Doug Burns raises a surprising number of issues in a seemingly throwaway comment about music.

  1. I used to say I only have three passions in life ‘Music, Football and Girls. The only thing that changes is the order.’ :-)

  2. Stuff that is too personal to discuss in a blog. I am startled about certain stuff I have seen posted in blogs. Personal stuff that I would never dream of posting.

  3. Oracle versus Music versus Football. I started this blog after lurking on the Oracle blog community for a while and initially thought I would post occasional enlightening, technical articles which were met with worldwide acclaim. After a while, I realised, those posts would be few and far between.

The other Oracle bloggers cover that stuff far better than I ever could. Also, I would make idiotic mistakes and have people correcting me all the time. I think I can spend my time more profitably reading and learning from others. To be honest, the technical niceties of PL/SQL ‘bulk collect’, bind variables and 10046 trace analysis can be a little dry when that is your day job. I probably care more and have more to say about music, football (blogging, software etc).

  1. Another quandry about ' blogging etiquette ‘. I commented on Howard Rogers’ view on the importance of calendar functionality in a blog. He answered my questions fully and politely (but I still hold a contrary view). Now do I take my followup to email or continue to comment on his blog article when most people probably aren’t interested ?

  2. Indeed, should this lengthy post be a comment to Doug’s comment, a private email to Doug or a post in its own right ?

  3. Diction. When I read my own blog, I see long, rambling, interminable sentences. This concerns me. Especially as I write a lot of technical reports as part of my job for paying customers and I also play a major role in the content of my kids’ homework. I - sorry, my son - recently got a B+ for a scintillating project on San Francisco. I swear it should have been an ‘A++’.