Running for Brews

Anything that combines my enjoyment of beer with a positive activity is a good thing in my opinion. A couple of weeks ago a friend and I (he was in town for work from San Diego) were walking around downtown St. Pete. We noticed this large gathering of jogging attired folks, so we wandered over.

By large gathering I mean 50 or more people. Not too shabby. I've been running a bit lately (but mostly biking, it's not as hard on the body) and was soon to be moving to St. Pete. A perfect storm for me.

The group is called Running for Brews. Not to be confused with Beer & Blog of course. While fun, it's not as healthy as getting in a run before your beer. Actually, put beer in front of any other word and I'm sure you'll have fun.

Now that I'm living in St. Pete, I decided to partake in the event with friend and now neighbor, John Thompson and his dog Jake.

Why We Do What We Do

We are runners, but we love delicious craft beers. Running for Brews began with a small group getting together for beers after a relaxing run. Everyone could use a little motivation when it comes to finding the energy to get out and exercise. And what motivation is better than beer and friends? Running for Brews has found a way to merge healthy living, good drinking, and great conversation with our running/craft beer club. Find an event near your location and join a free Running for Brews to enjoy great beers and great company. Find a weekly run – Click Here

As for the networking part, I met a fellow Gator and his wife last night. He moved to NYC after college where he worked in the entertainment industry. I asked him about a talent agency up there, and he knew it. He then asked me if I knew Don Epstein. Nope, but hold on. I texted my friend in NYC who works said talent agency asking if she knew Mr. Epstein. Yeah, she did, it was her uncle. Small world indeed.

I know a few of you who are runners or starting to run again and who happen to enjoy the occasional craft brew. Perhaps you should combine those two things and start your own chapter? (I'm looking at you Jeff).

ODTUG/Kscope Content Chair

So I have a problem saying No (No, No, etc, etc.).

ODTUG came calling this year and of course, I couldn't say no. I was asked to be the Content Chair for ADF/Fusion, APEX, The Database (like The Ohio State), Developer's Toolkit and Building Better Software. There is an entirely different track for BI/EPM stuff, that's being handled by Natalie Delemar.

Just in case I never mentioned it, I was the 4th (or was it 5th?) choice to lead the Developer's Toolkit track last year. My handlers made sure I knew that, presumably to keep me in line. Thankfully Lewis was much nicer, he never told me I was a 4th or 5th choice.

What do I do? Well, I have to get (wrangle) people to run each of those tracks mentioned above. They in turn will get (wrangle) 5-10 people to do their bidding, and by bidding I mean read and rank abstracts for Kscope 13. Then scheduling those sessions that were selected. Fun stuff.

Let's go over that list again:

• ADF and Fusion Development, John King
• APEX, Dan McGhan
• Building Better Softare, me and ???
• The Database, open Kellyn Pot'Vin (2012/09/25)
• Developer's Toolkit, Open Patrick Barel (2012/09/25)

Seems appropriate to add the sub-topics for each of those tracks too, so here goes.

ADF and Fusion Development
- ADF for Beginners
- Advanced ADF: Mobile, Cloud, Web, Services, etc.
- Customizing Fusion Apps
- SOA and Fusion Middleware

Application Express
- The Basics
- Advanced
- Infrastructure/Management/Security
- Plug-ins & Dynamic Actions

Developer's Toolkit
- Forms and Beyond
- IDEs
- Languages
- Version Control and Continuous Integration
- .Net

The Database
- DBA
- PL/SQL
- SQL
- Tuning

Building Better Software
- Agile
- Business Rules
- Code Generation
- Instrumentation
- Modeling
- Testing

Easy right?

I'm still trying to tie down people for The Database and Developer's Toolkit. If you're interested in leading a track, or just simply participating, yell at me.

It's a great way to get involved. It's a great way to help shape the direction you believe we're all headed. Do it. Get involved.

Oracle OpenWorld 2012 Schedule

Still working on my general sessions throughout the week, but it's pretty packed already.

Sunday's events are part of ODTUG @ OpenWorld.

The Swim event.

If you have any suggestions for me, let me know.

Custom ORACLENERD T-Shirts

Jeff Smith has said for some time now that I need to market the t-shirts better than I do. Selling them has never been a priority. Yes, it's pretty cool seeing the t-shirts out and about. It's cool that people can express their inner oraclenerd like I seem to do on a daily basis. The real reason I put effort into t-shirts and the like, is katezilla.

Recently we got hit with a couple of things: 1, a $190 iPad app for Kate and 2, her ABA therapy co-pays finally came due. For #1, I ran a GoFundMe campaign and encouraged you to buy t-shirts. The GoFundMe campaign raised $420 in less than a day, more than covering the cost of Kate's iPad app. I used the remaining funds to make a payment on #2, her ABA co-pays. I also sold about 10 shirts just after that post and close to 20 in total since.

I am constantly humbled at your generosity.

What does all of this have to do with the title? Well, people have asked for shirts either through Twitter, IM or email. Shirts with specific sayings or different styles. Two weekends ago on a Friday night, Don Seiler suggested a hoodie. Living in Florida I had never thought about it, but he lives in Wisconsin where it gets a little cold. We went back and forth on twitter, I would go on Spreadshirt and spin something up, screenshot it, and send it across the wire. On Monday I had a final product and I named it after Mr. Seiler.

Mr. Seiler (picture) ordered one and so did Mr. Smith. Awesome.

The Don Seiler Hoodie	The German Austrian

The other shirt there is the German Austrian edition. Martin Berger was responsible for that one (I have a Cyrillic and Russian version in the hopper for Greg Rahn).

Late last week I talked to Lisa Dobson. She got one last year for OpenWorld and wanted a new one, with a twist.

The Lisa Dobson	The Lisa Dobson Pink

Upside down logo (she's British). So I named it after her. Note, the pink version is only available in the US, that brand isn't carried on the European Spreadshirt site.

So, if you have an idea (Mr. Seiler has designed two now, the long sleeve baseball jersey and the hoodie), send it to me and I'll spin something up for you.

How could I forget the APEX version (Joel Kallman)? Or the OBIEE version (Adrian Ward)?

Because I'm forgetful. I'm sure there are others.

Just so it's clear, there are two shops: North America and Europe. They're not exactly the same as it's two separate systems, but I'm trying to keep them in sync.

Send me your suggestions...all proceeds go to a great cause katezilla.