This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

As the previous episode was the climax, this final episode is the denouement of the series. It starts out with the real Brad welcoming the audience to episode two of DBA in Space at the Lunar Surface Exhibit of the Roddenberry Launch Center. Of course real Brad has been in stasis for the past month, and hasn’t yet realized that any time has past, so Miss Friday has to tell him it’s really the last episode. This seems to distress real Brad, but he knows what will cheer him up, Jar Jar. So real Brad begins to look for Jar Jar around the set. Miss Friday doesn’t want to surprise real Brad too soon about Jar Jar’s demise, so she changes the topic and directs a message to the audience, recapping her experience of forcing an alien hoard to retreat, a slight exaggeration, but she wants to impress his boss over at the NSCC. Brad is really confused after hearing Miss Friday talk about aliens, as he still doesn’t understand what is going on. In fact, real Brad decides he might be better off not knowing what really happened.

Then real Brad reads the last question, which, like he said, was a “real humdinger”, as it was so long and convoluted. Then Miss Friday says, “And as Private Hudson would say,” and then real Brad says, “That’s it. Game over man. Game over.” If you don’t know the sci-fi reference, it is from of the last scenes of the movie Aliens.

And finally, both the real Brad and Miss Friday walk off the set, not realizing that they are still on camera, tip toeing through the set as not to get their shows too dirty. The shoes I was wearing as part of my costume cost about $450, although this had nothing to do with the scene, which was a joke.

Real Brad and Miss Friday aren’t aware they still are on camera.

After the last question is answered, there is a short follow-up scene. You see an origami unicorn on what appears to be on the surface of the moon, then a hand picks it up. Then there is a cut to real Brad holding the unicorn, who is shushing the audience, and then he walks off the set. If this scene doesn’t make a lot of sense to you, then you are not a big fan of Blade Runner, where an origami unicorn was used to symbolize the fact that the character played by Harrison Ford hated that he was a replicant.

The origami unicorn gag was from the movie Blade Runner.

So what does that mean in the context of this last scene? Well, if you use your imagination, keep in mind that alien Brad hated the fact he was in human form and that he really wanted to return to Mars. Earth just wasn’t his forte. But if alien Brad was transported back to Mars, why is real Brad showing off the origami unicorn and then shushing the audience about having it? Is it because real Brad is not the real Brad, and who maybe is really alien Brad? Perhaps alien Brad wasn’t able to get back to Mars, but has now had time to perfect his human skills and has taken real Brad’s place, accepting his fate that he now has to live on Earth the rest of his life. If so, what happened to the real Brad, and when did the switch take place? Some mysteries must be kept secret.

Real Brad (or perhaps alien Brad), doesn’t want the viewers to share his secret.

I find it very difficult to memorize anything exactly, which made it very difficult for me to memorize my lines. With the exception of this last episode, I was, just barely, able to remember my lines, but for this episode, I needed help, as question fourteen was long, and I needed to be very precise. So for the beginning of the scene, I did recite my lines, but when I needed to ask the question, I used a card to read it from, as there was just no way I was going to get it right. Within the context of the scene, I think that reading the question from the card worked fairly well, given that many newscasters do the same, and it is a common thing for people to see.

The very last scene, with the origami unicorn, was done very quickly. The shot was first set up by the crew, and in the first cut all I had to do was to pick it up. Then the scene cuts to me shushing, and then leaving the set. I think we did this in just a couple of very short takes. This was one of the last scenes filmed, as I was finally beginning to feel comfortable in front of the camera.

In Summary

This is the last of my journal. Although it totals over 16,000 words, it just barely covers my experiences as an actor in DBA in Space. In fact, the entire experience seems very surreal, as though it never really happened. When I go back to watch the videos, it does stir up memories, but other memories seem to have already disappeared. Perhaps it was the stress of doing something new that has prevented me from remembering every little detail, as I would like to remember. Or, more likely, its just my poor memory and my lack of being able to remember precise details. In any event, this was a great experience for me, and in fact, if I were offered the opportunity to do it again, I would.

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

While there are fourteen episodes, this episode was the climax of the two subplots. It was also a complex episode with many different scenes. We learn right away that Miss Friday is alive and locked in the IT storage room. It is dark and she is talking into a hand held video camera in order to document her situation for her superiors at the NSDD. In the initial scene, she appears to be trying to communicate with someone from the outside, but with no luck. Suddenly, she realizes that someone (the audience) can see her and she tells the audience that she is in a locked room, but apparently alien Brad has fiddled with the password and she can’t get out.

In addition, she has found the real Brad in the same room as she is locked in. Apparently, the real Brad has been stuck in some sort of stasis chamber, where alien Brad placed him as soon as he crashed on Earth and took over Brad’s persona. Miss Friday seems more interested in getting out of the storage room than helping Brad, although she does make a small attempt at getting him out by blowing hot air on the stasis chamber with a blow dryer to unfreeze him. But now that she has the audience’s attention, she asks their help in restoring her password so she can get out.

Can you see the air tube I was breathing from?

After the task is completed, and she has the password, she goes to open the door. About that same time, there is a loud sound of sloshing water, and Miss Friday looks back to see that the real Brad has slipped out of his stasis chamber and is now flat on his back on the floor, covered with slime. Brad appears to be conscious, so Miss Friday gives him a hand to help him off the floor. But rather than helping out Brad and checking to see if he is OK, Miss Friday drags him on the hunt to catch alien Brad. They begin to run down corridors, and then she passes off the hand held video camera to Brad so he can document the event, as Miss Friday wants to be able to prove to her bosses that she is an able agent.

I think it took three takes to get this scene right, which was good, as I was freezing after being saturated with slime.

They finally reach the Roddenberry Launch Center’s Exhibition Hall, where most of the questions have been filmed for the competition, and she grabs a ray-gun off a table, hoping to use it to kill alien Brad if she has to. Unfortunately, Miss Friday isn’t aware that the ray-gun is just a fake museum piece.

Miss Friday catches me on camera before we switch off, and then I hold the camera.

As Miss Friday and the real Brad rush up the stairs, they see alien Brad being prepped by the makeup lady for shooting another DBA in Space competition question, and Miss Friday shouts “up with your hands,” and fires her ray-gun, which only makes a cute toy-like sound.

Some people thought that having the makeup artist in the final scene was a mistake. No, it was deliberate, as alien Brad is getting prepped to continue with the next episode of DBA in Space, and the makeup artist is just doing her job. What is interesting is the makeup artist in the scene is the real makeup artist, Eve.

The still slimy real Brad, who is still recording these actions live, realizes that alien Brad seems to look a little bit familiar. Given that he has been in a stasis chamber for about a month, he isn’t aware of what has happened.

Brad and Miss Friday attempt to capture alien Brad.

Alien Brad lucks out in his timing, as before Miss Friday can arrest him, he beams out. But as he beams out, he takes on his real Martian appearance, and then he is gone. Apparently, alien Brad was able to get SQL Source Control and the database to his dad in a previous episode, and his dad sent someone to pick him up from Earth and return him to Mars. Alien Brad’s freakish appearance scares both Miss Friday and the real Brad. “Frack.”

This was shot during rehearsal for the “beam-up” scene. The shoes I am wearing cost about $450.00, and I had to be real careful to keep them clean.

This winds up the two subplots. First of all, Miss Friday got proof that there was indeed an alien, and with the video tape as evidence, she will most likely get a promotion. Second, the crashed alien finally gets home, which is all he ever really wanted to do.

This episode was another of my favorites, as I got do some interesting things. The first scene was shot in a very small storage room with the lights turned off. Nell (aka Miss Friday) was holding a video camera (with an attached light), filming herself, recording the events as they occurred. For the story, she is performing the recording in order to document her accomplishments finding alien Brad. There is no explanation how she got the video camera in the final version of the episode, but originally there was supposed to be another scene where she picked up the camera, helping to establish that she had one and where she got it. This got cut out of the final script and was not filmed.

While Nell was filming herself, I was standing in the stasis chamber, all the time doing my best to keep from laughing. There were numerous takes of Nell before you see me, which meant I was stuck in the status chamber for a long time.

Being inside the stasis chamber was an experience I’ll probably never have again. Here’s the story behind it. On the day this scene was to be filmed, I was brought to the set of the stasis chamber, and a set decorator got inside the chamber to show me how it worked. It was quite obvious that you could make out the outline of the person inside, and he didn’t look like me. Then I was politely asked if I wanted to do the scene or not, as they had assumed that I would not want to, but were being polite in giving me the opportunity to do the scene. Apparently, earlier in the day when the status chamber was being tested, one of the testers literally freaked out once he was in it, and then everyone assumed I would do the same. Well, once I saw that the outline didn’t look like me, I immediately volunteered to do it, as I wanted the scene to be as authentic as possible. Once I volunteered, I could see that a lot of the crew was a little surprised at my eagerness to do my own “stunt work”.

The stasis camber was plastic pipe and latex. I think I look a little to eager to be encased in latex.

Essentially, the status chamber was made up of a frame of ridged plastic tubing at the left, top, and right sides, and at the bottom was a piece of hard foam, about a foot in width. The left and right tubing were placed in holes of the hard foam to secure the frame in place. Next, two very large sheets of latex were placed on the frame and taped at the bottom and sides with duct tape to create an air tight seal. To get in the stasis chamber, they lowered the latex shell to the ground, where I stepped up on the foam bottom of the frame, and then the set decorators pulled up the latex shell around my body, encasing me. Next, I was given an air hose to breath with from my mouth. Then they sealed the top of the latex shell, and then with a vacuum pump attached through a hole in the latex, they sucked out all of the air, leaving my body sandwiched within the latex. When the pump first turns on, the air is literally ripped from the latex shell, providing a sensation I have never felt before. I guess the closest way to describe the feeling is like being expelled from a spaceship into the vacuum of space. As the vacuum pump makes a lot of noise, once the air is out, it was turned off, and then some air returns, relieving some of pressure on my lungs. Of course, all this time I am breathing out of my mouth through a plastic tube.

As Nell was filming the scene, I had to keep several things in mind. First, I had to breath in and out with my mouth, not my nose. Breathing in with my nose didn’t work, and breaking out slightly inflated the latex chamber. This was especially hard as I was trying to keep from laughing as Nell was acting and ad libbing, most of which didn’t get included in the final cut of the video. Another problem was that I had to balance myself on the foam block I was standing on, which was not particular easy, as it was soft and my feet barely fit entirely on the foam. And of course I couldn’t move, otherwise the effect would not be realistic. Holding my position for long periods of time was a little stressing. And I won’t even go into how hot and humid it was inside, with the lights directly behind me and no way for water vapor to escape.

The crew sealing up the top of the latex stasis chamber.

On top of all this, the crew was worried that I would freak out, fall over, or have some other emergency. So behind me (which you can’t see in the video), were two set decorators who were there to catch me if I fell, or to rip off the latex if I couldn’t breath. And on top of that, in the hallway outside of the room was a paramedic with his equipment, ready to help out I necessary.

I was in the stasis chamber four different times, taking breaks between shots. Each time they had to remove the tape off the top of the latex shell, and then tape it back up and vacuum all the air out again, four different times. By the time we were done, I was soaked with sweat. But that was no problem, as in the next scene, I was covered with slime.

The next scene occurs after the activity is done by the contestant. Miss Friday’s password now works and she opens the door to leave, but before she does, there is this sloshing sound (special effects), and she turns around and sees me, flat on the floor, covered with slime.

The blue bucket had the slime,and they applied it by first pouring it on me, then using their hands to make touch-ups.

So, once the status chamber filming was over, they immediately set up to film the next scene. I was helped out of the latex chamber and was only able to rest a short time, as they wanted to keep on filming. So I laid down on the cold, concrete floor, with my head resting on the foam bottom of the frame. This was good, as putting my head on concrete would not have been fun. The set decorators had already prepared a large bucket of cold, wet, slime, so once I laid down, they began to pour it on me, careful not to get any in my eyes. Did I say it was cold? I wasn’t given any direction on what do for this scene, other than for Nell to help me up. So I improvised myself, trying to put myself in the mind of an actual person in this situation. That’s where I got the idea (I guess it is rather obvious if you think about it), of blinking my eyes when the light from the hand held camera hits them, and making the face I did. The groaning as I got up was me, and not a sound effect. One difficult part of this scene was that the floor was very slippery, and both Nell and I had to be careful not to slip. In addition, my hands were covered with slime, and she grabbed my hand to pick me up, I had to do most of the work of getting up off the floor, as her slippery hand wasn’t enough to do the job on its own. We did this for about 3 or 4 takes, and were done, or so I thought. Nobody had told me that the next scene was going to be me and Nell running through corridors.

In the next scene, as Nell and I are running through the corridors (I changed my shoes to clean ones so I wouldn’t slip). At first, Nell was holding the video camera, filming me as I ran in front of her. Then next, you see Nell running in front of me, while I am holding the video camera. We shot an extra scene where Nell passed off the video camera to me, but it was cut from the final version. Not having this shot makes the scene less cohesive and perhaps a little confusing, but I doubt if most people noticed. And since I took the shots of Nell running through the corridor, I guess I am officially not only an actor and writer (I helped a little on the final draft of the script), but also a camera operator. Now I will have to join three different unions. We only shot the first two corridor scenes a couple of times. After the corridor, you see Nell run down a staircase, running around some people blocking her way. This scene was actually shot the day before with the real camera operator, and the people you see dressed in different suits were volunteers from Red Gate.

The Red Gate extras who appeared in DBA in Space.

In the next scene, Nell grabs the pretend ray-gun and rushes up to confront alien Brad. This was also filmed separately by the camera operator. My camera operator career only lasted a few seconds on screen.

Then there is a cut to alien Brad on the Lunar Exhibition set and you can see that someone is putting makeup on Alien Brad, as he was getting ready to present the last question of the competition. The someone is the real makeup artist, Eve, who was essentially playing herself. Also, if you look closely, you can see the boom microphone in the scene, which was also intentional, to support the idea that alien Brad was getting ready to be on camera, as he has for the past episodes, imitating the real Brad.

Now, you may be thinking, how can I be in two places at the same time, as I am in the same scene playing alien Brad and the real Brad? Easy, of course. The scenes were shot on separate days and edited together to look like they were shot at the same time. In fact, there is a camera pan that moves from alien Brad to the real Brad, as if they are in the same room together. This was actually a special effect to give a better appearance of reality.

Next is a cut to the real Brad, holding the video camera (the first time you see this), and Nell holding the fake ray-gun at alien Brad. The real Brad, for the first time since waking from stasis chamber, sees alien Brad, and isn’t sure what is happening.

Nell then confronts Alien Brad with the ray-gun, but as luck would have it, his dad comes to the rescue and beams him off the set. The beaming scene was also shot separately from the others. I essentially stood still for a few moments, while looking up into the sky (another one of my improvisations), and then CGI was used to beam me out. But as alien Brad is beamed out, the real Brad changes to his real Martian form, which grosses out both Miss Friday and the real Brad. Of course, CGI was used for all these effects. I didn’t even know what the alien looked like until I saw the final version on the website.

I get to to be beamed up with a transporter. How many people get that lucky?

Miss Friday’s and the real Brad’s reaction to the ugly alien were filmed on the same day as the stasis chamber and slime scene, and I get to look surprised and disgusted at the same time, and utter “Frack”. As a matter of fact, I wrote that line, as the original line (and now I can’t remember what it was) was too corny.

It would have been cool if this was me in makeup, but CGI was used to represent the alien in his true form.

So overall, this entire episodes was made up of many different scenes, filmed over three different days. Oh, and how did I get de-slimed? As I mentioned in one of my original blogs, most of the filming was done at a racetrack grandstand at Epson Downs in England. Since I was completely soaked with slim, one of the producers was able to get me access to the showers used by the jockeys. I was led down under the building by a building supervisor, along with the two wardrobe ladies, where I was able to get out of my slimy clothing, take a hot shower, and put back on my regular clothes that I had worn to the set that day. It was a little eerie being down in the basement with nobody around, except for the wardrobe ladies. It was like being in abandoned building, and every sound bounced off the walls as echoes. Once I was done, the wardrobe ladies took my slimy clothing, and later sent them to be cleaned. But the pants, which was from a woolen suit, shrank. As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, in the scene where I jack into the communications system, I was wearing the shrunken pants.

As I said before, this was the most fun, and interesting times of the entire shoot. I doubt if I will repeat many of these same activities anytime soon again in my life.

In my next installment, I will talk about filming question fourteen, the last episode of DBA in Space.

Judging any contest is difficult, as you want to be as fair as possible. So coming up with the final 15 contestants for the DBA in Space competition was not an easy job for the judges. But as you have probably already learned today, they have made their decision, and the final 15 will go before a vote of the public to decide which lucky DBA will have an opportunity to fly into space.

Red Gate Software invited three people to be the judges, which included Simon Galbraith (Joint CEO of Red Gate Software), Buck Woody (well known DBA and former NASA employee), and Graham Coxon, an (English singer-songwriter whose former band, Blur, were responsible for composing the call signal for the Beagle 2 mission to Mars in 2003).

All three judges selected their favorite 15 Tweets in a double-blind process, so that none of the judges knew which DBA submitted which Tweet. While there is a lot of subjectivity in how a judge evaluates a Tweet, it turned out that there was a high level of agreement between all the judges as to which of the Tweets best fit the judging criteria of “(a) relevance to the database administrator community; (b) how innovate the Tweet was; and 3) relevance to the theme of space.”

Now that the final 15 have been selected, there is only one week for the final 15 to market themselves to the public, and for the public to place their votes, which is “over a period of 7 days commencing at such time as the Finalists are announced on 6 December 2011 and closing at 12:00 (UTC) on 13 December 2011.”

So why not join in and help your favorite contestant win the greatest adventure of their lifetime by voting at the www.DBAinSpace.com website. Anyone can vote up to once a day for their favorite contestant, so make sure you take advantage of this and vote every day until the contest ends on December 13, 12:00 (UTC).

More About the Judges

Graham Coxon is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and painter. He came to prominence as the lead guitarist, backing vocalist and occasional lead vocalist of rock band Blur, and is also a critically acclaimed solo artist, having recorded seven solo albums. Blur were chosen to compose the call signal for the Beagle 2 mission to Mars in 2003. Graham’s artistic and musical contribution is featured on all seven of Blur’s studio albums, and he was voted the 15th greatest guitarist of the last 30 years in a national 2010 BBC poll.

Buck Woody has been working with Information Technology since 1981 and is currently a Senior Technical Specialist for Microsoft, working with enterprise-level clients to develop computing platform architecture solutions within their organizations. He has worked for the U.S. Air Force, at an IBM reseller in technical support, for NASA, and at the U.S. Space Command as an IT contractor. He has worked in most all IT positions from computer repair technician to system and database administrator, and from network technician to IT Manager; and with multiple platforms as a Data Professional. He has been a DBA and Database Developer on Oracle systems running on a VAX to SQL Server and DB2 installations.

Simon Galbraith is co-founder and joint-CEO of Red Gate Software (his fellow CEO is Neil Davidson) and he’s been helping to grow it and make it a great place to work since it started in 1999. 

We want to thank the judges for all the time and effort they made in judging the competition.

Today, the final 15 competitors were announced at the DBA in Space website. To get into the final 15, the contestants first had to successfully answer all 14 tasks and questions from the competition, and then submit what would be their first Tweet from space. According to the rules, the Tweet had to be 140 characters or less and include the #redgate hashtag. Assuming they got this far, the Tweets that met this criteria where then judged based on the following criteria: (a) relevance to the database administrator community; (b) how innovate the Tweet is; and 3) relevance to the theme of space.

The final 15 Tweets were selected by the three judges by using a blind rating system. In other words, the judges were able to read each Tweet, but they did not know which DBA wrote each Tweet. The judges did not know the name of the DBA, their gender, their database specialty, their nationality, not anything at all about the DBA, other than reading their Tweet. This way, the judging would be impartial, solely based on the Tweets submitted for the competition. Each of the three judges rated the Tweets, and the top 15 with the highest overall scores were announced as the final 15.

The final 15 (in alphabetical order) are listed below, including a short biography (provided by the contestant), and a photo. You may notice that some of the final 15 are not SQL Server DBAs. This is because the contest was open to all DBAs, no matter what database software they use. You can find out more information about each contestant, including their winning Tweets, at www.dbainspace.com. 

Phillip Beazley

Phillip Beazley is a Database Administrator for Dallas National Insurance Company in Dallas, TX. He is married and blessed with two daughters and one son. Growing up in the small West Texas town of Odessa, he always had a strong interest in astronomy, and the desert was a great place to be a stargazer. His curiosity and hunger for adventure led him to the U.S. Marine Corps after high school and on to several exotic locations. Although life is now fuller than he ever dreamed, the mystery and magic of space still pulls his eyes toward the stars.

Simone Burcombe

Like many, I’m an accidental DBA or, to be more precise, an accidental Data Analyst. I began my SQL adventure when I was on the operational side of a large staffing firm, and landed on a software implementation project. Somehow, that turned into a project lead role, then providing both operational and database support. I learned my first T-SQL (select … where …) by watching the vendor’s tech support guy and scrambling to write down everything he typed in on my machine. That led to entire worlds opening up for me. I’m now working with a great BI team for a heavy equipment distributor, and I am an active member of the local and international SQL communities.

Gerald Drouin

I’m a manufacturing software developer and accidental DBA.  I’m married with two beautiful daughters.  When I’m not working, I’m spending time with them and doing yoga. Personal geek firsts:  Computer – VIC20, BBS hosted – EBBS (C64); All-nighter video game – Civilizations; DB experience – Access 2.0; SQL crash – tempdb full; Biggest dream squashed by the reality of cost and lack of technological advancement and then revitalized by this contest – going into space. A poem sums it up:

I can do airplane
I can do tree
But what I really want to do
Is experience micro-gravity

Tim Ford

Tim is the Lead SQL DBA at Spectrum Health and has 12 years’ experience using SQL to aid in patient care. He’s been a volunteer for The Professional Association for SQL Server since 2002, is a presenter, and has served as leader for West Michigan SQL Users Group. Tim started SQL Cruise in 2010. On SQL Cruise, he takes 15 students and provides training from SQL professionals along with networking and relaxation. He’s an author, presenter, goofball, and Nerd. He has been a SQL Server MVP since 2009. Follow Tim on Twitter as @sqlagentman or read his blog at www.thesqlagentman.com.

Richard Fuller

Hi there, I’m Richard Fuller. I work at Marshall Motor Group in Cambridge, and have been the lead developer / DBA for over 10 years now. I live just outside Cambridge with my wife Emma, three kids Abigail, Edward and Robert, and our Beagle Roscoe. When I was at school, my teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up – I told her I wanted to be an astronaut and go into space…she laughed at me. Please help me prove Mrs. White wrong and vote for me to win the trip of a lifetime. Make me your DBA in Space.

Michael Hirst

I’ve been working with databases for over twenty years – massive DB2 mainframes, to mid-sized SQL Server farms, to tiny Access mdb files. The past thirteen years I’ve been supporting medical systems on SQL Server. I’m the administrator, the architect, and the guy who gets the call if the database seems slow. I’m also the answer man who can trace third party SQL calls and find which of the four hundred tables stores the patient’s shoe size. My home is the St. Louis area in the US with my wife, six kids, and a cat.

Victoria Holt

I am a senior certified MCITP Database Administrator at Eduserv, and I am very passionate about data and databases. I have the experience of managing a large SQL Server Estate throughout the database lifecycle. With the database landscape continually changing, I proactively look at ways to improve the management of SQL Server. I am also currently looking at the adoption of SQL Server 2012, database infrastructure for the cloud, and architectural designs for relational and BI platforms. Some of my out of work activities include part time research for a PhD for improving database management systems, and involvement with the SQL community through SQLBits.

Mark Johnson

I am married and father of three, a DBA for a medical device company, and huge Sci-Fi geek. I have always wondered what it would be like to go into space, but never dreamed it would be possible for me. When I entered the DBA in Space contest, I thought about taking the cash prize and paying off my kids’ student loans, but they insist they would rather see me in space. So, with your help, something I thought was impossible can become possible. The SQL Community is an amazing group of professionals, and I’d like to thank you all for the knowledge and support I have received throughout my career.

David Kennaway

David is one of the country’s top up-and-coming Lion Tamers. In his spare time he enjoys being a DBA. Fresh faced, having graduated from the University of Bath in 2010, his enthusiasm for 4am corruption issues has yet to fade. At work, he partners closely with developers and has quickly built up a rapport, often being affectionately called "that guy who never agrees to anything." Outside of work his interests include climbing, travel and writing about himself in the third person.

John Kiernander

I’ve been working in and around databases for about 10 years now and I’m starting to get the grey hairs to prove it! Originally from Somerset, I now live in Cheshire where I work as a Solutions Architect for PMSI Consulting.  We process and host data for a range of clients in a variety of different ways, and the ever changing nature of our work means there are always plenty of new challenges to keep me busy. My wife and I had a baby boy this year, so when I’m not working I’m usually racing around the living room on my hands and knees. In fact I’d really love to go up to space just for a bit of peace and quiet!

Joe Miller

When I was a kid, I had a dog-eared old paperback on the history of the moon race. It was full of arcane details about space sextants, gimbals and Guidance Computer command sets. I read that book cover-to-cover more times than I remember (often when I should have been paying attention in class). I used to draw pictures of Redstone, Titan and Saturn V rockets to hang up on the walls, and models of Mercury and Gemini capsules had a permanent spot on a shelf over my bed. I won’t say they were entirely responsible, but those childhood dreams of spaceflight certainly nudged me towards a love of computers and software, and in a small way led me to where I am today, administering and developing software with PostgreSQL. My little brother still has my models, sitting on a shelf covered in dust. It’s been nice to dust off the dreams.

Jay Miner

I’m somewhat of an accidental DBA. My first job in tech came when I found myself in Mexico and in need of work to support a trip that had run long. Since then, I’ve interspersed my travels with stints as a DBA – some long, some short – and a few years in West Africa with the Peace Corps. It would be incredible if my next trip could be into space, and if you would vote to help me get there, I’d really appreciate it.

David Nicholls

Currently working in London as an Oracle DBA looking after several large statistical databases, David Nicholls was born and raised in Edinburgh and remains very proud of his Scottish heritage. If he wins first prize in the DBA in Space competition, David aims to become the first ever DBA (or indeed person) to play the bagpipes in space. Whilst in space, David also intends to wear a kilt and make attempts at eating haggis, drinking whisky, Scottish country dancing and tossing the caber (subject to health and safety restrictions).

Jim Thurston

I wasn’t always going to be a DBA. Though I discovered an aptitude for computers at an early age, after university I fooled myself into thinking that I’d do something else for a living. But, times were changing…the World Wide Web was here, dotcoms were booming everywhere, and suddenly all computers were as cool as the Atari my best mate had when we were ten. Finally, the time had come to release my inner geek. A decade later and I’m still at it – as DBA at musicroom.com, I’ve combined a lifelong passion for music with something I can actually do.

GP Van Eron

I have been a DBA for 10+ years, primarily linked to SQL 2000 – 2008 R2. Besides the emotional and physical trauma a DBA can undergo, I truly do enjoy playing this role and working with SQL Server (battling Replication aside). I may not possess the gift of high intelligence. But with deep experience and resourcefulness, I excel continuously and perform my job proficiently.

Now That the Final 15 Have Been Selected, What Next?

All of the contestants now have about one week to promote themselves, trying to get votes for themselves in order to win the contest. Hopefully, we will see some creative self-marketing in the next week as the voting continues.

Anyone can vote in this contest, but you are only allowed to vote once a day for your favorite contestant.  Voting begins at, as per the contest rules, “over a period of 7 days commencing at such time as the Finalists are announced on 6 December 2011 and closing at 12:00 (UTC) on 13 December 2011.”

Don’t forget to vote and make some DBA’s dream to go into space a reality!

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

As this scene starts on Lunar Exhibition set, Miss Friday is nowhere to be found, and alien Brad asks question twelve of the competition. As you can see, alien Brad really looks bad. His face is completely covered with boils, as if the skin were ready to slide off his interior Martian body. In fact, he has given up trying to pretend to be the real Brad, as he now assumes, as we learned from the last episode, that he knows that we know he is an alien. Because of this, he reveals personal information about himself on Mars. In fact, he reverts to his Martian ways, with a deep voice, anger in his face, and lizard-like eyes, when he says, “But if you don’t play along, you won’t make it to the launch.” He is telling the audience that if they don’t participate in the competition, that you can’t win. An obvious statement, but one that is very true. I imagine a lot of DBAs probably didn’t participate in the contest as they assumed that they could not win. But of course, one DBA will.

I think my alien eyes look kind of cool. Maybe I’ll dress up as an alien for next Halloween.

This was another scene where I had to remember a lot of lines, and get them right in a single take as the camera moved closer to me. Will, the director, told me that I was supposed to be angry and menacing in the scene. I am not sure I accomplished that, but the final outcome was creepy. This scene was one of the last ones filmed, and by this time, I was beginning to feel more comfortable in front of the camera. I don’t know if you can tell that or not, but I can from re-watching the scene.

In my next installment, I will talk about filming question thirteen.

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

This was a Friday task-related question and involves two key scenes. First, in what appears to be a video from a dead Miss Friday (aka Verity Blunt). She is asking you for your help to find the footage of the alien making the transmission she had recorded before her untimely demise. After you perform your task, then a new scene is show where alien Brad appears to be in a server room, and then jacks himself into a computer, apparently trying to upload the SQL Source Control software and database back to his dad back on Mars. This is the footage that Miss Friday wanted you to find. As you may notice at the end of this scene, alien Brad notices the webcam, and then you see the menacing message on the screen: “Your attempts to stop me are in vain. Cease your interference unless you want to be reunited with Agent Friday”. Apparently, alien Brad knows that you are watching. Also, can you be sure that alien Brad succeeded in uploading the software and database so that his father would help him return home?

I wasn’t involved in the scene with Miss Friday, but I watched it get shot. It was a straight-forward scene, but what I thought was interesting was the set. It sort of looks like Miss Friday is standing in some futuristic-looking room. In actuality, it was just cardboard painted black, with some holes made it in, which were covered with colored gels, with flashing lights behind the gels. It was a very simple set, but looked good on screen.

This shot was done with one camera, but with many takes. It was filmed in the actual server room that held the computers used to create the CGI effects for the videos.

The second scene, where I jack into the Roddenberry Launch Center’s servers, was the only scene in the episodes that was not filmed at the racetrack at Epson Downs. It was filmed in the server room of The Mill, the company that produced the videos. In fact, it was filmed after the initial filming the previous week, late in the evening after most of the people at The Mill had gone home. While this scene had a lot of CGI, what is really interesting is that the actual CGI was done on the servers I was standing in front of. Because it was such a short scene, we didn’t need the full crew. In fact, it was just me and Will, the director. Will had a HD camera that he mounted at various places in the server room where a hidden webcam might be located. We then filmed the scene many different ways, which gave Will a lot of options when putting together the scene. For example, the initial scene shows what appears to be four webcams, and you can see alien Brad move about the server room so he can jack into a communications link. These four angles were filmed as separate shots, and then later combined to the scene you see.

When filming this scene, Will (director) was worried that it might be too scary, so he filmed lots of options.

This scene was filmed several ways. At the time of the filming, Will couldn’t decide if he wanted me to use my tongue, finger, or mouth to “jack” into the servers.

What might not be obvious from the video is that alien Brad is aware that he is being video taped. This fact becomes important in later episodes, if you are a conspiracy enthusiast.

As we were filming, Will couldn’t decide exactly how alien Brad should jack into the system, so it was filmed three different ways. First, jacking in with a long, alien tongue. Second was using a finger. And third, was my mouth, which was what they decided to use for this episode. It was a lot of fun trying all the different versions, and this scene is one of my personal favorites.

As we were filming, Will was exploring different parts of the server room. At one point he asked me to walk to the other side of the server room (not shown in the video that was used). The only problem with his request was that two of the floor panels were missing where he wanted me to walk, and the floor was covered with optical and wire cables. I suggested to Will that walking on the cables might not make some people at The Mill very happy. Fortunately, he took my suggestion and we tried something else.

If you look close, you might notice that the pants I am wearing are very tight. They are tight because they were the same pants that were used for the upcoming scene (filmed the previous week) where I slide out of the alien stasis chamber, covered with slime. After these pants got slimed, they went to the cleaners, but came back shrunk and stained. I guess that proves that you should not slime any clothing that you don’t want to shrink.

In my next installment, I will talk about filming question twelve.

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

Alien Brad is not looking very well (more boils), or very happy (there are tears on his face if you look closely). This is because he realizes that he has been “outed” by Miss Friday, and because of this, probably won’t make it home back to Mars. Then alien Brad tells the audience that Miss Friday won’t be joining them today because Miss Friday has Rigelian fever. In fact, we are left with the impression that perhaps alien Brad has permanently gotten rid of Miss Friday. Alien Brad continues to talk about the competition, where the winner will be able to “escape this rain-soaked planet, away from the constant noise, the damp smells, and the awful food. A chance to drift in the tranquility of space.” On that last sentence, Alien Brad’s voice becomes high-pitched and his eyes turn black. Apparently, for a moment, he forgot he was before the camera and reverted partially to his Martian self. After he catches his lapse, he continues to provide the week’s question.

Other than the very first scene of the episodes, this was the most difficult for me. First of all, there were a lot of lines to memorize; second, I did the scene all by myself; third, I was supposed to act sad; fourth, I had to have tears; and last of all, the scene was one, long take. So that meant that every time I goofed up, the camera would have to be reset (it was set to truck into me throughout my monologue). I guess that Will, the director, knew this would be a difficult scene for me, so they allocated 2.5 hours to do it in. But I surprised myself and everyone else, as it only took me 4 takes to get it right, well, as right as it will ever get for a non-actor. In fact, we were done so fast that we ended up being able to shoot an extra scene that day that had been planned for the following day.

When I smile, the makeup just doesn’t seem to have the same alien effect. This was taken shortly before this episode was filmed.

Of all the scenes I did, I think one of my best “acting” performances was after my voice raised in pitch, and my eyes went black, and then I realized I had drifted off, and then shook it off, and then continued on with the question. I thought this particular action was actually believable. Well, sort of.

Originally, this scene had some additional complexity, but it was cut from the script at the last moment. In the original script, I was supposed to take a tissue and eat it (as alien Brad did not know what to do with a tissue). In addition, alien Brad was supposed to wipe his tearing eyes with his hand, and in doing so, tear off some of his human skin, but then reform it back onto his face once he realized what had happened. While these would have been funny gags, not doing them made the scene much easier to do. Oh, how did I cry? Using a glycerin and water mixture that was placed on my eyes just before each take, and thinking about how bad an actor I was. Unfortunately, unless you play the videos at a high resolution, the tears are hard to see.

In my next installment, I will talk about filming question eleven.

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

Episode nine was filmed in the “Mars” exhibit. In this scene, alien Brad is feeling very homesick. Miss Friday starts the scene talking about the Mar Rovers, and alien Brad makes a bad joke about rovers breaking Martian traffic laws. Miss Friday continues the conversation, and then alien Brad’s attention wonders off, with him thinking back about how wonderful it would be to be back on Mars. Then alien Brad makes a big mistake. He takes a meteorite from a display table and takes a deep breath in, smelling it, helping to remind him of Mars. But finally, finally, Miss Friday finally adds 1 plus 1 and realizes that alien Brad is not really Brad, but the alien. It has taken her all this time before she has come to this realization.

So Miss Friday tries to trick up alien Brad by saying “No place like home, eh, Brad?” This catches the attention of alien Brad, who now is beginning to realize for himself that perhaps that Miss Friday has finally caught on to who he really is. As they continue to talk, they begin to stare each one down, with Miss Friday trying to trick alien Brad into incriminating himself on camera, but it doesn’t work.

Alien Brad picks up a meteorite in order to smell it, and remind himself of what it is like to be back home on Mars.

This was a relatively complex scene for me, as there were a lot of lines, and we shot it wide angle, and then with close-ups of both of us. One goal of this scene was to indicate that alien Brad was homesick for Mars. I don’t really think this came across very well, as this requires a lot more acting skill than I have. Another key goal of this scene is that Miss Friday finally realizes that Brad is the alien. It took a long time, but she finally puts all the pieces of the puzzle together. In addition, alien Brad realizes that Miss Friday is on to him. In the next episode, we learn what alien Brad does as a result of being caught in his masquerade.

I want to comment that the Mars “meteorites” on the display table were not really meteorites, just common Earth rocks. The one that I picked up and smelled was the one that I thought looked most like a Mars meteorite. So how come real Mar meteorites weren’t used for the scene? Mainly because they generally cost over $1000 a gram, and large Mars meteorites cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you want to see one of the largest Mars meteorites discovered, check out the British Natural History Museum in London. It is hard to find, but if you check out the minerals room, it is located at the back of the room in a vault, along with a very large lunar meteorite, and other expensive meteorites.

This is the famous Nakhla Mars meteorite. I took this photo at the Natural History Museum while I was in London for the filming. The black outside coating is called fusion crust (created during ablation when entering the Earth’s atmosphere), and inside are chondrules (grains of matter that are made up of the oldest material in our solar system).

In my next installment, I will talk about filming question ten.