Blogging is FUN!

If you’ve been here recently, you may have noticed a new theme; I’m trying to clean up the look around here a bit. I’ve decided I want to be a little more proactive about my blogging, and decided that I wanted a new look to go with it. Why the sudden interest in blogging?

First, SQLSaturday is over, and I need a new challenge to keep me busy until the next one rolls around.

Second, I’ve noticed that I’ve gotten rather stale about doing anything technical related; I’m not challenging myself to learn something new, and that was the whole point of this blog in the first place.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new theme, but keep an eye out for some other minor changes around the bend.

Stu

So WindowsUpdate prompted me that there was a few new updates available for my PC, including a selection of stuff for Windows Live.  I like this tool, but I’m going to have to put it through it’s paces to really get a feel for how well it’s gonna work.  This is just a quick post to see what’s up.

Tried uploading an image, but that didn’t work.  xml-rpc error.

Found a plug in for inserting code; let’s see if that works.

SELECT *
FROM sometable
WHERE column = 'column'

Rough day 🙂

I’ve been incredibly busy the last few weeks, and unfortunately, any attempt at updating this blog had to give. With personal stuff (the Easter cantata at church and spring break for the kids), work stuff (lots of new projects), and SQLSaturday (what was I thinking when I signed up for this?) , I’ve barely had a few minutes to sit down, let alone write.

Life’s good, and I hope to post more soon. Still dropping weight slowly (sorry, no chart this time), and I’m almost in the home stretch for SQLSaturday, so perhaps my stress level will drop as well.

Stay tuned.

Enjoying free wifi. I just discovered that I don’t like their vegetable beef soup. Too many vegetables, and it’s beef broth.

Anyway, Wednesday ritual; girls at activities, and I’m sitting at a keyboard trying to put some thoughts together to keep this blog moving forward. Clock is ticking down, so I may not be able to get it all out there, but there’s a few things that I need to put together. Consider this post a to-do list, and I may actually get to the rest of the items when I get home tonight.

So, here’s the list of stuff I’ve been doing this week:

1. Trying to figure out how to use DataDude and TFS. I know, this thing is supposedly loved by all, but it’s complicated; it’s a completely different mindset than stuff that I’m accustomed to working with.

2. Cleaning up the garage for a home office project. My wife loves the fact that I work from home; she just can’t stand me in the house. We’re talking about closing in our third bay of our garage (partially), and adding a home office.

3. Of course, a SQLSaturday update. Lots of stuff going on, and lots more to do 🙂

Jason Massie recently posted something that I find both a little funny and a little scary; he called out Adam Machanic for posting something mildly derogatory about Twitter.  Brent Ozar joined the fray as well.  This gets a little confusing (in a soap-opera gossipy kind of way), so let me break it down in some sort of sequence of posts:

• Ajarn (a guy I don’t know) wrote a post that says “It’s not that I think that Twitter is evil or utterly banal… it’s just that I couldn’t seem to make it fit my life very well.”
• Adam Machanic (a guy I’ve met a couple of times at DevTeach and on the newsgroups) responded to the above post saying “Finally, a voice of reason with regard to this thing! Thanks for sharing… “
• Jason Massie (a guy I met on twitter) then calls out Adam: “So I challenge Adam and you if you are not on twitter to follow these people for a month with a real client and post your status.”
• Brent Ozar (another guy I met on twitter, but then met in “meatspace”) agrees with Jason, but this where it gets interesting: “Twitter is what you make of it… Saying Twitter sucks is like saying the web sucks, or that music sucks, or that talking sucks.  It just indicates that you’re unclear on the concept. “

OK, the funny part is that I know enough about these guys and the subject that they’re talking about to even get involved enough to want to wite a post.  I feel like I’m in high school again, talking about so-and-so who kissed such-and-such at somebody’s party and yada, yada…  The scary part is where a conversation about a social networking tool went from “it doesn’t work for me” to “if you don’t like it, you haven’t tried it” to “if you don’t like it, you must think it sucks, and I must defend its honor: DRAW YOUR SWORD, SIR!”

Sorry, for a second there I went all Knight’s Tale on you (or was it Princess Bride?).  Anyway, it’s possible that I could have missed part of the conversation.  Adam could have said “twitter sucks, and you tweeters are all a bunch of losers”, but I don’t think so.  I certainly didn’t read it that way.  And it’s not that I don’t find value in twitter, but I have to admit that I lean more towards the camp of “meh; it’s fun, but I’m not sure I have time for it.”  I tweet occasionally, and in fact I have WordPress set up to tweet when I post, so if you’re following me on twitter, you’re probably reading this post because of it.  (Does that qualify as irony?  I sucked at high school English, and never really understood the concept.)

To be fair, Brent’s advice on using twitter is good; if you have time, follow the right people, and it won’t suck.  What surprises me is that an invisible line seems to have been drawn in the sand between those who tweet and those who do not.  That’s a little scary; twitter is after all, just one tool in the socially aware DBA’s life, and while it can be useful for some, it can be annoying as well.  What scares me is the pressure to tweet, or to use facebook, or to use a gravatar, or to use the next best thing coming down the pipe.  Where does it stop?  I’m already spending excessive hours hooked to a PC; at what point do I reach geek nirvana?

To the non-tweeters: If you haven’t tried it, try it before knocking it (kind of like broccoli); if you still don’t like it, don’t let anybody try to force you into using it.  Just stay connected to the community in other ways.

To the twitter-lovers: don’t assume that people who don’t tweet hate it or don’t understand it.  Just go back to tweeting, but find ways to build community in other ways.