The Kudzu Files

Life Unscripted

No, this has nothing to do with TLC. Sometimes, you'll find yourself in the midst of a day that's just nice. You feel good, there are no crises, birds are singing, happy little forest creatures are, well, happy. And then, of course, you find out how foolish you are to think that the day was nice. This day became one of those right before lunch, when one of our mid-level managers walked in my office and asked if there wasn't a way I could restore the database to the way it was at about 9:30 this morning. Well, yes, there is, of course - that's part of what you pay for with Oracle. But it definitely wouldn't qualify as painless. He and his partner in crime had fired off a new procedure to do some updates, without really testing it first. It careened it's way through the database like a car that's lost it's steering in a crowded marketplace. Fortunately, I was able to restore the corrupted tables without having to roll the database back. Unfortunately, that process took until 5:30 this afternoon, which means that in addition to missing lunch, I also didn't get several other things done that needed doing. And since most everyone was gone by the time I was finished, there was no one around to proclaim me a hero. Such is life....