Friday, January 2, 2009

2009 New Year's Resolutions

I was tagged by @crisatunity here, so I'll do this. Hopefully The Curmudgeon isn't reading...

These are professional resolutions, not personal (I'm fat, so guess what #1 is on that list).

1. No brainer here. Go the entire year without losing my job. If I leave voluntarily, that doesn't count. I'm just shooting for no firings, no layoffs and no furloughs.
2. Become proficient in OBIEE. I've been given a second chance so to speak. Our DW guy decided now would be a good time to start his own consulting company and I am the lucky recipient of his job. Bonus: Datawarehousing is all the rage. OBIEE is a great tool to have in the tool box so I consider myself lucky on more than one front.
3. Build a PL/SQL only test harness. I don't really know why, but I want to give this a go. I've used SQLUnit (and like it) and a little bit of utPLSQL, but I think there's a lot to learn here. Specifically, how to generate and run code. I've never really done that, except for a small DROP <OBJECT> script now and again.
4. Contribute something tangible to the Oracle community. So I blog, cool. I've done an ApEx presentation, sweet. I would love to be able to contribute an application (a test harness perhaps?) or some sort of library. I don't know exactly what it is yet...

Four is good enough for me this year. One will be the one I focus on most...I just hope it doesn't become a self-fulfilling prophecy. ;)

So, who shall I ask to join us? Jake has already done like 33 end-of-the-year posts...I'm sure one of them included some form of resolutions (predictions actually, it qualifies though). Here we go:

1. Bradd Piontek || (twitter, blog)
2. Don Seiler || (twitter, blog)

I've paired those 2 guys together because I'm pretty sure they know each other. Watching them on Facebook and Twitter go at it keeps me laughing all day. For instance, tonight on Facebook Bradd posted a picture of him drinking something out of a brown paper bag and asking the community to guess what he was drinking. Mr. Seiler said something along the lines of "shame and disappointment?"

3. Dan McGhan || (twitter (loser), blog)

Dan was my "co"-presenter in September on ApEx. I made him do the whole thing, mostly because he heckled me (i.e. answered all the questions) in my first presentation.

*No drinking went on during the writing of this post.

5 comments:

Cd-MaN said...

Just wanted to share my 2c: the whole employment story is sad / interesting / funny (depending on your POV). I really hope that you pull trough.

Having changed jobs recently I can sympathize how difficult it is to let go of the old one. However, I think that there are plenty of opportunities out there. Just start looking. Be patient (for me it took ~4 months). Make sure that you have a "good feeling" about the interview before you commit. Try to get some information from people who work there.

And think positive! You can do it, as long as you are enthusiastic (and from the blog posts I can tell that you certainly are).

Best of luck and a happy new year!

Saager Mhatre said...

Hey, whaddaya know! I'm working on #3 too.

I've looked at SQLUnit (too limited and clunky) and utPLSQL/oUnit/Quest Tester (waaay too much baggage) and wasn't happy. The only thing that came close to my liking was PLUTO, but it's got a few holes of its own.

I'm actually gestating a framework of my own and plan to open-source it some time soon. Incidentally, I'm actually using PLUTO to test drive it! :)

I should probably write up a quick description of what I have in mind and dump it somewhere. Would love to collaborate! So, if you're interested drop in a comment here; I'm listening to the comments feed.

oraclenerd said...

@cdman83

sad/interesting/funny is exactly right. just depends on which day you catch me!

@dexter (saager)

I would love to work with you on this, I just can't commit to anything yet due to my work situation. As things settle down though, I'd be more than happy to. Feel free to email me at chet.justice with gmail.

chet

John T said...

What no goal for St A's, Escape from Ft DeSoto, or Mad Beach (free post race beer!)???? I'm still planning bricks at the Fort, starting Sunday's in Feb.

On #1 - good luck! lol

For #4, lets tackle logging. Something like Log4PLSQL, but lighter and easier to use.

Clever Idea Widgetry said...

I survived a weekend on Beale St., but I'm back.

I have some thoughts -- similar to Saager's -- about #3. If you make that your OSS project, definitely count me in. I'd love even the back and forth before getting started on building something.