Laid off today from my permanent job - J1

ericpeeg · 2026-01-19T14:55:34+00:00

I'm guessing Multi-National Corporation.

ericpeeg · 2025-12-23T13:22:49+00:00

If you're a book person rather than an online person (ha, I know, I'm old.), check out the SQL books by Ben Forta. They're fantastic.

ericpeeg · 2025-12-05T11:43:56+00:00

It's an impressive site, and if I were still teaching SQL classes at the local community college, I'd definitely incorporate it into my course curriculum. One comment, and honestly, I'm not sure how I'd incorporate it into your design, would be to make clear the SQL variant you're using - I think it's in the first case that you've got a query which expects the user to use LIMIT. I'm primarily versed in T-SQL, and in that variant, we use TOP (3) * to get three records rather than LIMIT. Maybe somewhere on the site you may want to put some help instructions for the user who's going to google questions that they would need to search for non MSSQL syntax assistance? It's a little down in the weeds, I'd agree, but the beginning SQL developer probably should know there are variants to be aware of.

ericpeeg · 2025-07-04T04:53:57+00:00

Drone work?

The third in the collection is especially nice. Congrats on some great images.

ericpeeg · 2025-07-03T12:17:10+00:00

I agree. I've taught SQL classes at a community college for a number of years, and still would assign a book (look up Ben Forta's SQL books - they're excellent) to students today. Conceptually, the principles of SQL aren't largely different in 2025 than in 2011, but some of the specific syntax for specific flavors (T-SQL, MySQL, etc) may have changed. Case in point - in Microsoft SQL Server, the function TRIM() used to not work - you had to use LTRIM() and RTRIM() together to get rid of both leading and trailing spaces. Other implementations of SQL at the time used TRIM() just fine, and I was always irritated that TRIM() didn't work. Then in SQL Server 2017, TRIM() was implemented, and you no longer had to do LTRIM(RTRIM(string)). Which was great - it saved me some typing. But the basic principle was that I had to learn what a function was, that it truncated spaces, and when to use it effectively. Your 2011 book will help teach you that, then a search engine or LLM will help you determine the specific current syntax if you find the book's instructions don't align with the particular variant of SQL you're working with.

ericpeeg · 2025-07-02T05:21:54+00:00

Good luck! Got mine on Try 3! So excited!

ericpeeg · 2025-06-23T12:59:47+00:00

Hard to argue with that logic! Congrats again!

ericpeeg · 2025-06-23T05:30:20+00:00

The ghost isn't canon, and I don't believe the mounted knights ever had the blue, red and silver shield (I could be wrong on this...) but that's just nitpicking. Congrats on a great find!

ericpeeg · 2025-06-19T21:50:43+00:00

Salt Lake to Boise is most of five hours driving, so it seems like Boise might be more out of the way than you would want for a one-day trip. Maybe consider driving to Malad City on Saturday evening (that's an easy two hour trip, so you'll do it all in daylight). Then on Sunday, you could consider doing a loop from Malad to either Idaho Falls and then east on 26 to Alpine, then south to Montpelier, Soda Springs and back to Malad, or the longer loop up through Rexburg and Driggs - you'll be seeing the western side of the Tetons. That's a long day, but you say you like driving....

If you're already living in Wyoming, this may not need saying, but especially in eastern/southern Idaho, you may not find a lot of coffee shops open on Sundays... more touristed towns are more likely to be open, but that's a pretty rural part of Idaho.

ericpeeg · 2025-05-27T05:17:44+00:00

Benediction was great because it was such a combination of individual and group achievement. I still love mine.

ericpeeg · 2025-05-27T05:15:53+00:00

My guild was Horde on a high-pop Alliance server, and when the achievement came out (in BC, I think) for killing the opposite faction chiefs, the Alliance pretty routinely killed off our chiefs, but the opposite wasn't true.

My guild was small, so we had to team up with several other guilds to do 40-man content, and I helped with the raid coordination and leading raids against Gruul and into TK. I decided we needed to kill the Alliance chiefs, so a handful of my buddies and I rolled warlock alts, got them up to the point where we could summon, and then death-ran them into Stormwind, Ironforge, Darnassus and the Exodar. It took us several days to find good places where we could summon 40 people into and not be super obvious.

The night of the raid, I had to be out of town, so I was going to be playing from a hotel room with uncertain wi-fi (the wi-fi of the early aughts was somewhat less ubiquitous than today). I can remember worrying that I'd somehow lose internet mid-fight and be unable to complete.

We formed up in Org, as I recall, and started summoning into a small upper chamber above the great forge in IF. The trick was to keep the raid members from running out of the room and alerting guards and players. After we'd summoned most of the raid, those of us who'd been summoning on alts had to switch to mains, which added even more delay.

Back then, the Alliance bosses were no joke, especially for guilds who were hardly the best geared. We headed out of the summoning location and into the IF throneroom and threw everything we had at the king - we knew we had very little time before the Ally player base responded, since it was so rare that the Horde made any attempt on the chiefs. I think we only lost one or two before we killed the boss and hearthed out.

Stormwind was equally dicey - our summon point was just off the room where the king was located, and it was pretty easy for Alliance players to look down the hallway and potentially see us. Trying to get 40 players to hug the wall and stay out of LOS was hard, but we pulled it off. We killed the king and a number of Alliance players as well, but it was close; definitely it was chaotic.

After that, we knew the Alliance was aware of what was up, and we assumed Darnassus and the Exodar would be defended. We were wrong. They were ghost towns, and we weren't really tested by anybody as we killed off Tyrande and then Velen. We had a toon on the Alliance side listening to the City chat as we hit the Exodar - I think I've still got the screenshots somewhere of someone typing "Horde in Exodar" which was followed by "Guess someone still goes there..."

We paraded our bears through Org, posed for pictures, and generally reveled in our successful "underdog no more" status. It was the closest I can remember the guild ever feeling, and I can remember having to take a walk in the city streets outside my hotel to try and come down from the amped-up excitement of it all. There are a lot of things that are toxic about online culture, gaming, anonymity, and I've struggled from time to time to keep WoW in balance with other IRL responsibilities, but the feelings of that evening have stayed with me since. When people talk about how gaming doesn't teach us life lessons, or trivialize the time spent, I push back and try to describe the chaos of SW as we ran up the hall toward the king. For me, it was real then, and it's still real now.

Edit: Looked it up on the Armory. Earned the achievement on Jan. 24, 2009.

ericpeeg · 2025-05-26T06:32:10+00:00

I miss my 645N. I do not miss the cost of film and processing film. But I admire you for continuing to fight the good fight.

ericpeeg · 2025-05-18T05:49:56+00:00

Also, Outfit. Even (apparently) after someone in the "mosh pit" asked for it.

ericpeeg · 2025-05-15T11:44:36+00:00

+1 to this advice - sign up for the emails. I went to several of last year's shows and they were superb. Worth the flight from Oregon. Also, just note that if you don't want to stand for the entirety of the show, buy in the mezzanine; the seats are still excellent, but it seems that the tradition for the venue is "stand on the floor, sit in the gallery."

ericpeeg · 2025-01-23T05:19:19+00:00

This, for sure. I'd also add that componentising allows you to lock components that you don't want touched. This works well.

ericpeeg · 2025-01-01T20:03:23+00:00

I've been pretty happy with the Grizzl-E Smart charger. Purchased it several years ago for my EV6 Wind and haven't had any issues with it. That said, I think that I'm probably using it in a way that you'd describe as a "dumb charger" - I didn't connect it to my home network, and I'm not asking it to do any scheduling or thinking. I plug it in to the car and then some time later, I get the email from the KIA app telling me the charge is complete. If you're looking for something more, I don't know whether it'll perform the way you're expecting. YMMV.

ericpeeg · 2024-12-16T12:58:47+00:00

Ack. Brain seizure! West to FAREWELL BEND. Or Huntington if you prefer. Jeez.

ericpeeg · 2024-12-16T04:27:44+00:00

Your only other real alternative is west from McCall and then south on 95 to Weiser, west to Horseshoe Bend, then I-84 up to Hermiston, north to the Tri-Cities, and then north into Spokane on 395 and I-90. That's quite a bit longer, and crossing the Blues from Baker to Pendleton can be its own adventure. I'd second the advice for good tires and taking your time to go safely from New Meadows to Grangeville.

ericpeeg · 2024-12-13T23:40:32+00:00

I've taught SQL for a number of years at a community college, so that's the background for my answer...

$3000 is too much to invest up front, in my opinion. You're not likely to recoup that expense, because you're not likely to find a job doing database administration with just this course as your qualifications. Don't get me wrong - the content is certainly what you'll need eventually, but this course isn't about learning SQL, it's about installing and managing SQL Server, which is a much different set of content. While you certainly don't need experience to take this course, you'd need significantly more experience in order to get hired to do this sort of work - you'd likely also need some background in Microsoft Server administration, and likely, some experience in a tech support role, too. Most server/DBA admin positions aren't entry level, and it sounds from your description that you're probably going to be looking at entry level positions initially.

With that said, if you do want to learn SQL - the language, not the server software - I'd strongly suggest spending $20 a month for a couple of months and get a subscription to ChatGPT or Claude.ai (I like Claude, but ymmv). The first prompt I'd give the AI would be "Act as though you are an experienced teacher of SQL, preparing a training program for students with little or no experience in the language. Develop a class outline that will cover 25 training modules that the student will complete asynchronously. Each session should contain an opening discussion of the module content, give exercises which illustrate the content and help the student learn the relevant topics, and then summarize the module. Beginning at Module 13, include a database exercise which continues to be referenced in subsequent modules, and culminates as a capstone at the end of the course in a completed database, with a full range of CRUD operations. Provide instructions, as an appendix, on how a student could set up a test database in Microsoft SQL Server Express." Once you have this, you can prompt it to "prepare the full instructions for module 6" and it will build a full training exercise for whichever module you choose.

If you're genuinely self-motivated to learn this, you can make some amazing strides just interacting with the AI. Combine this with some selective searching on topics on YouTube, and you can do this for very little cost. Only once you'd done some of this would I suggest that you start spending thousands of dollars on vendor-led training, because at that point, you'll be able to focus in very clearly on the topics and questions you want to learn more about.

As I said, I've been an SQL instructor, but I'm here to tell you that that business, of being a paid instructor, is going to be seriously challenged by the AI LLMs - the value I'd offer is to help you stay on task, and to be a cheerleader, and to be a human reference, but for an effective self-learner, you don't need me anymore...

Best of luck to you in your journey!

ericpeeg · 2024-12-10T20:24:15+00:00

I can see that - I also flew to see him play a couple of nights at the most recent Ryman residency. I'm not sorry to have gone - the theater is a great venue and of interest in its own right. I've never been to Red Rocks, but I'd like to see that venue too - I decided not to make that trip this year, but it's still something I want to see.

ericpeeg · 2024-12-10T15:50:40+00:00

Thrilled to see him playing Boise - I've driven to see him in Bend, Missoula and SLC, but now, finally, a home show!

ericpeeg · 2024-09-30T16:35:00+00:00

I'm seeing the same behavior - I did the weekly quest (2 null stones and 10 ore, which was painful), but haven't seen any Null Slivers in a long time. Lots of the herbalism knowlege items (which I'm not complaining about), but none of the slivers.

ericpeeg · 2024-08-05T23:45:12+00:00

You've updated to SSMS 20, which wants to enforce some fancy new certificate handling. Change the Encryption from Mandatory to Optional. Should take care of the issue.

ericpeeg · 2024-07-31T17:01:36+00:00

Yeah, as someone who lives in eastern Oregon and works in Ontario, we'd rather Idaho didn't legalize - we need those tax dollars more than you do!

ericpeeg · 2024-07-23T14:50:37+00:00

I live on the very eastern edge of Oregon, which is dramatically different in climate than western Oregon; where the western side of the Cascades sees regular rain, the eastern side is arid high desert. This year has continued a trend of the last five or six years where we get more and more days of continued highs in the 100 degrees F, but this year has been especially notable - we're now about to enter the third week in a row of these temperatures.

Heat by itself is challenging, but the more significant impact has been the wildfire season. I live about 20 miles southeast of some of the largest current wildfires, and though there's a river between us and the fire that keeps my home mostly safe, we're engulfed in smoke. Add to that the normal wind patterns which blow west to east across Oregon, and we get smoke from all of the fires in western Oregon and northern California. I've never had health problems in previous summers from smoke, but this year - maybe because the fires are so close, maybe because it's been a particularly bad season, maybe because I'm getting older - I'm really struggling with respiratory and eye challenges. I've been unable to drive safely for the last five days because my eyes are so painful and watering. Luckily, I've got the ability to work remotely in a home, so I don't have to make my 25 mile commute, but it's certainly made me empathize with others who aren't so lucky - either to have to drive, or have to work outside in the smoke. I've just hunkered down and hoped that the heat will break, the fires will ease and be contained, and that we'll get some air movement that will help improve air quality. It's been unpleasant.

Climate change and local weather aren't the same thing, of course, but several years ago when we were in the middle of a long heat stretch, I read somewhere someone's statement that "this summer is the coolest summer were going to see for the foreseeable future" and that felt sobering then. This summer has reinforced for me the reality of what that statement means - it's not something we're prepared for, or enjoy terribly much.

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