Pickabar Blog

As a consultant, I spend a lot of time trying to get up to speed on new Database Models. This little batch has come in handy many a time, as it allows you to easily list the stored procedures which reference a given table.

 BEGIN 	DECLARE @tableName sysname 	SET @tableName = 'gisshipment_term'  
	SELECT DISTINCT(dependentobjects.name)
 		FROM sysobjects targetobject
 			INNER JOIN sysdepends depends
 				ON targetobject.id = depends.depid
 			INNER JOIN sysobjects dependentobjects
 				ON depends.id = dependentobjects.id
 		WHERE targetobject.name LIKE @tableName
 			AND dependentobjects.xtype = 'P'
 END

That’s one powerful little query!

I know what you’re thinking, can’t I just use sp_depends? The answer is, you’re right. I like this method though as it let’s me use wildcards in the search term.

If you read my post about my trip to the Chapelle show you know that I had a heck of a time finding a cast list for the show. Well, I’ve been listening to Hot 97 (switching off w/ NPR just to keep my brain working) in the morning, and Ashy Larry has been a guest for the last two weeks. It turns out his name is Donnell Rawlings, which I would have gotten if I’d taken the time to read his IMDB Page.

That’s what happened to Sarah’s friend Danyell. Here’s a little bit of weirdness with her on drums and giggles.

IGN Reports that EA is coming to XBox Live. Again, this is just an unsubstantiated rumor. That said, even real journalists don’t bother waiting for substantitve information before covering a story. Why waste valuable time waiting for some type of confirmation when we all really want Madden on Live NOW NOW NOW!?! Commence speculation…

…and now for today’s scary link:

Core Internet Technology Found Vulnerable.

The Mets fell back to earth last night in an 18-10 pounding. The pitching completely fell apart in the 11 run fourth inning, and even Piazza’s two homers couldn’t make a difference. I was feeling pretty cocky when the fourth inning started; they had won handily in the opener the night before, and stretched out to a quick lead in the second game of the year. Then the hits started coming for Atlanta, and before the inning was over Trachsel had been chased from the game, and I started getting interested in what episode of Law & Order was coming on.

If we can’t get some pitching help and none of the young up and commers has a breakout season, this could be another one of those years.

BTW, the second Piazza homer was cartoonish…a 457 foot blast to center field that was gone the minute he made contact. It was pretty amusing how much attention the broadcast team gave to the home run, but I guess that’s to be expected when they are forced to try to make a blowout seem worth watching.

By now you’ve probably heard about the new Microsoft Developer blog, Channel9. It’s an attempt to provide developers with a view into the inner workings of Microsoft and information about the people who work on the platform we use. I’m not sure how valuable it will be, but it’s definitely an interesting idea and I can’t wait to see what Scoble and the gang do with it. I’ve subscribed to the feed, but I’m not going to really start using the site until they support Passport. I can’t afford the brain real estate for yet another set of credentials.

They link to the RSS feeds for this blog. If you clicked on one of them up until an hour ago you would have seen some raw XML. If you don’t write code for a living, you may have assumed that something had gone wrong with the site. That’s because XML isn’t intended for reading by people, it let’s programmers write applications that can process data from different places in a simple standardized way. Anyway, click on one now and see what happens!

For the more technical minded, I’ve added a stylesheet to the RSS file so that users who inadvertantly load the file in their browsers get a short explanation of what the file is, and what it’s used for.

Ok, let’s be honest. Even after being a Met’s fan for all of these years, even after the disappointments of drug scandals, generation K and GMs who were publicly humiliated, I still can’t help feeling a little of that old “Ya Gotta Believe” magic after the Met’s 7-2 throttling of the new look Braves last night. It was definitely a much better Season opening experience than last years thumping (th..th…th) by the Cubs.

To add to the fun, the Met’s new Japanese pickup Kaz Matsui played brilliantly with three RBI, including a home run on the first pitch of the season. The funny thing is, the home run came on what seemed like his ugliest swing all night…I really expected it to be an easy pop fly coming off the bat. Kaz shares Ichiro’s propensity for starting to run out of the batter’s box before the actual swing is complete, and the home run swing was a perfect example of that style. His double later in the game was came on a much more level and controlled swing. We probably won’t see a whole lot of Kaz’ home run trot this year, but it’s nice to see him getting some good at bats. Especially after his shaky spring training. His defensive play was excellent, as expected.

We have no pitching, we need a left handed slugger to help protect Mike Piazza, we need pitching, we’ve got Braden Looper for a closer. Did I mention we need pitching? That said, it’s hard not to start dreaming of making the playoffs. Who knows, maybe we can pick up some (yes) pitching during the season.

And hey, this was without having Jose Reyes in the lineup!

p.s. Welcome back, Fran. We missed you.

Gothamist on the Season Opener.

Early last week I got an email from Blossom saying that she’d gotten four tickets to a taping of Chapelle’s Show. We’d talked about going to a taping, but Blossom actually took the crazy step of following up on what I considered idle talk. Go Blossom!

I mentioned the taping to the guy who works at the rental car place, and he asked who I knew who had so much juice. I probably should have told him that anyone can get tickets, but hey, how often do I get a chance to shine?

After chomping on the bit for the rest of the week, Friday night finally arrived. We were told to meet at an education center uptown, with doors opening at 8:45. Sarah, Blossom, Marissa and I met up at Chez Pickabar around 7:30 and headed out to 106th street and Park confident that we’d beat the rush and wind up sitting in the front row. Why we were thinking that I can’t really explain. When will I start remembering that I live in NYC and not Boise, Idaho? We missed the first batch of users to be let into the studio, and were in the third and final row (out of about ten) that was actually allowed into the taping. The good news is we still got to see the show, and had a fairly decent view of the proceedings. The bad news is we had to stand for the entire time. By the time we got back to La Maison De Pickabar we were all feeling like Charlie Murphy and his brother had done a job on our legs. Cold….blooded…

We actually got to see two tapings, a show full of new skits and the best of season highlights show. Here’s a quick summary of the inside dirt:

• Dave really cracks himself up. He sat and watched the skits from the chair that was onstage and didn’t stop laughing.
• There’s a skit featuring an appearance by Wayne Brady that’s going to crack you up. I’ve always found Brady a bit annoying. I won’t say he’s a dancing jig shucking and jiving for white America?wait, I did say it. Oh well. Anyway, the skit shows us the darker side of Wayne?and trust me his hoes better have his money. It’s hilarious; you’ll have to see it to believe it. Best part? “Don’t make Wayne Brady get out of this car and choke a ho!” Despite the negative things I’ve had to say about the guy, you have to give him credit for coming on the Chapelle Show after his treatment during the Negrodomus sketch. Here’s a recap:
  

  Question: Negrodomous, why do White people love Wayne Brady?
  Answer: Because he makes Bryant Gumble look like a Black Panther.

• We were promised a skit showing what would happen if an average person smoked as much pot as Snoop Dogg and then took a batter of tests, but it never materialized. Something tells me that sketch isn’t going to make it to the air.
• While waiting at the education center, we were given the opportunity to register to vote. That’s pretty ironic, considering Dave has made anti-voting statements in the past, and did so even at the taping. I used to be a big believer in the whole “don’t vote for, vote against” school, but that was in the good old days before Bush II. I’m voting, and you should too. Unless you’re thinking about voting for Bush?in that case, Dave’s right! Voting is silly! But I digress…
• Speaking of Bush, what if George Bush was black? I think the media would probably be asking a lot more tough questions?and so does Dave. At one point in the Black Bush sketch the president accidentally says “You know why we’re going in there! Oil…er…that is…”. Hilarious?I’m doing it no justice. Off camera (well, at least in between the actual filming) Dave mentioned that he’d wanted to poke fun at Bush for a while but had been nervous after seeing what happened to the Dixie Chicks. “Hey, I gotta feed them kids”, he said. It was nice to hear that kind of honesty from a celebrity. He really puts out an open, regular guy kind of vibe.
• The taping for the best of show was a bit tedious. We’d already been standing for quite a while at that point, and we didn’t actually get to see any of the old sketches. They just told us when to clap, and we hooted and hollered until it seemed like it was ok to stop. It was still fun, I mean it is Chapelle Show of course, but my dogs were starting to bark by the time it was over.
• The lil Jon thing has gotten old. I admit it; I’ve im’ed Sarah and Blossom “What? What? What? OK!” about a million times, but it’s time to put it to bed. There’s a sketch of Dave and the real life lil Jon having a deep discussion about life, but it was only good for a few laughs. And even those felt a bit forced. Let’s kill it already.
• The guy who plays Ashy Larry walked by us several times. I was mortified that Blossom and/or Sarah was going to yell out “I’m rich, beeyotch!” or “I want to have your baby, Ashy Larry!”, but nothing turned up. BTW, I totally forgot the actor’s name, and couldn’t find it on the internet. Is there a Chapelle’s Show cast listing somewhere?
• Dave loves the scatological humor. There was a sketch about the first black man to use a white toilet at the tail end (no pun intended) of segragation that didn’t reallly tickly my funny bone. There were a few humorous moments, but I’m not a big fan of dookie humour. Dave also mentioned that he has a whole book of original turd jokes that he keeps just for his own amusement. Blossom, on the other hand, loved it. She’s been IM’ing me about mud butt since Friday.

I’ll post more as it comes to me…I really should have brought a notepad or something. Oh well, I guess I’ll never get that dream job at the New York Times…