Where has Robert gone?

It has been a looong time since I've done a blog entry. Way to long in fact. There are a number of reasons why...

So, I have a number of things I'd like to put in this post, and then I'll do my best to try to keep up with this blog better.

First, I've had a few people tell me that the email link on the blog page is not working right. I'll look into that. You can email me at:

robertgfreeman@yahoo.com
or
dbaoracle@aol.com

any time. I love your emails. I'm available for speaking if you like, for training engagements (I love doing RMAN, New Features and DBA kinds of training), light consulting and the like.

I'm happy to reply to any email. I do have one rule though. If you have an Oracle related question, please post it on a newsgroup instead. Oracle-L is one that I'm on among others. I've not had the time to keep up with newsgroups along with this blog I'm afraid. Why do I ask you to go to the newsgroups? #1, you get your answers quicker. #2 you get access to a number of Oracle professionals, many of whom know more about Oracle than I do. #3, the world will benefit from the question you have asked.

I love your emails though. I'm available for speaking if you like, for training engagements (I love doing RMAN, New Features and DBA kinds of training), light consulting and the like.

I just finished my newest book..... I'ts for Sybex and it's called OCP Oracle Database 11g Certified Professional Study Guide. It's a prep guide for the Oracle Database 11g OCP Exam (Exam 1Z0-053) and I'm very excited about it. I love teaching and helping people learn new things, and I hope that all of you who seek for your 11g OCP will benefit from this book. I worked with my old friend Charles Pack on this book and I think it's turned out to be a great book.

I'm getting ready to start on my next book, Oracle Database 11g RMAN Backup and Recovery. It is my hope that this book will *continue* to be the go-to book for RMAN and Oracle. The book will be the most up to date RMAN book out in the market. Look for more information on this book to be forthcoming here in this blog. I can tell you we are going to be adding lots of content and will clean up a lot of stuff too. If you liked the RMAN book before, trust me, this copy will be even better.

I suppose thats it for now. I plan on being better at posting in my blogspace. It's an interesting time for us all. In closing let me say that in these hard times, it's easy to loose sight of the really important things. When the economy is nose diving, when so many things seem to be working against us, it's east to loose track of basic principles that are important. Remember that liberty and freedom are the foundations to everything else, including prosperity. There will always be those who abuse those liberties, to be sure. We just have to realize that in spite of those few abuses that liberty is the right of every human being, it is a gift of God given to each of us. We must fight for it at every turn, even if we fight for a cause we disagree with. We must preserve liberty, freedom, our right to speak and choose without constraint (within some pretty wide constraints perhaps, you still can't scream fire in a theatre)....