About kdfrawg

... is a writer of books, blogs, bios, and software. Thirty years in the software business burned me out on programming languages so I'm working on proficiency in English. I term myself monolingually challenged. The good news is that novels don't have to compile. :)

Winter Raises Her Head

LBRII

Hark, mortals, Nature is once again effortlessly driving us in retreat before Her. We have a freeze warning here for tomorrow morning, Temperatures have been in the low fifties all day with winds of 20+ and gusts of 30+. The leave are at their most beautiful, but they are doing so mainly on the ground. I have given this full consideration and am convinced that it is not Summer any more, Toto, nor even Autumn. Instead, we are clearly into … Continue reading

SAD, am I SAD…

SAD

I don’t think I’m SAD, but I could be. The season changed a while back. I carefully noted it, of course, since I am an avid follower of the weather. However, it seems that my ambition was snuffed out with the last days of summer. We have had little but cloudy days in the last few weeks, and I can’t quite seem to find my way towards making a real effort towards any sort of otherwise worthwhile goal. I am … Continue reading

More Tucker

20051029tucker-01

My super whiz-bang electronic alarm has informed me that tomorrow is Tucker Adoption Day, which is a very important holiday for me. Tucker the Weird Dawg was with me for too few years. Most of his story is contained in two blog posts on a site I don’t update any more: http://www.kansascurmudgeon.com/2009/03/12/tucker-the-weird-dawg/ http://www.kansascurmudgeon.com/2009/03/23/tucker-the-weird-dawg-rip/ If that’s too much for you to read, suffice it to say that Tucker had had a hard life before I adopted him, and I did all … Continue reading

Sometimes bigger IS better

Ello

Some of Ello’s bets are already beginning to pay off. The most obvious one, I suppose, is their putative process which says bigger is better. Having no limit on post size is a very good thing. Understand, of course, that I am a writer and will take whatever space I can get to scribble in. It therefore does not surprise me that I have produced some very long posts already. I see other natural writers doing the same thing. But … Continue reading

My Life On Line (as of today)

maze

It seems to be a bit slow on Ello today. Perhaps it is being given a chance to catch its breath. This will have been quite a week (or two) for the fledgling social network. A lot of growth, a little controversy, some good PR, some anti-PR, some slowdowns, some spam-schemes and some new features. All of this, plus a number of conversations I have had about social network usage in four venues, including this one, naturally has me thinking … Continue reading

Doctors, such as they are

Have I mentioned doctors lately? I haven’t? Well, doctors. One wonders what it is they actually do for us most of the time, except for the part where they substantially jack up the cost of living beyond the point where we can afford it. A doctor diagnosed my multiple sclerosis but then, of course, could do nothing about it. A doctor got credit for diagnosing my cancerous tumor, though that was actually done by a physician’s assistant after the doctor … Continue reading

Grandfathers

early-man-299x300

All grandfathers, since the dawn of the human era, have looked upon their grandchildren and shaken their heads sadly. Each successive generation appeared, to its immediate ancestors, as if they were spiraling out of control and would come quickly to a dreadful end. Along the entirety of that historical tapestry, the grandfathers had been mostly wrong. However, as the twenty-first century finally got the wind into its sails and charted a course, it began to appear as if the most … Continue reading

Once again- ADN and conversations

appnet

As noted last time, ADN is by far my favorite social network. The combination of good people, excellent (and varied) access apps, a paid-access model, and total privacy are irresistible. It is almost a dream come true. I am even getting used to having conversations there, although it is much more difficult in ADN than it is in Plurk, a forum, or even in ADN’s own Patter. That is simply because one’s stream is a very long list of individual, … Continue reading