Wednesday night Lauren and I came home from a delicious dinner at Frank and Angies with my mom, sister, and my sister’s boyfriend and she was starting to feel unwell. I took it to be a sign of over sauce-ing or of lactose issues ( much cheese in those pizzas ).

I ran to the grocery and picked up a box of Lactaid and a box of Benadryl and Laur. took them and headed to sleep. She woke up the next morning feeling a bit “off” and seemed to be having more than just the usual “Do i hafta go to works?”. She bravely soldiered to work, but became ill and was sent back home.

While recovering we noticed a huge, red welt on her thigh. It was puffy and swollen, we took it to be a spider bite of some sort. I think she was having a venom reaction and that’s what made her nauseated.

After several hours of sleep and a Freebird’s, I’m pleased to report the patient is feeling better.

This week started off well, with my best friend married and myself and Lauren spending a day in Houston with my dad. Upon returning back to the work week on Tuesday I learned that an LDAP database on one of our systems was no longer updating.

The database updates by checking some source files for modification. If modification is found, the old entry is deleted, and the source file is parsed and uploaded to replace the old entry.

That is, until recently. This process stopped working. I started debugging through the logs and found this transaction

Enter LDAP Password: Delete Result: Unknown error (80) Additional info: DN index delete failed

I spent the majority of this week fighting through this error. Here’s how I solved it, perhaps I can save another admin out there some pain.

1. Do a text export (slapcat > a_huge_text_file )
2. Turn off LDAP service
3. Move your old database directory to a backup space
4. Do a slapadd -v -l a_huge_text_file (** you may want to add the -c flag, so that errors will be ignored ** )
5. Wait a while for this to complete
6. Do a slapindex on the loaded file, this will take a while
7. Start up LDAP

While all this looks very simple the indexing process and debugging this took about 25 hours of time to sort out. It’s pretty tedious going.

It’s not really OpenLDAP’s fault, this is an ancient install that was hastily put together and not properly maintained. It’s just my bad luck to inherit it.

I’m planning on migrating all this data to a mysql back end with LDAP on front with a replica (or two!) running. I’m then going to put these two replicas behind a Cisco CSM for fast redundancy.

Weddings

At least it is for me this year. My best friend since 9th grade got married this weekend. Yes, there is now a Mr. and Mrs. Social Bobcat since Sunday. And on Saturday there was a testosterone filled day with the Social Bobcat himself: Guns a-shootin, Hold ‘em a-Playin, beer a-drinkin, man’s day out.

And the weekend before I was on-call.

But the weekend before that I was in California at the wedding of my friend Jeff in Sonoma.

But the beautiful Austin fall has come upon us, cool, crisp, with fantastic sunsets. Austin is slightly to the left of heaven in early fall.

Many years ago, when I had a TV, when I had full cable, and I had time to watch IFC, I caught the Werner Herzog documentary “My Favorite Fiend” . In it, Herzog described his collaborations with the magnetic, megalomaniacal, intense, and strange German / Polish actor: Klaus Kinski.

I’d seen Herzog’s Nosferatu with Kinski as the vampire, and that was interesting, but the film that really piqued my interest was Aguierre: The Wrath of God (der Zorn Gottes).

Kinski plays the fortune and conquest-obsessed Aguierre who undermines an ofshoot of explorers from Pizarro’s main legion. As they lose men to trechary, accidents, Indian attack, and the jungle. Kinski’s simian-like Aguierre broods about their raft that makes its way into the deepest depths of the South American jungle. One would not be far wrong to see certain ties to “Apocalypse Now” or other “evil at the end of the river” stories like “She” or “The Heart of Darkness”.

What I love about Herzog movies is the unapologetically bad way they are dubbed. The movies usually let the light and the scenery speak for themselves (for volumes, Herzog is unafraid to let a camera’s film just run). The dialog is short and snippy (Germans playing Spaniards can’t quite bring themselves to be as loquacious as their southern continent-mates) with some real howlers in the dialog. Here are some of my favorites.

(This is totally deadpan)

Aguierre: What are they [some natives on shore] yelling? Native: Flesh, flesh, flesh is floating by.

Aguierre: I am the great traitor. There can be none greater. Whoever thinks about deserting will be cut into 198 pieces. And then trampled upon until you can paint the walls with him. Whoever eats one grain too many or drinks one drop of water too much will be locked up for 155 days. If I, Aguierre, want the birds to drop dead from the trees, the birds will drop dead from the trees. I am the Wrath of God!. The earth I walk upon sees me and quakes! But whoever follows me and the river, will win untold riches. But whoever deserts…

Man Speared by Arrows: These long arrows are getting fashionable (it had been remarked earlier that the natives assassinating the population were using short arrows)

Slave: (Hallucinating, Deranged) That is no ship. That is no forest. (is hit by arrow in leg, doesn’t move) That is no arrow […this is kind of zen isn’t it? - sgh]. We just imagine the arrows, because we fear them. Monk: The arrow cannot harm me. That is not rain. Aguierre: Do not forget to pray, lest God’s end will be uncomely.

The stars turn around the north pole at night.

Remarkable Things Happen While You Sleep

Cabaret

Restaurant that serves liquor and offers light musical entertainment. The cabaret probably originated in France in the 1880s as a small club that presented amateur acts and satiric skits lampooning bourgeois conventions. The first German Kabarett was opened in Berlin c. 1900 by Baron Ernst von Wolzogen and accompanied its musical acts with biting political satire. By the 1920s it had become the centre for underground political and literary expression and a showcase for the works of social critics such as Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill; this decadent but fertile artistic milieu was later portrayed in the musical Cabaret (1966; film, 1972). The English cabaret derived from concerts given in city taverns in the 18th–19th centuries and evolved into the music hall. In the U.S. the cabaret developed into the nightclub, where comedians, singers, or musicians performed. Small jazz and folk clubs and, later, comedy clubs evolved from the original cabaret.

From answers.com

I’ve noticed more and more artists that seem to be picking up on the picaresque fascinations of stage show.

Examples:

• The Decemberists ( with their record entitled Picaresque ): The singer, Colin Meloy sings “We Both Go Down Together” or 16 Military Wives
• The Ditty Bops Your Head’s Too Big and Wishful Thinking
• Gogol Bordello Not a Crime

In sum, this shows MTV ( in it’s much smarter MTV Overdrive incarnation ) tapping into a desire in the masses for cabaret.

I ask myself, why is yesteryear’s generational barometer serving this type of entertainment up.

The last time picaresque cabaret was served up was under the authoritarian eras of the Weimar Republic or Mussolini.

Should be draw a connection to modern times?

It’s a 106 miles to Chicago. We’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses.

Topic: Mike’s Pre-Wedding Day Guy’s day out

Plans

Cash

You will need some funds for your :

• Breakfast : If you make it in time to eat with those of us rehearsing at 8am, you’ll want this.
• Shooting ( and or own ammo if you know what you plan on shooting. If there’s a consensus that everyone likes 9mm {leave a comment below} I will go pick up some boxes
• Lunch food will be provided by a pizza delivery entity
• I will bring some beer, but if you want more / Mr. Snobby’s ultra-pure Colorado microbrew, etc. bring it yourself. I’ll also bring a case of coke, diet, and sprite.
• Gaming If you are gaming, please bring 40.00. Other details on this matter will be discussed in person.

All told you’ll need about $100 for the day. Because there are so many late arrivals, comings, and goings I’ve tried to structure everything so that it’s each man for himself much of the day. I am covering the playing room, food and drink. If you’d like to help out in the cost burden associated with this, talk to me. I’m not asking for any money around these. I’d gladly take the help, but you are under no obligation.

Poker

The Poker setup is being provided by iHostPoker. We have seats for 10 players on a fine green velvet table which will be manned by a professional dealer. I don’t know jack about poker, honestly, but it’s worth a try. They’re also providing good chips (you know, heavy, metal ones) and some know how.

Poker is going to be a first-come, first-seated, first paid, first served. Between the wedding party there are going to be 5 seats spoken for.

DO NOT DISPLAY ANY MONEY AT TIME OF PLAY

The state is real picky about this and these guys are trying to keep a clean nose (no pun intended).

This is some serious stuff for the iHost guys, please be respectful.

Shooting

You will need your ID, i know it’s obvious, but you know, make sure it’s on you.

Attendees

sgharms@stevengharms.com, asianpersuasion650@yahoo.com, richard.redding@farmersinsurance.com, rkevley@msn.com, david.mcguire@ey.com, Darren.Bartsch@mba07.mccombs.utexas.edu, brian@brianworrell.com, stafunk@gmail.com, rrpinder@uh.edu, amguerin76@yahoo.com, hungry_ogre@yahoo.com

Check out this footage! Mark goes to visit the scientology street fair with a camera and this is how the congregation greets him.

Footage

Anyone who has known me long enough has likely heard me extol the virtues of Unix or Unix-like operating systems. Largely, their eyes go gooey and I can feel the thought rattling in their head: But can I use Word on it?

Neal Stephenson writes an excellent explanation about how using unix is like using the Hole Hawg drill.