2024

    BG3 Honour Mode Completed - June 21, 2024

    Recently I completed Baldur’s Gate 3 Honor (Honour) Mode difficulty. It’s like Tactician difficulty plus single-save-file and some encounters have added lege...

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

    Apps Discontinued - October 24, 2018

    My applications, Draco Calculation and Dee Count are no longer available on Apple App Store as I can no longer justify spending an annual fee to provide a fr...

    Skyrim Unarmored Monk - March 12, 2018

    Over the last year or so in Skyrim Special Edition, I’ve been playing the constant camper and unarmored (no-armor) monk. Building upon Chesko’s “Campfire - C...

2017

    2017 May Miles - June 1, 2017

    cycle: 168 miles run: 57 miles They love switchbacks at Mahogany Mountain. It seems like half of the switchbacks are purely for kicks, at least the ...

    2017 April Miles - April 30, 2017

    cycle: 191 miles run: 72 miles I took some days off mid-month to travel with some running in other states. Only 8 bicycle rides, but extended the mile...

    Respect US Constitution - January 31, 2017

    Let’s set aside our views on specific issues, political opinion, and party affiliation. We all share a common interest in preserving our freedom. Understand ...

    2016 December Miles - January 2, 2017

    cycle: 62 miles run: 50 miles This month I ran twice as much as November with fewer bike rides. Endured a bit of struggle with health, and I’m also sl...

2016

    Give Cryptopals a Try - July 15, 2016

    Lately, I’ve been working through the challenges at Cryptopals.com. The problems are organized for learn-as-you-solve method supplying the groundwork for lat...

    Swift 3 Changes - March 29, 2016

    As the apple / swift-evolution page on GitHub notes, Swift 3 should be ready later in 2016 with the goal of platform portability. Noteworthy for the programm...

    Swift Code Exercises - January 12, 2016

    I’ve updated some of my programming tutorial exercises with Swift code samples. See the original exercise for complete problem description. Swift 2.1 code te...

    Columbia Gorge Photos - January 3, 2016

    For Winter Solstice, I took a drive up Columbia River Gorge on the Oregon side. The first photo is the twisty turns on old Hwy 30 seen from Rowena Crest. ...

2015

2014

    Reading and Discussing - November 26, 2014

    Jeff Atwood of stackoverflow.com (a forum for engineers posting questions and answers) shares his ideas on encouraging more reading instead of pushing for co...

    iPad Price - November 24, 2014

    When purchasing a new electronic device, it is wise to consider the advantages of options at a higher price point for expected usage. This year Apple offer...

    Static Page Blogging - November 19, 2014

    In July I replaced Wordpress with Octopress, here and at KandyFangs.com. After five months I’m quite happy with the change. I had been using Wordpress since ...

    November Projects - November 4, 2014

    November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) where amateur, or professional, writers aim to write a novel in a month. I’ve never participated, becaus...

    Dee Count 2.0 Update - October 15, 2014

    Inventory counting software, Dee Count, updated to version 2.0 to include iPhone compatibility and new features. This redesign requires iOS 8 or later whic...

    Dee Count 2 Video - October 14, 2014

    Dee Count App Peek from David Shrock on Vimeo. This one-minute video shows Dee Count 2, inventory counting app, in action to give you a general feel for th...

    Dee Count 2 Peek - September 21, 2014

    Dee Count 2 is a redesign supporting iPhone in addition to iPad. New features will include item categorization, scanning location QR codes, exporting count...

    Draco RegexTest Intro - August 11, 2014

    I started a new open source developer tool, Draco RegexTest, for creating, testing and organizing regular expressions. This tool is aimed at developers or co...

    Sandy Ridge Bike Ride - August 6, 2014

    For my second trail ride of the month, and the year, I took to the Sandy Ridge trail system located between Sandy and Zig Zag, Oregon near the Bull Run wat...

    The Noise Age - June 29, 2014

    Databases connected on the net improve access to information and allow quicker dissemination between scholars. News delivers within minutes shared by observe...

    Cindy Vaskova's The Dorley Cycle - June 9, 2014

    From the start of The Dorley Cycle web-serial, Cindy Vaskova’s writing flows like a dream into a horror drenched in madness. A touch of the surreal at times,...

    Comments Closed - June 5, 2014

    The question of disabling comments on a blog has been bouncing around for at least three years to my knowledge, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the debate sta...

    Extended Characters on iPad - April 21, 2014

    Some symbols and characters aren’t easily found on the iPad or iPhone on-screen keyboard, but more are right there at your fingertips. The tap-and-hold (hold...

    Dee Count v1.67 - April 16, 2014

    Dee Count for iPad update for v1.67 includes the following changes: +/- button toggles addition and subtraction modes with option to hide in Settings f...

    Moon Blood - April 15, 2014

    Just before the clouds moved in, I captured a few shots of the lunar eclipse with my telescope. The heavy moisture in the air shows in the photos, but turn...

    Guest Post: Icy Sedgwick on the Novella - April 14, 2014

    The novella has been enjoying somewhat of a resurgence of late, perhaps in part due to the rise of the e-reader. Usually defined as being somewhere between...

    Dee Count Search - April 7, 2014

    Dee Count for iPad counts inventory and helps find where each item was counted at. This brief example shows how to setup for counting, find all locations a s...

2013

    Painting a Skull - October 28, 2013

    For artwork on my latest web serial Kandy Fangs: Venom, I’ve been dabbling with Procreate on the iPad. I haven’t full explored the software, but it’s intuiti...

    Kandy Portrait Painting - October 23, 2013

    I completed a portrait of Kandy Knight for Kandy Fangs: Venom serial, and will appear in episode 5, “Time for Kandy” in the second week of November. For this...

    Mowing vs Reaping —#FridayFlash - October 18, 2013

    In the orange glow of the predawn sky, Marius hurried outside hopping on one foot while he tugged his boot on. He had overslept again for the third time that...

    Smoking Candle Photo - October 14, 2013

    For this photo, I moistened the glass for the older-used, shiny look and set brightest light source in background to capture smoke ring. Two smaller light ...

    Spine Poetry - October 4, 2013

    After reading Margit’s spine poem, and also Setsu’s poem, I decided to give this a try. The game is to stack books to create a poem. The post, “Form for All:...

2012

    Password Tips - October 19, 2012

    Thanks to pre-built software, password cracking keeps getting easier, and many users still don’t care. Even if you have nothing worth stealing, using strong ...

    Skyrim Distance Drawing - August 29, 2012

    One annoying feature of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim by Bethesda Softworks is the scenery popping into place—which is to say the high resolution textures replacin...

    PayPal Updates Terms - March 14, 2012

    As noted by Mark Coker on the Smashwords blog, “PayPal Revises Policies to Allow Legal Fiction,” PayPal has worked with the ebook community to adjust their t...

    PayPal Erotica Crackdown - March 5, 2012

    In the last few weeks, PayPal has asked several ebook vendors including Smashwords and Bookstrand, to remove their erotica titles in order to continue servic...

2011

    Kandy Fangs eBook - September 14, 2011

    Not your everyday vampire tale, this time-twisted journey explores an intimate connection between a killer with a thirst for blood and her prey with a tast...

    Bike-Breaker Hill - February 11, 2011

    Bicycle parts break. It happens. Most vulnerable are the moving parts. On my ride home this week, a part broke that I never expected. The crank arm. Snappe...

    My Software Dream - January 11, 2011

    A few months ago someone asked me why her mobile device could automatically open an email attachment, but her desktop computer could not. Her desktop operati...

2010

    Cosmic Fingerprints - August 27, 2010

    Every once in a while, a person catches a glimpse. Out of the corner of an eye, or a fleeting glimmer, a person sees them. Not spirits, but what I call memor...

    Club Necropolis - June 25, 2010

    The building is alive, music pounding into the stone walls its beating heart, the vibrating steel its rumbling stomach, the buzzing neon sign its voice singi...

    The Only Color - February 26, 2010

    listen to ‘The Only Color’ on audioBoom I accept the uniform, folded neat upon my arms. The soldier tells me blue is my color. Or is it gray...

    Demon Hunter - February 12, 2010

    The breeze chilled Sebastian. He tried to pull his gaze away. Gunpowder consumed his nostrils, and a ringing swarmed inside his ear. His gaze traced the tuft...

    Killer - February 11, 2010

    Sebastian left Tabitha in the care of the local lawman, Jasper, until morning when they could sort everything out. No sign of Sheriff Haas. Roan was not a b...

    Monster Savior - February 5, 2010

    “We should take shelter. Wait out the storm.” Sebastian could barely hear his own voice over the river crashing around the rocks. Tabitha yelled something a...

    Sinners - January 29, 2010

    Snow blanketed the forest, large flakes flying sideways turned tree trunks white. The storm arrived before the sun trapping the land in twilight. Wind bit ...

    Crossroads - January 22, 2010

    “A priest,” said Tabitha for the fifth time. Reaching up, Sebastian lifted Tabitha from the boulder and dropped her on the ground beside him. “Eyes of gold...

    Riddle on the Ridge - January 15, 2010

    Father Young breathed the mist like a dragon, flaring nostrils shooting streams of white. He wore round dark spectacles like a blind man. Dew glistened on hi...

    Tabitha - January 8, 2010

    Fog drenched the air moistening evergreen trunks, leafless bushes, and flowers. Sebastian marveled at the late autumn flowers blooming on the mountainside ab...

    Shotgun Welcome - January 1, 2010

    Late evening air held its breath. An ammunition round popped into shotgun barrel freezing blood. Menacing eyes glared down the length of the barrel. Oozing a...

2009

    Mother Dove - December 18, 2009

    “What’s the matter with you?” Fred winced at the familiar query. Crouched, he held the paintbrush tight. He knew what came next. It never failed. Dipping th...

    Darkness Was Her Dress - December 4, 2009

    Looking at the girl, Nyx found a face wrecked in worry. She noted the clasped hands, thumbs working flesh. Nobody ever asked anything of Nyx besides her swi...

    Never Sell Content - October 19, 2009

    In a previous post, I argued that “Consumers Pay for Content.” Many publishers try to sell content, but this is not the best marketing strategy. Sell ideas. ...

    Consumers Pay for Content - October 5, 2009

    In the essay, “Post-Medium Publishing,” Paul Graham claims that consumers never pay for content. He begins with the observation that publishers set prices ba...

    Pale Kiss - September 17, 2009

    Rising above the rolling hills, Nulan smiles upon the dark land. Her kisses turn the waving wheat into a shimmering sea. A shadow wriggles from my feet. Wind...

    Bicycle Commute - September 15, 2009

    For the month of September, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, or BTA, hosts a Bike Commute Challange in Oregon to promote bicycle commuting. The goal is...

    More Twitter Fiction - September 7, 2009

    I began writing micro-fiction earlier this year without any experience in flash fiction after a review of other authors as noted in my previous post. There a...

    Writing for Torre - August 31, 2009

    She tells me her name is Draco Torre. I ask her about the masculinity, and she says it’s backward, given name last. Draco, taken later in life, she likes t...

    How-To: Make a 3D Photo - August 10, 2009

    The above chess picture is a left/right merging for magenta/green 3D glasses. Below is a bike for red/cyan glasses. Use Magenta/Green 3D glasses to view...

    Volcano: Then and Now - August 3, 2009

    In “Remember the Volcano,” I share the story of my first Mt. St. Helens blast area visit. Here are a pair of the photo comparisons of the same locations. The...

    Future Stories - July 20, 2009

    What will happen to stories? This is the question Michael Chabon poses in “Manhood for Amateurs: The Wilderness of Childhood” in The New York Review of Book...

    Trying out helmet camera - July 6, 2009

    Mountain biking down single-track trail enjoying a beautiful summer day along 8-mile creek near Mt. Hood. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm_37qo-lRk The he...

    Twitter Micro-Fiction - June 29, 2009

    Twitter gives authors a means to share micro-fiction constrained by the 140-character limit, an exercise in conciseness. Fiction across Twitter appears as po...

    Remember the Volcano - May 4, 2009

    Lush greenery, fir and pine floated on the breeze. The paved road, needles speckling the edge, snaked through the forest. Sunlight filtered through the can...

    It's Saturn - January 27, 2009

    Dad set the telescope on the driveway. Unfolding, the rickety tripod clanged into position. It wobbled on its feet, slender tube drooping. Dad scanned the sk...