself, (note to self, another reason I’m glad no one decided to wear the bandana as a bustier…)

Paul Vallee did a lovely tribute to Steve Jobs in the beginning of the meet up at the high time, Pythian first gave away an Apple TV to the blogger picked who had posts from the dates randomly chosen, (happened to be RMOUG Training Days week, so I didn’t even have to check, I KNEW I had posts out there.. LOL)  Yury won the TV and then they gave away an IPod Touch to the person who had received the most signatures.  I was sure I was no where near the top, but then got a look at the leader, Tim Hall’s bandana.  Upon counting mine up, I was two short of his number and he won, but Tim, the gracious guy he is, handed me the prize.  I, confused easily as I am, asked why I was getting it, I came in second and he replied, “I [worked] around to get my signatures and you just got them while meeting everyone, I’m disqualifying myself!”  Thank you, Tim Hall, from me and my children, who one in particular has been jonesing for one of these!

Post the meetup, Tim Gorman and I were going to head out for some dinner and Alex Gorbachev joined us at a wonderful Indian restaurant called Amber.  Wine and conversation flowed, while the fun and chaos of the Petty/Sting concert went on at Treasure Island.  When we did finally finish, it was just in time to meet everyone back over at the night’s bar of choice, “W”.  I sat and spoke most of the evening with Martin Paul Nash, Alex G. and Dan Norris, (Mogen’s slept in the corner, those Danes and their catnaps to catch up on jetlag really impresses me!)  Folks came in from the concert, Lisa Dobson, Connor McDonald, Andy Klock, Doug Burns and others, little by little.  We stayed and talked until my voice had become so hoarse that I was starting to sound a bit like Barry White.

Gotta say, another brilliant, easy-going and friendly DBA, Martin Paul Nash.  Between Martin, Andy, Jeremy, Connor and Dan, I’m feeling good about the future of our database administration world.

Thursday, OOW11

Surprise came the next morning when we found out many of the people we left the night before had never actually slept that night.  They continued to enjoy the opportunity to see folks that many may only see once a year and had simply stayed up!  A few of them were presenting on Thursday, so a lot of attendees may have wondered about that, too…

I attended only one session on Thursday, had slept in too late for the one I’d wanted to attend on optimal performance, (and had to answer to Gwen and others as to why I wasn’t there… )  Maria Colgan was great, (as usual) and she was one of the last folks I really wanted to meet, but had reserved the fact by the group that crowded her immediately after the presentation, that it just wasn’t going to happen.  Tim and I went over to Chevy’s to have a last OOW11 lunch with Mogens’ group before heading to the airport and who shows up to have lunch there, too?  Yes, Maria Colgan, so I did get to meet her…AND have lunch with her, (along with DBA Gods, Demi-Gods, you know the drill… )

During all of this, I did a lot of RMOUG networking to ensure that I added as much to the great plans for the 2012 conference that I could.  I was thrilled to have so many folks dedicated to coming out to Denver in February to talk, (because the conference is second to Debra Lilley’s birthday, I swear the marketing is there!)  Had a lovely conversation about bringing RAC Attack out for training days this year, which I think will be well received.  Jeremy Schneider is in Africa the week of the conference, but we are working on others who can really take on this great opportunity for DBA’s to take advantage of.

I wish I could say the plane ride back was relaxing and a wonderful time to reflect on a great Oracle Open World, but as usual, the airlines were busy trying to ruin travel for all of us.  I am thrilled with everyone I met while in San Francisco and although I should have attended more sessions, I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Thank you Oracle, Pythian and all that I met this last week for such a wonderful experience!

Yes, typing on my tablet screen again, so patience with my short posts…:-)

Had the pleasure of attending both the ACE and Oak table dinners the last two nights.  Wonderful, impressive and technically gifted people at every table and a fantastic opportunity to meet so many that I’ve only known virtually.  I enjoyed another set of high energy conversations with Gwen Shapira, Debra Lilley, Robyn Sands and Lisa Dobsen- all women who make me proud of the representatives of my gender in the technical world. 

Spent sometime with Mark Bobak, Kent G., Alex G., Craig S., Jeremy Schneider, Mike Swing and Yuri Y.  I was also so thrilled to spend time with a virtual team member, Andy Klock- great guy to work with and happy to meet in person.  Carol Dacko did a phenomenal job planning the Oak Table event and I know Robyn Sands helped with some of the arrangements, too.  Mogens N. Is beyond entertaining and his legend is intact another year.  I threatened to stalk Tanel unless he signed my Exadata book, (thank you, thank you Kerry Osbourne for the copy…) and still am missing mentioning many others that should be named here.  All made an impact and were a pleasure to meet.

Food and spirits pale in comparison to the wonderful opportunity these dinners offer us all to sit and speak with the peers we admire so much…

After a long first day and a 33 hr train ride in, I’m ready for a fun and enjoyable Ace dinner that I’m a lucky guest to. 

First day, being Sunday, is commonly quiet, but Tim had two sessions that I wanted to attend and time flew by with meetups, expert panels, etc. I met a number of great new people today and saw some more old friends, (or as “new blood”, can I refer to them as old?) 

I was still recovering after a fantastic get-together at Graham Woods from lastnight.  I was impressed with the great group of people inattendance.  DBA Gods like Tim Gorman, Alex Gorbachev, Cary Millsap, Kerry Osbourne and even demi-Gods like Frits Hoogland and Greg Rahn were there.  I met,(finally) so many others that have been on my list.

This is when I know I’ve been doing too much database work in one day.  I awoke from a dream, quite early in the morning and was replaying it in my head.  The scenario went like this:

Scene:  City streets, obviously a murder scene with yellow tape drawn and bystanders watching off to the sides as the main characters, two seasoned detectives are discussing the decision to enter the crime scene.

Officer #1:  “Are we sure we covered are bases?  Is there anyway the criminal could have escaped the scene or we could have compromised the evidence when we entered the crime scene?”

Officer #2:  “Nope, positive we are in the clear-  I ran an ASH report before we did anything!”

Sigh… I need a vacation…

Thanks to Chet Justice of OracleNerd, I’m now registered for Oracle Open World 2011 with the Blogger’s registration.  I will be sitting here impatiently waiting for October now…

Anyone who remembers last year’s will also remember that I (again) did not get to attend and worked miserably through the week, listening to the tweets on Twitter and blurbs on Facebook, then was reminded on Blogs afterwards of all I missed.  Not this year!  I am going and I am going to enjoy it-  try and stop me…

RMOUG 2011 has come and gone-  and it was a fantastic time for me.  I loved the opportunity to talk for two days on database technology, (which my husband thanks all participants for, keeps him from wanting to jab his ears with large, sharp sticks to get away from the techno-garble that leaves his wife’s lips in droves! )  and catch up on everyone’s lives.  My presentation skills still need some work, as good as I think I am in smaller groups and especially one on one, I still have some challenges up at the podium.  Every time I get on the stage, it is a challenge to control what I hide very well,  I’m an ADHD and a hidden-introvert and when you put me up there,  it is very difficult for me to keep from losing all access to my faculties. Luckily, I’m also stubborn and quite persistent.  I’m bound and determined to learn how to push my comfort zone farther and further until I can present in larger groups as well as I do in small ones.

This year, being a member of Pythian allowed me to be recognized as both a presenter as well as an exhibitor, which was really a bit overwhelming for me, but since I’m a hidden- introvert, I hid it well..:)  We shared our area with the OakTable Network, which allowed me more time with my first DBA God, Tim Gorman, (always one of my favorite people technically and personally, you just can not help but like the man)  Alex Gorbachev as a newer DBA God in my world, (which he earns his place day in and day out with ease)  along with the constant convoy of DBA’s and Developers that came by the booth.

I was thrilled to have Don Seiler as a Pythian coworker visiting the lovely city of Denver, (even if  I was guilty of almost losing him downtown the first night..:P)  He’s always fun to have around and I was able meet someone who made me feel so “virtually” welcome when I first joined Pythian.   He seemed to have a great time just enjoying the conference and the twitter comments between RMOUG members became quite the topic of conversation during the conference.

I loved having the chance to meet Deb Lilley-  how wonderful she is!  I told her she had to keep prodding my teammate, Paul Logan into speaking back in UK, as he would be quite good at it and that was all the incentive she needed to go back after him again.  She is very personable and simply lovely to be around, (plus she feeds you chocolate cake, how can you go wrong with that? )  I also had the opportunity to meet my “sister from another mother”, Robyn Sands.  She and I had a couple discussions about ADHD in the technical arena.  The positives, the negatives and all the coping mechanisms in between.  It was fun to listen to her relay stories with Paul Vallee about previous conferences and I can see why they get along so well!  I did not get to attend either of their presentations and I really wish I could have been  in two places at once!

I finally met Cary Millsap-  one more DBA God down, two to go!  I only spoke to him for a moment, as I have Method R sessions with him soon, but it was nice to finally meet him in person, as I chickened out last year.   My DBA “group” that I hung around with thought I was crazy missing his session, but I decided it would be like watching a really long trailer to a movie I was seeing the next week with the sessions coming up and didn’t want to spoil the ending!   There were so many others-  Graham Wood, Mark Farnham, Randy Cunningham and Dan Fink, (between his and Tim’s presentations on my favorite subject of AWR/ASH, I was so happy to see them both!)   The one I didn’t get to meet and meant to this year was Kyle Hailey.   I saw him a couple times and was simply not able to get away and felt terrible when I realized I had missed him!

I was thrilled to see James Koopmann back on the presentation circuit again.  James was my second DBA God after Tim Gorman took first seat in the house of DBA Olympia.  It took me three weeks to realize that the “James” links in my Internet Explorer to Database Journal was the same DBA as the one I was working for.   When he told me how old his children were catching up at the first night’s reception, it made me realize how many years have gone by, remembering I was just starting to figure it out as I left his care and I was only a Jr. DBA when I worked with Tim-  well, at least we all seem to be aging gracefully!

Speaking of my time as a Jr. DBA, (although by the time he came on board there, I had been promoted to “DBA Coordinator”-  yeah, don’t ask what that meant…LOL)  spent time with Joe Sweetser-  fantastic DBA, but worked as a Unix Admin when we were coworkers.  He is bowling with the fantastic SQL Server DBA that introduced and trained me in the “darkside” and I was thrilled to hear how they were both doing.  I can see the two of them getting along famously and was not surprised to hear that they are terrible bowlers!

I was surprised how many people from previous companies sent many and others that sent none to the conference.  I also missed two DBA’s who I always enjoy seeing, which included the DBA that I’ve worked with at my last two companies, (He who shall remain nameless and safe from the internet police, we shall call him “T”… )  and also didn’t get the chance to see Rhonda Leimberg, who this year, happens to be one of my replacements at my previous position and is now T’s coworker.  She was always one of my favorite people to catch up with and now we have even more to talk about with more common workplaces involved-  missed seeing her terribly, but I hear we are planning Thursday lunches, so all is not lost.

This leads into my section where I get to talk about my previous workplace and how good it was to see everyone from there.  I always felt a great affection for my previous coworkers and remember there was a definite pang knowing I would not see them each day as I grasped onto the opportunity with Pythian with both hands.  I did spend most of my time at RMOUG with them and must thank them for their wonderful support during my presentation, (which whatever that was, no matter if people liked it or not- THAT WAS so NOT the one I practiced for weeks in front of my bathroom mirror!  I do remember thinking after the conference as people came up to ask a few one-on-one questions, “Oh, there is all my data from my brain…  Why not have everyone come back and sit down and I’ll give the presentation you actually came to see…” )

I-behavior folks, you ROCK!  I had so much fun hanging out with Michael Landrum, Gretchen Knudsen, Rick Eckl, (a great DBA, loved working with this guy!)  Rajesh Nema, (one of my favorite people/architects) Steve Justus and Nevin Hahn, (my other replacement, but that is not a fitting title, really just need to start referring to him as a “kindred soul of techie life”  instead… )  As much of my presentation was based off an article from James Koopmann that introduced me into a direction and solution for challenges we were going through at I-behavior, it was important to have them there, as they knew what we went through and what we had accomplished.

Now, next year they may need to sit up front with small, hard objects to throw at me to dislodge my brain from limbo, but we’ll talk about that as I work through my mental block…:)

I have a new post out on Pythian’s site:

http://www.pythian.com/news/20301/the-dba-and-the-trigger/

I’ve been employed at Pythian for just over 2 months now.  Not a very long time and yes, I’m still a “newbie”, but I’ve been there long enough to know why I do love my new job.

1.  Working remotely.

     No, not everyone does and it’s not for everyone, but so far it’s been a win-win for both me and Pythian.   I have never needed a manager or anyone to lean over my shoulder to tell me when to work and what to do, so working remotely in a home office has significant benefits for me.  I appreciate the limited office distractions, I have an office phone, so I have an extension, no different from any other employee in the office and my team is great about keeping an open chat window up at all times that we can easily communicate throughout the day.  My Mountain timezone is nice to balance out the Eastern Ottawa folks until our Australian or Indian team come online each day, too.

2.  Opportunity

    I have been delightfully surprised at the opportunities to work on new technology and interesting issues.   I am currently working with Exadata, carefully and methodically submerging myself into the environment.   There is a huge focus on addressing issues the right way, not just to “quiet them.”  We work closely with the customers and this allows us to bond with them just as we would if we were a DBA’s in their office.

   Now that I’m starting to get the hang of the customer support, the internal processes, I even find I have time to write!  I have this huge collection right now of half complete blog posts that just need me to spend more time to complete my research, so I fear there is a flood of posts in my near future.  I have time to present at conferences and think about more than just local ones.  Pythian poses the question of what areas interest me in database administration and what areas I would like to study.   Pythian knows that professional growth is not just good for the employee, it is good for the company.  They want you to be more, the best you can be.  I appreciate that opportunity and not all companies can offer this type of growth, especially one that is geared so specifically to Database Administrators. 

3.  People

   This is a company that is run by pleasant, intelligent and gifted individuals.  I was immensely impressed with Andrew Waitman and his insight into the business.  He has a voracious appetite for knowledge and he loves to share this with everyone.  Paul Vallee is such a gifted man with a wonderful humility about him.  He knows where we need to go to be successful and knows when he needs others to create that success.  I don’t think I need to tell anyone how much I have always idolized Alex Gorbachev.  He’s resided on my short list of DBA Gods for a long time and earned his spot honestly.  I met so many others while I visited Ottawa that upon reflection, noted they were right where they could offer Pythian the most value.  This is a company transitioning to become something even greater than what it already is. 

   As part of a team, there isn’t much more I could ask for.  My lead Mark Brinsmead is great-  he values my opinion and technical skills, but also is good to push me when I need to accomplish more.  I chose a “transition team”, coming on board as others were leaving, but am happy to say that Paul Logan was not one to transition to projects.  He just happened to be visiting Ottawa when I was there for my visit and it is impossible to not like this great, friendly Irishman.  Andy Klock just joined Pythian this month and he’s rounded out the team well, giving the right blend of technical skill and chomp at the bit readiness to take on the world.  I can’t say enough about how pleased I am with the differing technical skills in my team, as well as the technical skills of those in the teams around me.

There are a number of career opportunties with the unparalleled growth that Pythian is experiencing.  If you think you are ready and you are looking for a change, you may want to check out the website, http://www.pythian.com/about/careers/job-listings/  and tell them Kellyn said it was rather nice in Ottawa, even this time of year!