Birth of a Blog

My Crazy Uncle Wears a Kilt was born out of a need to replace Facebook in my life for two reasons.

First. Facebook stinks. Ever since several of my six sisters requested that I join Facebook so that they could stay in touch with me, and I with them, I have had a tolerate/hate relationship with Facebook. On one level, my thirty-year career in big-league programming taught me what good programming is. Facebook isn't it. Greed has tried to make it everything to everyone. Overcompli-cated, bloated, and always full of bugs (yes, that is a technical term), it has driven this particular uncle crazy. That may be overstated. I was somewhat crazy before Facebook.

Added to incompetence is the ever-growing censorship that Facebook has embraced in the political arena. Blatant censorship applied anything but even-handedly has become their crusade to save the American people from themselves. Censorship of the news in Facebook and Twitter has shredded the First Amendment. We probably signed off on this power grab by not reading the fine print. This election season finally put an end to my tolerance for Facebook when it became painfully clear that Zuckerberg and company were attempting to sway the outcome at the polls.

Second. My son, David, suggested to me that since I would not be posting on Facebook, that I should send out a letter from time to time to let family and friends know what catastrophes are befalling me. At first I considered a Christmas letter. But since I seldom even send out Christmas cards, that would probably not work. Then I received an email from my friend George Lamplugh (yes, I am a name-dropper). George has a terrific blog named Retired But Not Shy, and the email was sent to let me know that he had posted his latest article. The seed sprouted slowly. Perhaps I could create a blog. Not as polished as George's, of course. But then it wouldn't have to be. Where George has friends in high places, I have friends in low places.

So, I investigated. I found a blog program which I could modify and installed it. I modified it. And then I created a few blog entries to get the feel of it. This might work after all.

The hardest part was choosing the right name. The Kilted Catalan. Ramblings and Rumblings. Dave's Blog. Nothing sounded right for more than a few minutes. Then I remembered who I often feel like when I am around my nieces and nephews, Crazy Uncle Dave. And so a title was born out of a sentence which I imagine my nieces and nephews have exclaimed: My Crazy Uncle Wears a Kilt!