Wow, 6:45am and Dulles #IAD is bustling! Quick trip over to NYC Postgres Meetup last night and halfway back home this morning. Always a joy to connect with more #Postgres community.

I love Bluey. My kids love Bluey. I even ended up with Bluey Christmas inflatable yard ornaments this year (something I vowed I'd never do). It's a phenomenal show with witty characters and more one-liners that my kids can spout off than I can count on multiple hands and feet. But wow, kudos to the mom on my flight from ORD to SFO today that watched Bluey for 4.5 hours with her ~15/month old to help pass the time. Not sure I could have done that. You rock. Now... where is my feather wand?

Postgres roles and privileges are tricky. It’s actually one of my favorite areas to dig into — mostly because I got stung by it early in my return to Postgres years ago. And yet… I still messed it up in my new demo database, Bluebox Docker, that I released this past week. I spotted the issue, made what I thought was a quick 30-second fix, pushed it between meetings… and didn’t test it. The next morning I woke up to my first GitHub issue: The container wouldn’t start. 🤦🏻‍♂️ The fix really was simple. I knew better. But I thought it was worth walking through what happened — both to own the mistake and to hopefully help others understand Postgres security just a little more clearly. Video Recap: piped.video/YJeH2WlxGpo Bluebox Docker project: github.com/ryanbooz/bluebox-…

Introducing Bluebox Docker — a living PostgreSQL sample database that continuously generates realistic activity. 🐘 I wanted a sample database that actually behaves like a real system — something you can use to explore VACUUM, bloat, query plans, and monitoring in a realistic way. So I built one. One command and you’re up & running with: 🔹 Backfilled historical data + ongoing transactions 🔹 pg_cron driving real workload 🔹 pg_stat_statements, auto_explain, PostGIS, pg_trgm 🔹 Support for multiple Postgres versions If you teach Postgres, build tooling, or demo observability, this should feel a lot closer to reality than a static dump. Details: softwareandbooz.com/introduc…

Shoot! I'm vibe coding (SQL'ing) with Claude on my sample Bluebox database (github.com/ryanbooz/bluebox/…) and... it's pretty amazing... and I'm having a great time. TBF, I was never totally against using AI/Claude to begin with, time just hasn't been on my side recently. But being able to think out loud and get quick feedback on "my data" is more fun and productive than I thought. Yes, I've still had to correct obvious errors multiple times, but I'm a much faster editor when I have something to start with. I don't (yet) feel replaceable, but I do feel more creative having this conversation. Wait till you see what I'm cooking up now! Schema version 0.5 coming this week. 😀 🐘

Has @Betterment been hacked @BettermentHelp? You'll triple my crypto sent to a random address for three hours only... with no other context? Instead it looks like a recently uncovered threat actor, Haby, is at it again?

Yay! 🐝🐝🐝 It's the only hive of mine that's still alive this year, so hoping we can make it until March... and then we'll try to start splitting the hives.

Last two flights of the year... and first ever #PointsRun to retain United status. An out-and-back from MDT > IAD > MDT. First world problems... I know. (looking at you @GFritchey @way0utwest) Not sure what travel looks like in the coming year, but still hoping to be at a number of #Postgres events on both sides of the pond. Coming from a small regional airport, status is a game changer. So... Here I am. Side note, I've never flown so light and care free - just a coffee and an iPad!

Anyone at #reinvent that has a 5k race bib for tomorrow morning but probably won't use it and wants to give it to someone who does? Apparently there are only 200 remaining that you have to show up at 4am to try and claim. 🤦‍♂️ #reinvent2025

Chilly morning + hot coffee + new #Techbash mug = 💯 Thanks to everyone I got to meet and connect with the last few days at @Techbash. Sorry to miss the last day, but I'm sure it's going to be 🔥!!

I can't believe it's been a year ago already that @gfritchey & I taught our Introduction to Postgres precon at @passdatasummit & Bruce Momjian was able to join us for a bit. Not surprisingly, Bruce engaged with everyone afterwards, carrying on the conversation for another 30 minutes!

Hey there #Techbash2025! If you're planning to come to my @techbash precon about PostgreSQL, here's a quick rundown of the Postgres install and sample database I'll be using if you want to try and follow along. Install Instructions: github.com/ryanbooz/bluebox/… piped.video/mxFQiIFtNM0

Years ago someone pointed out how often people say “actually” when they mean “figuratively.” Editing a transcript today from a recent video, I realized I actually use “actually” correctly — I just use it way too often. It’s actually pretty annoying how much I actually say “actually.” 🤦🏻‍♂️ #NoteToSelf

And... we're off and running at #PGConfNYC with the opening keynote by the one and only @clairegiordano! #PostgreSQL

🎉🎉🎉

Yes folks... it is 2025...

It has been way too long since I watched the Blues Brothers. It's a shame I started it with just an hour left on this flight.

Note to self... Do not start taking Melatonin again for the first time in a few years right before recording a demo video that you thought would only take 15 minutes to record. Let's just say that it's taken longer than 15 minutes... and there are more bloopers than content. 😂😴

I was just tuning a query in a sample #Postgres database to make it more efficient when I realized something was off in the EXPLAIN plan. My #PostGIS queries for finding nearby points wasn't using an index. Apparently, somewhere along the way, I removed some GiST indexes on said geography columns and... they're like important or something? Instant speed up! 🤦🏻‍♂️😂

Why yes, a crown did just fall out of my mouth. Exactly what I needed tonight. 🦷👑🤦🏻‍♂️