scare tactic

this elicited laughs and admonishings from colleagues - never, ever, ever, make freaking system changes to a database without backing up.

i know this cardinal rule but i just went rogue awhile ago in an effort to please some users, whom i haven't dealt with in a while, and the guy who maintains our system for them quit awhile back and thus everyone in there is running around clueless. and that malaise probably infected me too (at least temporarily).

but the fact remains that i realized the consequence and had to fix my fuckup - pardon the Yucatecan - right in front of the database admin, who was in a high-level meeting with some fancy-titled consultant who made it a point to show off by questioning me about my system's stored procedures and database structure.

punching up the exact SQL scripts from memory, under pressure (am sure the db admin was looking over my shoulder as i heard him answering the consultant's questions), made me feel like Hugh Jackman in Swordfish as he was being tested by John Travolta to hack into the US Dept. of Defense. of course, a simple tech consultant cleaning up his mess is not as sexy as a disenfranchised hacker being forced at gunpoint and with a blowjob, to break into government databases. that's why they didn't write me in that movie.