Well, that felt good

At work, we had an operation that was taking too damn long. Looked at the code, looked at the query it was generating, and it was pretty horrible, but I don’t see any way to avoid doing it. Then used the SQL “explain” on the query. Hmmm, it’s doing a sequential scan on two different tables. Hmm… Put an index on one column on one of the tables. Suddenly it’s only doing a lookup on one table. Ran downstairs to the big 30-plex test machine. Did the test once. Took 1:31. Added the index. Ran the test again. Took 0:08.

I’m a fucking genius.

Just fucking stop it, ok?

Ok, God, we’ve got it. Life is temporary and your friends and loved ones and friends of loved ones can be called away at any time. I’ve got it already. Just fucking stop. Now. Deb, Julie, Ron, Randy, Bob, all gone, and others besides. That’s enough. Whether it’s cancer, terrorists or plane crashes, it still hurts. Every single day.

So now Maddy has cancer. Just stop.

Opus

We went to see “Secondhand Lions” at the theatre this weekend. The movie starts in a cartoonist’s studio, and the first thing that lept out at me was that the Berk Breathed drew the cartoons. It was so incredibly obvious that we had to go home and check IMDB to make sure. (No, that doesn’t make sense to me, either, except that it’s nice to be right once in a while.)

A few days ago, I’d read this story (and others of course) about how Berkeley Breathed is bringing back Opus.

I have to wonder if he didn’t enjoy making those cartoons for the movie that he decided he missed it enough to want to get back into the business. If so, it’s another thing to love about this movie. And there was a lot to love about it, no matter how annoying you find Haley Joel Osment. A lot of people hated the ending, but I didn’t. Maybe I’m a sucker for closure, but I liked having that extra proof.