But these are all excuses, not reasons. The real reason, I finally understand, is that I really don't understand the notion of blogging. I came to this realization indirectly. My daughter had been exchanging instant messages with her aunt (my sister). She came away from the session mildly amused, but somewhat frustrated. "Aunt Kathy," she said, "doesn't understand IMing. She keeps composing letters. It's kind of irritating, since it takes forever for her to reply to anything." (This, by the way, is a translation that is meant to be only semantically accurate; the actual quote would have had the word "like" thrown in at various points, but I am not a speaker of that dialect, so I won't try to get the quote in it's full glory).

I've realized for some time that different technologies require different kinds of styles. Email is not the same as written mail, and IMing is different from both. Having only recently become a user of the IM form of communication (great way to stay in touch with the kids, by the way), I've learned some of the telegraphy of the form. But my daughter's comment made me realize that I had been using a different form of communication for my blog, and it was not necessary appropriate.

I had been treating my blog much the way I used to treat my column in the old Unix Review. That was a monthly work, and I would think long and hard about the kind of point that I wanted to make, the examples that would illustrate the point, and the way to best present it all. The result was a monthly essay (more on object-oriented programming than on the supposed subjects, which were C++ originally and Java by the end). I was, in short, using my blog as a way to publish a series of essays on the web.

There is nothing wrong with essays on the web. I've become quite an admirer of the essays of Paul Graham (even though I think his opinions on Java say more about his programming background than they do about Java). But there is something very different about the well thought out, well structured essays of Graham and the blogging lunacy of Jose Melendez, with his daily ravings on the Red Sox. I have no doubt that Melendez polishes his prose, but the daily output trumps the deep thought.