I've decided to jump on the new year blog post bandwagon. 2009 was one excellent year for MidnightDBA.com, and for the MidnightDBAs.
We'll start with me. In 2009, I started blogging on MidnightDBA.com. I got my first SQL 2008 certification, the MCTS in Database Development. My goal is to get MCITP in the next couple of months, by the way. In August I started back to work, and in October I won the SQLServerPedia contest…that got me a trip to the SQLPASS Summit in Seattle! Just a couple of personal notes, and then back to the geeking out: Sean and I celebrated our 5th anniversary this year with a great trip to Los Angeles, and my sweet kidlets turned 10, 4, and 2. I'm also apparently taking up the guitar (got one for xmas), which I've always wanted to do.
Sean had a huge year: In January, he was awarded his first Microsoft MVP award!! (Last week, he was awarded his second!) He did his first OReilly webcast, Ground-Zero PowerShell for the SQL Server DBA (I'll find the YouTube link later, when it's not blocked). And he completed his first set of training videos for TrainingSpot.com: Beginning Powershell for DBAs 101. He's still writing (SQL R2 article) and blogging at InfoWorld.com. In August, “PR In Your Pajamas” interviewed Sean!
On a personal note: Sean started working from home this year, which means he gets to stay home with our littlest. I'm incredibly lucky to have stayed home with our kids, and that the youngest gets to stay home with his Dad instead of us farming him out to friends or daycare. I'm not being all LIKE THAT, I'm only saying that in my case, I'm much happier this way.
As for MidnightDBA: Sean did a complete overhaul of the site functionality and look last year, using a SQL Server backend and PowerShell in the push process. We started the new video format "DBAs at Midnight", put up a bunch of goofy shirts on Zazzle.com, and started publishing our training videos to iTunes (search for Midnight DBA). I jumped on Twitter as a marketing tool for MidnightDBA, and found much, much more. We had a ready-made set of friends and contacts when we hit PASS in November, and it even helped us coordinate our PASS interviews. If you haven't seen our PASS interviews, you are totally missing out…a bunch of the biggest names sat down and got all hoopy with us.
One of the weirdest things about 2009 was that I became the face of MidnightDBA for a lot of people. I think that's because I play the role of publicist, posting updates on Twitter and blogging on MidnightDBA proper. During PASS, I updated the Twitter avatar to a picture of me and Sean, just so people would start realizing that I'm not THE MidnightDBA.
To put it a better way: Sean started ITBookworm and MidnightDBA years ago, and I've only had much to do with it for the last 10 months or so. Fully 80% of the content out there is his, the idea was his, and all the development was his (okay, I mostly designed the db). It's been a great experience to join forces and be a MidnightDBA. Another place I'm lucky is in having a partner who I can work with, be creative with, and have fun with. So to get all gooshy in public: Sean, thanks for everything. 2009 was great because of you.
Okay, let's walk that off.
In December, we started a new podcast called the MidnightDBA Blogcast, where Sean or I (mostly I) read our blogs, or a guest blog. We've only published one episode, and the Blogcast is already getting good reviews. I'm thrilled.
I'm happy. Happy with my family, my friends, my Tweeps, my career, and everything that goes along with it. Cheers to you, 2009. 2010: Happy days.
-Jen McCown