dbms_bike

What’s YOUR error?

Posted on March 22nd, 2007 by admin.
Categories: oracle.

All you IT neophytes, listen up. If you are reporting an error, report the error! I despise having to ask “What’s the error?” Unfortunate as it is, it happens all the time. As far-fetched as it may seem, telling the DBA (or developer/sysadmin) that you have an error is not good enough. This is a sure-fire way to both annoy your DBA and waste his/her time in the process. Send them a detailed error and they can go on their merry problem-fixing way and then get back to you. Get my point?

Even better is when the user, in this case a developer, can do no wrong. Yesterday, some client-side developer tries his hand at a stored procedure. Logging in as a user account, he tries to compile a procedure into the application owner’s account. After a few failures, he emails the following:

<email>

I can’t even run this one

<his code here>

Oracle must be hosed.

</email>

Yep that’s his email. Nice of him to tell me what went wrong. When I hear “Oracle must be hosed”, I picture 20,000 people not able to use my application. Somtimes I envision an entire floor of developers or testers not being able to work. I dont picture some hotshot Windows developer trying to compile code into a schema he has no business compiling.

Here’s another tip: “Oracle must be hosed” is a magic phrase that will cause me to drop whatever I’m doing and scramble to the nearest SSH client.

PS, that’s why you never give the application owner’s password to the developers. Let them log in as the user, change their data, but structures and code are off-limits.

React.

If anyone has any nice smart-alecky ways to ask them for their problem, leave a commnent!

0 comments.

Achievement Unlocked

Posted on March 19th, 2007 by admin.
Categories: weightloss.

My ego loves this part-getting recognized by people for losing weight.  Not just friends/family/coworkers, but other people who notice.  People from different floors in my building.  Members of the bike club.  My kids’ friends’ parents.  Doctors.  Employees of establishments that I frequent.

People notice.  And that’s the best part.  Think about that next time you reach for that slice of cake.

1 comment.

Screw 1, Neil 0

Posted on March 19th, 2007 by admin.
Categories: cycling.

Well I lost this one. During the group ride, I rolled over a screw. The screw dug itself pretty good into my Mavic rim. One of the riders literally had to unscrew it to seperate it from my rim. I required the old dollar-bill-stuffed-in-the-tire trick to plug the hole. The ride leader even had to cover up the hole in my rim with a tube patch. Nice of Murphy’s law to kick in-I got a whole two rides out of that tire before having to replace it. I put the offending screw in my saddle bag but somehow lost it during my second flat of the night.

And that’s how you turn a 40 mile ride into a 30 mile one-get two flats.

About the ride, it was far faster than I anticipated. But no worries-my legs were ready for the punishment. Close to 30 miles at an average speed of 20.1 mph. We went from Centerville to Layton and back. I probably picked up another 8 or 9 miles riding to and back from Centerville. It will take some (re)getting re-acquainted to riding in a paceline again-I was quite apprehensive during this ride but the confidence will soon return.

Pretty scary profiles. To think this was the first ride of the season. Best part of the ride was that I finished with the group. The final 3 miles were the most brutal. Come to think about it-that was the second best part. The best part was rolling up to the group and getting called lean. Now that will take some getting used to!

All in all, great ride-a little faster than I wanted but a great one nonetheless.

0 comments.

I have a rumbly in my tumbly!

Posted on March 13th, 2007 by admin.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Not the best photo but you get the idea. 2 hours until the first group ride of the season. I’ve been looking forward to this day for months. Saying I’m excited is like calling the Titanic a boat.  Nobody in the Bountiful Mazda cycling club knows about the weight loss. Nobody. I can’t wait to see the look on their faces. I cant wait to get to the tops of the hills first. We’ll see. I’m going on record right now, calling my shot, this is going to be a terrific year. I’ll post some numbers later tonight.

0 comments.

Fantastic Sunday Afternoon Ride

Posted on March 11th, 2007 by admin.
Categories: cycling.

Well this was a good one. 41 miles from Bountiful to West Jordan. Beautiful conditions-clear skies and weather in the 50s. Lots of bikes on the roads. First ride of the year without gloves-helllooo spring! Had a decent tailwind for a change. I climbed the entire hill in the 53 chainring. I still need to figure out if I’m stupid or powerful. I guess time will tell.

Group rides start in a few days-Looking forward to Tuesday nights. From what I can tell by the way this year is starting off, its going to be a terrific one for riding. The weight loss is making riding much easier.

0 comments.

Neil 1, Indian Server 0

Posted on March 8th, 2007 by admin.
Categories: Uncategorized, cycling, personal, stories, weightloss.

Dateline: Lunchtime in Salt Lake City. A delicious Indian buffet. I ate a reasonable meal and even managed to leave some food on my plate(huzzah!). Our server asked me if I’m asked me if I’m all done. Flashback: Said server is used to me cleaning my plate and going back for rounds 2 and 3. Well, I politely told him I’m finished. He was surprised. “Are you sure?” he asked?

“Yes, thank you. I’m eating less.”

“Ah, you’re on a diet!” said the observant server.

“Nope. I’m eating less.” I repeated.

Server’s expression just dropped. He quitely took the plate and left. And that was it.

Neil 1 Server 0.

I dont believe in diets. Diets enable people to lose weight but then what?

How many of us have dieted?

/me raises hand.

How many have dieted and then put the weight right back on?

/me now has two hands in the air.

I didn’t diet. I changed my relationship with food.

And that’s all it took.

I’ve lost close to 55 lbs since late September 2006. I didn’t diet. I was never hungry for more than 10 minutes at a time. I was no exercise freak either, considering we were entering our coldest and wettest months. I simply changed my relationship with food.

For thirty-five years, the hardest thing for me to do was to leave food on my plate. Especially when its food that I paid for. It was also difficult for me to not ‘let what my kids didn’t eat go to waste.’ Get it? I liked to eat. As the geekcyclist said, he used to ride to eat. So did I. I was a healthy 250-pound rider. I would go on a 4-hour group ride, avg 19 mph, and then put away a couple of Cafe Rio burritos. And of course whatever my kids didn’t eat. Hell, I just burned 4000 calories, I ride 5 days/week, I ride sub-5-hour centuries, I should be able to eat anything I please, right?

Well that’s what I did for a few years; my weight remained the same. Even slowly went up. The turning point for me was the end of Summer 2006. As the days grew shorter, our group rides became more intense. Real intense. To the point where I was getting dropped each week. And not just on hills! I was even getting dropped in the flats!

Nothing is as miserable as the solo rideback to your home/car after not being able to hang with your group. Remember the ‘walk of shame’ back in college? This was the ride of shame. And it was worse. And then I realized things have to change. Beginning with my relationship with food.

And so it began. Stick around.

1 comment.

Always nice to climb 1300 feet before 8am

Posted on March 8th, 2007 by admin.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Went from Orchard Drive in Bountiful to Downtown Salt Lake City the hard way. Via Eaglewood Golf Course. 1300 feet of climbing. What a way to start the day. Of course the second I hit Bountiful Boulevard (high elevation), the rain started. Had to ride down Eagleridge clutching my brakes.  A nice side effect of the weight loss is that my HR literally maxes out 20 bpm lower.  Click the image below for more details.

0 comments.

For posterity’s sake

Posted on March 2nd, 2007 by admin.
Categories: photography, personal, tattoo, zodiac, scorpio.

For whatever reason, tons of hits on my old site were from people who were searching for tattoos that represent determination, strong will, and Zodiac Scorpio. Well to keep those people happy (and the search engines), here is the photo. I had this done in July 2006 at Lost Art Tattoo in Salt Lake City. Its the Zodiac Scorpio, and its derived from the Hebrew Letter Mem.

Its on my left calf, which looks pretty awesome if you’re following me in a paceline; pretty unlikely since I’m usually the one in the back gasping for air.

For more information on this symbol, check out symbols.com.

0 comments.

self portrait

Posted on March 2nd, 2007 by admin.
Categories: cycling, photography.

Took this photo while cruising past the SLC airport for what seems like the one-millionth time. No PS motion blur here-that’s the real thing!

1 comment.

Talk about getting caught by surprise!

Posted on March 2nd, 2007 by admin.
Categories: personal.

Well, I thought I’d better get something up to entertain the masses visiting from geekcyclist. Stick around, this is going to be good.

I’m an Oracle guy by profession but that’s just to pay the bills. In real life, I’m a [Specialized|Apple Comp^H^H^H^H Inc.|Microsoft Xbox 360|Canon|NBA fanboy]. Expect to hear my wit, wisdom, and rants on those topics, as well as more, more, and yes, more.

I’m flattered from the shout-out from the geekcyclist. And yes, its true-I am writing this while actually weighing less than 200 lbs.

For the first time in about twelve years.

And to think that I was pushing 250 as recently as September!

Stay tuned for that story!

oh yeah, be sure to click those boxes in the upper-left-hand corner. pretty cool huh? Almost makes me want to become an interface designer.

yeah right

0 comments.