Doug Lane

SQL Server Entertainer

SQL Cruisin’

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I’m half-Viking.  Seriously.  On one side of my family, my grandmother was 100% Finnish, my grandfather was 100% Swedish.  Which probably explains why I’m a better actor at playing a Viking than playing myself.


Thanks to Idera Software and their SQL Victory contest, I’m going on a 7-day Alaska cruise.  But it’s not just any cruise.  It’s a SQL Cruise.  I was hoping the boat would dock in Anchorage, if only so I could say, “So I wonder what there is to do around here.”

(I was born and raised in Anchorage.)

Between this, going to the PASS Summit (insert Howard Dean scream: “YEAAAARGHH!”), and good times at work, this is shaping up to be an incredible year. I can’t wait to see what’s next.

For Parents of Newborn Babies

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I thought I’d post this for anyone who has or is about to have a new baby. When my son was a newborn, he was very fussy. I made a white noise track to help him calm him down to sleep. It worked well enough that when I went back to a daddy boot camp as a “veteran dad”, I brought CD’s of it for everyone there. The track is 75 minutes of my vacuum cleaner, with the volume steadily decreasing. When I used it, I made sure it was loud enough that it got the baby’s attention, but not so loud that it would damage their hearing. Once I knew it had their attention, I turned it down a little.

If you skip to the 3:18 mark, you’ll see Dr. Harvey Karp explain the white noise principle:

I strongly recommend Dr. Karp’s book, The Happiest Baby on the Block. It was a lifesaver for my wife and me.

Feel free to pass this link on to anyone you might think needs it (just right-click and “Save Target As…”):
White Noise mp3 (51.9 MB)

Happy parenthood, everyone!