Who/What I’m Thankful for in the DB2 Community

It is a busy time of year for DBAs. Many of us will put in a large number of hours between Friday and Monday keeping ecommerce databases running and our company’s profits rolling. But it’s also a time of year in the USA where we take a moment to be thankful for the things around us and make sure that the people we are thankful to and for are aware of it. I am thankful for a lot of things in the world, but here are some of the things from the DB2 community that I am thankful for.

• First on my list is my DB2 buddy Mike Krafick (@MKrafick). I first encountered Mike a few months after I started writing blog entries at least once a week. He was running the IDUG twitter feed at the time and asked me if it was OK if he promoted some of my posts (my answer was, of course, heck yeah!). I was seeing maybe 100 page views a day at that point (less than a tenth of where I am now). A mutual friend made sure we met at IDUG in Denver that year, and Mike has become the first person I ask DB2 questions to and the first person I run anything questionable by. He checks my ego when I need it and is excellent when I need to vent. We’ve continued to push each other to accomplish more and contribute more to the DB2 community. For all of you who have a friend like this in the DB2 community, I hope you tell them you appreciate them this week.
• I’m thankful for Ian Bjorhovde (@idbjorh) – whose name I can say and usually spell. He is probably the smartest person I know. He is the first person I go to on the really tough questions. He is the person I go to when I’m trying to reason something out or get to a contact I need for the difficult DB2 stuff. He is also one of the few people in the DB2 community with political views nearly as liberal as mine. He and Fred Sobotka (whose last name I cannot say and cannot spell without looking it up) do the “bi-monthly” podcast The Whole Package Cache – which I still love, even if they haven’t managed to put out that many this year.
• I’m thankful for my mentor – Melanie Stopfer (@mstopfer1). I don’t know why I’m still amazed at how I come to her with a question on presenting or explaining a topic or a pure technical question and she can so simply and easily set me on the right path. I’m immensely grateful to her for all I have learned from her and for a couple of fantastic opportunities she threw my way this year. When I first met Melanie many years ago by taking one of her classes at IBM in Boulder I knew I wanted to be like her in my work. I wanted to know the answers or know who to ask, and to share my knowledge with all who would listen. I would surely not be where I am today without her example and help.
• I’m thankful for other DB2 buddies I hang out with at conferences – Ken Shafer (@aerodata), Roland Schock (@ARSDB2), Pavan Kristipati (@pkristipati), Iqbal Goralwalla (@iqbalgoralwalla), Fitz, and others. These people are like a second family.
• I’m thankful for IBM. Love them or hate them (or sometimes both at once), they’re the basis for my career, and better than the other guys.
• I’m thankful for Scott Hayes and the work he does with the DB2 Night Show (@db2nightshow) in the DB2 community. Scott gives me the opportunity to present on the DB2 Night Show every year. I learned a lot from his presentation at IDUG NA this year on comparing the impact of the indexes recommended by the DB2 design advisor. Also, I cannot wait to get my hands on the new version of Brother Panther to play with the comparative index analysis. When he asks for contestants for DB2’s Got Talent, go sign up – you have no idea how far it can take you.
• I’m thankful for the opportunity to mentor. There are several DBAs that I make a point to spend time with and work with them on writing or presenting, and I learn so much and get so much from that relationship. Abhik, Saurabh, Luke Numrych, and others.
• I’m thankful for anyone who works hard to make user group meetings or IDUG conferences happen and run smoothly. Your work is appreciated, and you are the true builders of the DB2 community.
• I’m thankful for the IDUG Content Committee – great stuff this year: http://www.idug.org/p/bl/et/blogid=278
• I’m thankful for all the individual IBMers who have helped me on specific issues this year – Paul Bird, Pavel Sustr, Dale McInnis, Markus Mueller, Jessica Escott/Rockwood, Mike Cornish, Roger Sanders, Scott Maberry, Naresh Chainani and so many others.
• I’m thankful for Klaas Brant – Who gave me the opportunity to speak for an entire day at the DB2 Symposium, thereby getting me off the North American continent for the first time in nearly a decade. I really enjoyed the DB2 Symposium, and wish the format would take off more in the USA.
• I’m thankful for one of my new favorite blogs, Use the Index, Luke and author Markus Winand (@MarkusWinand). Reading cross-platform views on tuning developers for optimal SQL performance has expanded my horizons this year. This content has also led to two of my favorite blog entries to write this year.
• I am thankful for developerWorks articles on deep technical topics.
• I am thankful to every single person I talked to at a conference who told me they read my blog. I am simply awful with names and faces, but you are the ones who make me feel like a rockstar and make me realize that people are really helped with what I write. I’m sure I handle it horribly when you come up and introduce yourself, but I’m just not used to it yet. I picture each of these encounters in my head throughout the year and just smile because they really do mean so much to me and push me to keep writing.
• I’m so thankful to my husband for so many reasons, but in relation to the DB2 community, it’s his support that makes it so I have the time to write. He gives me at least one night a week to just go and focus on blogging. Also, he’s a talented VMWare guy and has helped me navigate issues both technical and work-related. I love that we can talk tech with each other and we both really get it.

There have to be so many more people and resources I’m missing here. I very much enjoy this DB2 community that we continue to build every day.