My recent post got a lot of attention and that is usually good. I just wanted to clarify why I wrote it. I did not write it to get everybody to tell me I am a wonderful person and that everybody loves me. It has been great to see that happening 🙂 but that was not the reason.

Mainly it was therapy writing for me (I use writing and cooking when I feel too much pressure) but equally important reason was that it was my statement to down voting. Many of my supporters have noticed that I have been down voted by supporters of another candidate and they have asked if they should down vote the other candidate equally. My answer is no, I do not believe in down voting.

You may keep sending me the wonderful messages (yes, I am selfish too as Tim Hall confessed: https://oracle-base.com/blog/2015/10/10/internet-communities-are-selfish-deal-with-it/) but please keep the community positive; help and support each others. People are selfish and they do things that are not always right but knowing that does not mean we need to accept it. Meaning of life is being a better person every day and that’s what we should try to achieve.

Now I stop talking about this topic, thanks for reading.

Cheers

Heli

I am one of the finalists for the Oracle Database Developer Choice Awards on Database Design Category and I am really proud to be nominated as one. And I am excited that Oracle is recognizing the work we database designers do. There has been too many years that this work has been undervalued. And most of all I am extremely happy and honored for all the votes and wonderful messages you have sent me. But… Being on this contest has made me think about the meaning of the community and how it works.

This morning I read a blog post by Jari Laine (http://jaris.blogsite.org/apex/f?p=BLOG%3AREAD%3A0%3A%3A%3A%3AARTICLE%3A201510100617461772) followed by a blog post by Denes Kubicek (http://deneskubicek.blogspot.fi/2015/10/oracle-database-developer-choice-awards.html).

Reading these posts made me really sad. Is the community really only about taking, not giving? Does these “taking members” of the community think the “job” of a “giving member” is just to serve them when they need help? We (“giving members”) are all doing this on volunteer basis, on our own time. We LOVE Oracle technology, we LOVE to learn new things and we LOVE to share our knowledge. We do have our daily jobs but we still want to invest our time for the community. To my opinion the least a person helped by any of us candidates (or other wonderful “giving members” of the community) should do is to vote to show that the help has been valuable. And the worst a person can do is to down vote somebody because wants his/her fav candidate to win. Do you know how bad it feels to see those down votes? To me it implicitly means that to this person my contribution to the community has been NEGATIVE. Have I used my valuable time, instead of spending time with the family or making more profit to my company, for the community to create negative impact? Should I stop doing it? I know the negative does not mean that, it only means you want your candidate to success better but if he/she does not succeed with positive votes maybe he/she has not done enough for the community yet? Or has done less than the other candidates.

“This is your chance to have your say in the community, and help reward great contributors who build up the Oracle Database developer community.” See the word REWARD. If you give negative votes to get your fav candidate in a better position you are not REWARDING anybody, instead you are discouraging great people to continue their valuable work to the community.

The Oracle Community IS A POSITIVE thing and it should continue being such.

Your job now is to VOTE and show how much YOU appreciate the work all these “giving members” of the community do to you as a member of this wonderful community. The voting starts here: https://community.oracle.com/community/database/awards

This is your chance to say THANK YOU.

Cheers

Heli

I have always loved reading but while I was writing my book I simply could not read; did not matter how interesting the book was…

About a month ago I was able to read again and luckily I took just the right book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. That was the best therapy I could have got at that moment! My book was finished and there was nothing more I could do… and what did I do? I started to worry that the book might be really terrible and even I might hate it myself! My husband tried to calm me down and said that many smart people have read it and it cannot be too horrible…but I still kept worrying…

But it calmed me a bit to read The Alchemist and especially the words Paulo Coelho wrote in the beginning of the book 10 years after the book was published. He said that there are four obstacles for a human being to reach the dream (forgive me if I am using the wrong words, I read the book in Finnish, so this is my translation of what he said).

1. Since childhood we have been told that whatever we are trying to do is impossible.
2. We are afraid that if we try to reach the dream our loved ones will suffer.
3. If we really try and then fail there is no way to say that I really did not try and did not really want to reach my dream.
4. If we reach the dream we start feeling guilty: why did I reach it since so many did not.

I was very fortunate not to have the first obstacle at all: my parents and grandparents have always told me that I can do whatever I want. I do not remember any of them saying not even once that something would be too difficult or impossible for me. I can only be very grateful for having such a wonderful childhood!

The second one has been a challenge to me because I love my husband and boys so much and was worried that writing the book will take all the time away from being with them. But I should have known that I have a strong and loving family and one book is not going to be a problem 🙂 I remember several Sundays when one of my family members came to ask me weather we will eat lunch today…I did not realize it was lunch time because I was just writing. My family solved the problem and prepared the meals without disturbing my writing and just invited me to the table 🙂 I must have the best family in the world…

The third one is very tough for me. I have always been a perfectionist. And my biggest challenge in life has been to learn to live with it. I am not good with feedback weather it is good or bad, and I am afraid I will never learn to be good in that 😦 But I passed this obstacle and wrote a book even though I know somebody will hate it and say it in public. But luckily I now know that some people like my book. That should help me to get over the bad moments.

The fourth one hit me the biggest. I have always worried about other people (I was about 3-4 years old when I refused to eat and my explanation was that people in Ethiopia are starving and my food must be sent to them) and I started to worry why I have got this fantastic opportunity, a dream come true, and so many people will never get it. But this is the moment I took The Alchemist in my hands and understood that this is my last obstacle on reaching the dream. My book does not take anything away from anybody: everybody who wants to write a book can do it if they want it hard enough and are willing to work for the dream.

I wrote this post probably as the last therapy session for myself 😀 but I hope this will give the spark to somebody to start reaching the dream. I assure you it is worth it!

Take care!

Heli

I just wrote my first book and enjoyed that experience very much: this will not be my last book 😉

While writing the book I suddenly remembered that as a teenager I wanted to be an author and now my dream just came true! Life is strange…

I have been contacted by several people asking for advice on writing a book. This is what I have answered:

1. Do not wait for the inspiration

The inspiration will come when you write. Writing is 99% of hard work and 1% of inspiration.

2. Try not to be perfect

Good enough is enough. If you try to be perfect the book will never be ready. Besides nobody is perfect…

3. Keep the schedule

Tomorrow will not be an easier day so stretching the schedule will not make your life easier. If you finish everything in schedule you will feel better and writing will be easier and more fun!

That’s all I have to say. I hope this was useful to somebody!

Cheers,

Heli

This is an excellent article and these ladies are smart people:

http://www.forharriet.com/2015/04/9-black-women-game-changers-in-stem.html?utm_content=buffer50632&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer&m=1#axzz3XgE6Wpya

But for some reason this article made me very angry. Well, not the article itself but the fact that this needed to be written. Why do we need to prove that ladies can be smart? Why do we need to prove that people who does not have a white skin are smart? The smartness or stupidity is related to your brains, not your gender nor your skin color.

When I was at the elementary school (about 11 years old) I had a school mate: a boy with a black skin. He was absolutely the worst in mathematics. We had a very smart teacher who realized that he was not actually bad in mathematics but he THOUGHT he is because everybody said so. This smart teacher came to me and asked if this boy could sit beside me and I could teach him a little during the mathematics classes. Of course I said that is fine (I have always loved both mathematics and teaching). Next time we had an exam he got an A-. It was not because of my superior skills in teaching but with the fact that he was not fighting against learning when I was just talking to him and explaining things and I believed in his skills. He found the motivation when he realized that he is not actually bad in mathematics at all.

Some years later another teacher was thinking the same and asked me to teach another boy (white in skin). I seriously tried but he just did not understand mathematics at all. He was not talented in mathematics but he was very talented in handicrafts.

People are talented in different areas and it has nothing to do with their skin color or their gender, it has everything to do with their brains and… with the MOTIVATION. If you tell others they cannot do something, finally they cannot, even though they might be very talented. Do not do that, please! Let people try if they are talented or not, do not judge them beforehand by facts that have nothing to do with their brains and talents. Do not judge based on gender, color of hair/skin/eyes/.. Do not judge in any reason, just let people try!

The article is excellent and will give motivation to many people who has been pressed down by ignorant people. Thank you for writing it! And thank you to those nine ladies for being such a great example to us all.

My life is always busy but I do not think it has ever been busier than it was during 2014!

In January, while I was visiting the Oracle HQ, Paul Carlstroem from Oracle Press came to me and asked if I was interested in writing a book for them. Believe me I was the most surprised person to hear my reply: yes. Wow! That decision alone made my year busy!

So in January I was at the Oracle HQ attending the International Oracle User Group Summit and in May I attended the EMEA User Group Presidents’ meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria. During the year I spoke at some exciting events the first time: the OUGN boat conference, Kscope14 and the Nordic ACE Director Tour. These were so great and I can already say that I am a lucky girl: I will be speaking in both OUGN15 and Kscope15! New to me were also the roadshows organized by local Oracle. Amazing tours around Finland that I was lucky to be a part of.

Of course I did do some talks in user groups I always love to go: BGOUG (Bulgaria) and DOAG (Germany). Lucky me! Not to mention my own user group OUGF that organized an amazing event in the middle of a Finnish forest in June. That conference I will always remember. Mainly because it also included a guided tour in Helsinki by yours truly and a camping night for the speakers. That was great fun!

This year’s Oracle Open World was very special to me. There was my first Oracle ACE Director briefing at the Oracle HQ just before the Open World and I had four talks during the Open World. It was a busy 10 days! But I enjoyed very much and I am really looking forward to my next briefing and the Open World! Thank you for letting me be an Oracle ACED! I am so happy and honored and will try to be as good ACED as I can be!

2014 was not a good year in the sense of finance and Finland is not doing great now. I hope 2015 will be better. I love my country but I am very worried. I never speak “politics” but this country needs strong decisions and less restrictions for business.

2015 will be very interesting. My book will come out (I am so excited!) and I will have been invited to many great events to go and talk about my favorite topic: database design! It is possible I will find new topics too as I did in 2014… I have made a very hard and sad decision for 2015: I will not continue as the president of OUGF. I will continue my work and co-operation with user groups if they only let me but I will not be a president any more. My life has been too busy and I have too many responsibilities, it is time to let other people to take some of those responsibilities. My company needs me, my family needs me and most of all I need me…

Thank you for making my year 2014 so amazing! And thank you for being a friend!

I wish you all a great 2015 and I hope to see you in 2015 many times during my trips!

Yesterday I faced the writer’s block. To get over it I told myself I am not ALLOWED to write at all. It took me 60min before I broke the rule and started to write 🙂 I am easy to trick… LOL

Now the last chapter has been sent for tech editing! Hooray!

OK, there is still plenty of work with tech editors’ comments and copy editing but I declare myself a winner now! Short celebration and then back to writing.