TSQL Tuesday #132 Roundup

December 5, 2020

I want to thank all of the participants of T-SQL Tuesday #132. If I missed your post, it was not intentional. Please let me know, and I will add it here.

I am proud of this community and feel lucky to be a small part of it. I admire everyone who joined the blog party and shared their personal struggle and how to cope with the challenge, only to help others.

I struggled to write this post with pronouns. I was using she/her/he/him with discomfort. I had an itchy feeling that I might make someone sad. As I was working through the post and reading Jess’s post, I noticed ‘they’ as a single pronoun. I did some research and noticed a mixed view about using ‘they’ as a single pronoun. I changed all my pronouns to ‘they. If I did not do this correctly, it was not intentional. This is the first time I am doing this; if you see a mistake, please send me a note, and I will fix it..’

I am going to list some of the tips from the posts. That way, if you do not have time to read all posts, you can still be benefitted.

  • With extra time in hand get a few grunt work done
    • Consolidating multiple 401Ks and 529s
    • Rearrange the garage
    • Closet remodel
  • Pick up a new hobby
    • Build a new computer
  • Give a little and then give a little more, but remember to give to yourself at the same time. Mostly so that you can thrive, grow, and learn the things that make you, you
  • Embrace/accept this as the new normal
  • Do what makes you happy, and it is okay to both not be okay, and to actually be okay
  • Make sure you prioritize self-care
  • Listen to motivational speeches on youtube
  • Gardening gives me peace as I spend some time with nature
  • Simply make the most of what you have
  • It’s never too late to start working on a good habit
  • If you’re suffering significantly from anxiety and depression, please reach out for help and be open to seeking help from a doctor. Please know that you do not need to suffer alone.
  • With a bit of luck, we can all get by with a little help from our friends
  • Force yourself to log off when you are done, get that annual physical/exercise/dental appointment/nutritionist appointment in
  • Instead of focusing on what I can’t do, focus on what I can do
  • Do not worry too much about the things we cannot control
  • Learned to say no, and when to say no
  • Take advantage of your local library if they have curbside pickup. Especially for young children
  • Action for Happiness
  •  Full Focus Planner

List of all the posts:

Aaron Bertrand: T-SQL Tuesday #132 : A Global Pandemic

Aaron wrote about some of the things they do. They are not leaving home that much. Aaron replacing his 10th-anniversary party in Negril instead of celebrating by driving the Cherohala Skyway. Aaron is thankful for many things and recognizes some of our friends and colleagues are having a tougher time with this situation for a variety of reasons.

Andy Levy: T-SQL Tuesday #132 – Coping With the Pandemic

Andy is concerned about Seasonal Affective Disorder. Although the space that is my office has a south-facing window, I’m thinking about getting some full-spectrum lights to help all of us in the morning especially. Andy also seeing ideas from others about ‘With winter approaching in the northern hemisphere, we’ll need to find ways to keep ourselves occupied that might not involve the outdoors but will keep our minds working and off the state of the world’.

Ben Miller: How is the pandemic going for you? (T-SQL Tuesday #132)

Ben talked about thinking long term about health. Ben is putting together a plan to get more healthy and develop good habits around exercise, good office practices (taking breaks, getting up from the chair, standing for a bit) so that they can be more healthy and happy, less stressed, and a good outlet to the daily grind.

Brian Kallion: How Am I Coping? (T-SQL Tuesday #132)

Brian misses DBA twin (I have no idea who this person is, you need to ask). Brian also took advantage of some free time and focused on Professional development.  Brian took a couple of SQLskills courses (the Azure one and the Clustering/AG one) and attended the PASS Virtual Summit.

Chris Voss: T-SQL Tuesday #132: Coping with the Pandemic

Chris was not among those who were not coping early but started to realize that they had to take it upon themselves to control what they could and not force what they couldn’t. Their secret was going with what kept him happy and pointing out that it is okay to both not be okay and actually to be okay.

Christopher Johnson: TSQLTuesday #132: How are you coping with the pandemic?

Chris went back beyond pandemic and explained a coping mechanism with their own story. Chris’s recommendation: “If you start to feel anxious every day, if you can’t focus, if you dread starting work, these are signs something is wrong. You don’t necessarily have to change jobs to fix it (right now I think we’re all pretty lucky if we have jobs) but maybe change your relationship to your job in some ways. Set some boundaries, and experiment a bit with what you can do outside of work to let that stress go. I recommend walking and yoga.”

Deepthi Goguri: T-SQL Tuesday #132: Coping with the pandemic times in year 2020

The best thing that happened to Deepthi during these times is they could start their career as a speaker. Deepthi was able to participate in several conferences starting with New stars of Data, SQL Saturdays, Dataweekender, DBCC International conference, GroupBy conference, Drupaljam reboot 2020, Google Dev Fest Tanzania 2020, and going to present for Granite state code camp, Women in Technology Summit 2021 and many other local user groups across united states and other countries like Canada.

Glenn Berry: T-SQL Tuesday #132 – How Are You Coping with the Pandemic

Glenn talks about how they leverage their existing interests and go one notch up to keep them sane during the pandemic. Like rebuilding PCs, starting the SQLFamily team on Folding@Home, writing more blog posts, and making YouTube videos. Glenn calls out clearly the people who dismiss it as a hoax or who refuse to take basic precautions to protect themselves and others as being stupid and selfish.

Jess Pomfret: T-SQL Tuesday #132: How Are You Coping with Pandemic?

According to Jess staying active is the base for everything else. The coping strategy here is to make the most of what you have. Jess will be grateful for the things they do have available and overall try and stay positive.

Justin Bird: T-SQL Tuesday #132 How Are You Coping with Pandemic?

Justin started the beginning of the Covid era out of work. They explain how taking a few months off, acknowledging really not coping with and then adjusting with healthy eating, exercise, mini-break, unplugging, helping others, doing random stuff (juggle, speedcubing) got them through.

Kendra Little: Coping with the Pandemic (T-SQL Tuesday #132)

Kendra and their family moved to a different continent just before the start of the pandemic. Kendra acknowledged how fortunate they were with everything else but was not following good habits. 6+ months into the pandemic, they started practicing good habits. Suggested that sometimes ‘good-habits’ alone cannot fix everything, and we must seek professional help if need to.

Kenneth Fisher: I get by with a little help from my friends : T-SQL Tuesday #132

I wish I had the characteristics of Ken being phlegmatic. Ken asked us to even check on people who seem to have it the most together. Even those who show no anxiety, no stress, need a hug (virtual right now, please) or some moral support.

Kevin Chant: T-SQL Tuesday #132 – Coping with the pandemic

Kevin dedicated the post to wife. Kevin wrote in detail how they coped with the pandemic by expanding engagement with the data community. Kevin also invested time in learning, arranging virtual conferences for the community.

Mala Mahadevan: T-SQL Tuesday 132: Coping with a pandemic

Mala mentioned a few of the challenges they went through personally, especially losing 3 beloved relatives to Covid. In the end, they added a 5 point coping tips with a line of wisdom. ‘THIS TOO SHALL PASS AWAY’…is a wise line that has helped me many a time. It is a line to ponder repeatedly. We will get through, it will all be fine. Peace be with everyone.

Michelle Haarhues: T-SQL Tuesday #132 – Coping With the Global Pandemic – PIVOT

Michelle tried to take a positive route during pandemic. Michelles’ motto is : pivot. Saying ‘pivot’ when the situation changes and we need to redo our plans also lightens the mood a little.

Mikey Bronowski : T-SQL Tuesday #132: How Are You Coping with Pandemic?

Mikey got stuck in a different country and stayed there for five months. Mikey’s family also came back to a new city after spending five months overseas. Mikey made the best out of the situation. The highlight was ‘More family time,’ ‘Personal development,’ ‘Friends’ and some positive lifestyle changes.

Nigel Foulkes-Nock : T-SQL Tuesday #132: How Are You Coping with Pandemic?

Nigel touched many aspects of daily life that are common to all of us. They described each aspect with a positive spin. Even though we are on lockdown, we can take Nigel’s examples and add a positive spin to everything else in our life. Nigel is hopeful for the future. Hopeful that someone will once again say that slightly unnerving sentence, “I was watching a video with you the other night.”

Rob Farley: Coping with Covid

Rob agreed that they are not as impacted as many of their friends around the world. Rob feels powerless but decided to raise money for a very good cause. As I check while writing this roundup they raised a total of $1010.

Steve Jones: T-SQL Tuesday #132 Pandemic Coping

Steve acknowledges that they were doing fine till October since the whole family got sick. Also, the length of the pandemic was taking a toll. They explained how they worked on this regularly by talking more and trying to find the good things in life as much as possible. Steve also has a series about ‘Daily Coping.’ Check it out.

Taiob Ali: How Are You Coping with Pandemic?

Taiob talks about utilizing commute time that they got back by permanently working from home for improving three things. Racial justice on the top pandemic did not help, especially being a person of color. They put an eleven point that can help you cope with some of your frustration and anxiety.

Tracy Boggiano: T-SQL TUESDAY #132: HOW ARE YOU COPING WITH PANDEMIC?

I cannot wait for the day Tracy will be running a full marathon and sqlfamily will cheer up virtually. Go, Tracy. Tracy does a lot of work around mental health issues and recently talking about it in many tech conferences. Check out the talk, reference is in the blog post. Tracy’s core values to persevere and to make a difference and hopefully and I can look back at this year and see that I have done that like other years.

Todd Kleinhans: T-SQL Tuesday #132: How Are You Coping with the Pandemic? Power Naps For The Win (FTW)!

Todd talked about the power of Nap, how to do it in different work settings. Todd mentioned about solving a mystery of their high school. Very interesting.

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