2020 review: the year by the numbers

The last post of the year! It’s been a terrible year all round, as I’m sure you’ll all agree, and I’m very glad we’re rolling into 2021 in a few hours.

Now it’s time for my traditional post counting down some of the numbers and showing some of the photos that have been my (and our) life this year.

• 0: the number of new bird species I saw, my total remains 606
• 0: the number of in-person days in Immersion Events and conferences (down from 35 in 2019)
• 0: the number of new countries visited, my total remains 40
• 0: the number of new airlines flown, my total remains 39
• 0: the number of new airports flown through, my total remains 101
• Countless: the number of moments of disbelief at things happening in the world this year
• 1,073,329: my lifetime total butt-in-seat miles on United, making me a Million-Mile Flyer
• 36,146: my current tweet total (up 391 from 2019)
• 15,294: the number of people who follow my Twitter ramblings (up 401 from 2019)
• 14,832: the number of plastic ear-saver mask straps I 3-d printed and donated around the country, through 1,854 print runs on my three Prusa printers
• 13,501: the number of subscribers to our Insider mailing list
• 6,558: the number of emails I sent (down 2,263 from 2018 – a good thing!)
• 3,866: the number of miles I flew on United this year (down from 61,027 in 2019)
• $3,598: the amount people donated to help offset printing and shipping costs for the mask straps – thanks!
• 2,189: the number of non-reference books (real ones) that I own (up only 27 from 2019 – I restrained myself!)
• 1,204: the number of books I own but haven’t read yet (up 25 from 2019)
• 356: the number of SQL Server wait types I have documented in my Wait Types Library (up 6 from 2019)
• 188: the total number of hours of online training we have available on Pluralsight (same as 2019)
• 126: the most simultaneous day-per-move chess games on chess.com
• 65: the number of Pluralsight courses we have available
• 54: the number of minutes of my longest dive this year (they were all cold water, high current)
• 42: the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything!
• 27: the number of SQLskills blog posts, including this one
• 19: the number of dives I did this year, in Mexico, down from the usual 100-150, taking my total to 1,042
• 14: the number of monthly magazines I subscribe to
• 13: the number of years I’ve been married to Kimberly
• 11: the number of times I went further than the end of the drive since mid-March
• 10: the number of nights away from home (down 132 from 2019, and all with Kimberly)
• 10: the number of different shark species we saw around the world this year (Galapagos, scalloped hammerhead, grey reef, black-tipped reef, white-tipped reef, silky, nurse, bull, silvertip, dusky)
• 10: the number of recorded Immersion Events we have available for streaming now!
• 7: the number of wonderful cats we have (up 4 from 2019)
• 6: the number of full-time SQLskills employees, all of whom are fabulous and indispensable
• 4: the number of flights this year (down 34 from 2019)
• 4: the number of books I read (down from 44 in 2019)
• 2.7: the percentage of time we were away from home (down from the usual 40-50%)
• 2: the number of different places we slept apart from our house and on planes (down from 25 in 2019)
• 2: the number of airports I flew through this year (down from 14 in 2019)
• 2: the number of awesome daughters we have (one a junior at UC Berkeley, one a freshman at University of San Diego)
• 1: the number of countries we visited this year (Mexico dive trip in March)
• 1: our youngest daughter’s boyfriend who lived with us most of the year while they both attended college remotely and online
• 1: the person who seems to cram the most into non-work time (farming, scouts, diving, building, …): Tim Radney
• 1: the person who is the best at snapping her fingers and cooking yummy sweets: Erin Stellato
• 1: the number of Jonathan Kehayias in the world – thankfully :-)
• 1: the number of wonderful assistants, without whom our lives would be a distressing quagmire – Libby we love you!
• Finally, the one and only best person in my life: Kimberly, without whom I would be lost…

Thank you to everyone who reads our blogs, follows us on Twitter, sends us questions, watches our videos, comes to our classes, and generally makes being deeply involved in the SQL community a joy.

I sincerely wish you all a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

Cheers!

(I grew a beard!)

(So did my Dad in Scotland!)

(My 3-d printers hard at work)

(On my birthday in July – my daughter got me the excellent balloon)

(Two of the new kittens back in the summer – I guess I really like that WTF t-shirt!)