What a great experience to host T-SQL Tuesday #99.

I could not have predicted that so many of you would be willing to share personal details about your life outside of SQL Server, and reading them all kind of blew me away. I thought this would be an interesting way to get to know you all a little better, and I was definitely right!

There were also multiple people who submitted both a post about outside passions and a post about T-SQL bad habits / best practices.

Well done all around, and I hope you'll all consider playing next month, when Adam Machanic will host #100. Watch tsqltuesday.com for the announcement.

And now, here's a quick roundup of this month's FIFTY entries, ordered at publish time by NEWID():

• David Fowler

  David tells a gut-wrenching story about how he started participating in triathlons 20 years ago, finishing as well as 7th in the World Championships, before switching to Ironman after a bout with Lymphoma, and then cycling and cyclocross after some nagging injuries.
  Read David's post

• Peter Schott

  Peter talks about his lifelong involvement in music. He played the clarinet (so did I!) and the alto sax (so did I!) before moving on to singing - barbershop, choir, you name it!
  Read Peter's post

• Tracy Boggiano

  Tracy talks about her amazing role in a program called Guardium ad Litem, making a real difference for foster kids that are enduring many of the same things she herself endured as a child. This is a very uplifting story, with a call to action for you to participate in a similar program in your area. And don't worry Tracy, it's totally fine that you didn't include any pictures.
  Read Tracy's post

• Bert Wagner

  Bert explains that when he wants to get away from computers he goes camping - but he doesn't seem to do anything half-assed. Check out his amazing menu - I mean, pad thai? Cinnamon rolls? Can I come?
  Watch Bert's video

• Glenn Berry

  Glenn introduces us to the world of home brewing. Like Bert, Glenn takes this pretty seriously - he walks through his complicated gear and meticulous techniques, which undoubtedly helped him medal in two different Colorado brewing competitions.
  Read Glenn's post

• Brent Ozar

  Brent reveals his obsession love for art by Sas Christian, showing off many pieces he and Erika have in their home. I didn't spot any alien sex organs, but he does warn that some links lead to guaranteed NSFW zones.
  Read Brent's post

• Shane O’Neill

  Shane mentions some crazy things he's done for charity, including cage fighting and swimming 13 KM. Yikes. Then he changes up the story and talks about mythology - if you had any burning questions about Greek, Norse, or Roman mythology, Shane is your man. He'll even solve your riddles about leprechauns.
  Read Shane's post

• James McGillivray

  James puts a bunch of his favorite things to music, literally. He "sings" about cooking, board games, cricket, and theater. I challenge you to not hum along.
  Read James' post

• Raul Gonzalez

  Raul chose door #2, and discusses several reasons we shouldn't default to using Unicode data types for columns in SQL Server. He explains a silver lining though: data compression, available in all editions starting with SQL Server 2016 SP1, will let you trade that space for a little bit of CPU.
  Read Raul's post

• Andrea Letourneau

  Andrea was a late entry, but I totally understand. I think she might have sewn the computer where she wrote the post. 🙂
  Read Andrea's post

• Allen White

  Allen talks about a lifetime of performing - from band and theater in high school, to a recent string of performances at Carnegie Hall. Yes, the Carnegie Hall.
  Read Allen's post

• Cathrine Wilhelmsen

  Cathrine talks about her experience hiking, and then switches gears and shows off her impressive collection of books, comics, and drawings by Norwegian cartoonist Mads Eriksen.
  Read Cathrine's post

• Hugo Kornelis

  Hugo talks about a wide array of his non-technical passions: his family, the incredible goals of his children, jazz ballet, snooker, and Hearthstone. I never thought I would type the words "jazz ballet," but I'm quite happy to learn more about Hugo.
  Read Hugo's post

• Kevin Hill

  Kevin doesn't really surprise anyone here, I think, detailing his lifelong devotion to cycling - racing, coaching, and even officiating. I did enjoy all the pictures.
  Read Kevin's post

• Lucas Kartawidjaja

  Lucas talks about his love of cooking, dragon boat racing, and - to my surprise - hockey!
  Read Lucas' post

• John Deardurff

  John explains how he has been able to experience a number of places he wouldn't have been able to visit if it weren't for speaking at SQL Community events. I feel the same way.
  Read John's post

• Melissa Connors

  After reading Melissa's fantastic post about baking - full of dessert pr0n - I had to run to the corner store to get some chocolate. This is one seriously mouth-watering post.
  Drool over Melissa's post

• Aaron Bertrand (That's me!)

  I talked about my hockey and football card collections (including my BruinsQuest site), my license plates, and my recently-completed set of vintage Aaron the Alligator books.
  Read my post

• Jeff Mlakar

  Jeff shows us his 125-gallon aquarium, and several of the tanks he progressed through over the years. It really hit home with me that he enjoys it because it is a living and evolving environment that he helps make a reality.
  Read Jeff's post

• Andy Mallon

  Andy was one of the folks who submitted posts covering both doors. In this post, he makes a pretty convincing argument that tabs don't belong in T-SQL code (but isn't hell-bent on changing your mind).
  Read Andy's post

• Riley Major

  Riley discusses the decisions many shops make between storing business logic in the database tier and having all the various presentation and API tiers duplicate that logic. One thing I'll add is that when you put validation outside of the database, it becomes all too easy to bypass that validation - intentionally or not.
  Read Riley's post

• Deborah Melkin

  Deborah shares her love for music and theater, explaining that she is an accomplished choir section leader and guitarist, and has recently picked up the mandolin. She is part of something she calls #choirfamily - mirroring a lot of the traits that make our #sqlfamily so strong.
  Read Deborah's post

• Koen Verbeeck

  The first of Koen's two posts this month is about collecting Batman comics and graphic novels, and he explains how several aspects of this hobby are similar to his work in the SQL Server space.
  Read Koen's post

• Jeff Rush

  Jeff looks back on his childhood, where he was on track to become a legitimate violin star, until a broken arm cut those goals short. He still derives inspiration from that experience in his current career.
  Read Jeff's post

• Garland MacNeill

  Garland describes how he has had a variety of stints riding motorcycles in different stages of his life, and how the choices he has made there are similar to choices we all make in our careers.
  Read Garland's post

• Jess Pomfret

  Jess explains how she got hooked on proper football (not hand-egg) while growing up in Oxford. And not just hooked like watching on TV or going to games, but actually playing, and playing well enough to get a scholarship to play at an American university.
  Read Jess' post

• Alexander Arvidsson

  Alexander reveals that he is a huge Star Wars fan, having built his very own life-size R2-D2 - a major undertaking. He combines this passion with a humanitarian effort: visting childrens' wards and reading at libraries (in full, hand-made costumes, of course), and also fundraising for a variety of charities.
  Read Alexander's post

• Lori Edwards

  Lori picked the T-SQL door, and explains how - several years ago - I helped convince her that stored procedures have several advantages over ad hoc queries stored in the application.
  Read Lori's post

• Lisa Bohm

  Lisa does a great job of describing her passion for riding horses, and draws some interesting parallels to both work and parenting.
  Read Lisa's post

• Andy Mallon

  Andy's second post shows a passion he has developed as a result of traveling to speak at SQLSaturdays, and he has dubbed this "#SQLTourism." I've done similar things - book some extra time before or after an event to go out and see the local sights.
  Read Andy's post

• Jo Douglass

  Jo's post for door #1 talks about how much she enjoys Ingress, an earlier game from the same folks who made Pokemon Go. Playing the game has allowed her to make all kinds of interesting discoveries about the countryside around her, and gets her out on the road more often than she would do without it.
  Read Jo's post

• Eugene Meidinger

  Eugene shares some pretty personal details in his post, but his main focus is on LARPing (live-action role play). He expresses legitimate fear about potential employers finding out about this hobby, so I admire his bravery in publishing the post anyway. It was entertaining as hell, as he recounts some pretty interesting games.
  Read Eugene's post

• Martin Guth

  Martin chose door #2, and walks through how he and his team made a huge decision to use INT, instead of BIGINT, for the keys in a data warehouse project.
  Read Martin's post

• Rob Farley

  Another door #2, Rob describes how GROUP BY and DISTINCT are different, but hints that one is not always better than the other. And he only subtly chides me for stealing his material!
  Read Rob's post

• Nate Johnson

  Nate also chose door #2, and has a pretty clever example of how to derive certain aggregate information from an index without ever reading from the table itself.
  Read Nate's post

• Robert Davis

  Robert tells us about his passion for writing horror fiction, and he talks about where that hobby started, and even shares some examples of his work.
  Read Robert's post

• Andy Levy

  Andy got smothered by work and wasn't able to complete his entry, but he does promise to come back and contribute to the topic when he can catch his breath.
  Read Andy's post

• Jo Douglass

  Jo's post for door #2 talks about date/time best practices in SQL Server, and she raises some interesting examples where datefirst and language settings have caused her some grief.
  Read Jo's post

• Andy Yun

  Andy chose the SQL path. He talks about index key order, and warns against blindly following missing index recommendations. He reminds us that we need to make informed decisions about indexes we modify or create, and that we need to step back and look at more than just a single instance of a query before we start implementing physical fixes.
  Read Andy's post

• Kenneth Fisher

  Kenneth talks about the stress relief he derives from building small metal models. And he has built quite a few! Cause or effect? Maybe we'll never know!
  Read Kenneth's post

• Kendra Little

  Kendra tells us how she got into plants, and then how she really got into plants. She has some great tips for you, too, if you don't already have a green thumb.
  Read Kendra's post

• Koen Verbeeck

  Koen's post for door #2 makes some great points about the dated (ha!) advice to always use integers for date keys in a data warehouse, dismissing the typical counter-points I've often found myself stuggling against.
  Read Koen's post

• Seth Washeck

  Seth enters this month's fray with a brutally honest post about who he is - a "mad scientist" who cares deeply about fairness, equality, and justice.
  Read Seth's post

• Chris Voss

  Chris combines this month's two options, opening us up to his world of running, events for charity, and also talking about things like FORMAT() and why code convenience should take a back seat to performance.
  Read Chris' post

• Thomas Rushton

  Thomas chose door #2, and stresses that expression AS alias is superior to alias = expression. I'm not going to argue (I promised), but I do have to point out that the SQLPrompt warning is a false alarm: the only form that is deprecated in SQL Server is the one where you use single quotes as string delimiters around the alias: 'string_alias' = expression.
  Read Thomas' post

• Doug Purnell

  Doug shares his photography bug. It's a shame he's a Nikon guy (we're a Canon family). I'm totally kidding; use the tool that works, right? He also talks about his passion for cooking BBQ, which is a lot more interesting than my passion for eating BBQ.
  Read Doug's post

• Tamera Clark

  Tamera discusses some of her passions - her garden, her dinner experiences, her dogs, avoiding community drama, and getting out to see the cities she travels to for SQL events. Tamera: I certainly disagree that you're a boring person, for what it's worth!
  Read Tamera's post

• Matt Gordon

  Matt talks about how car racing brings balance to his life. He calls it relaxing, but I'll let you decide after reading about a few of his racing experiences.
  Read Matt's post

• Erin Stellato

  Erin is a runner and a spin instructor. She talks about these pursuits, and explains why she loves teaching others so much.
  Read Erin's post

• Todd Kleinhans

  On a more somber note, and following the recent passing of Tom Roush, Todd creates a memorial to several SQL community folks that are no longer with us. If you haven't been cutting any onions lately, you should definitely check this out.
  Experience Todd's memorial