From the Doghouse
A look at dogs having fun
Poser Gallery
My gallery of pictures I’ve created in Poser
My Science Fiction and Fantasy stories
Stories I’ve written
Nature by Carol
A look at the less technical side of life
Cooped Up With An Engineer For A While? Maybe This Will Help.
In these times of uncertainty and outright panic, it seems almost irresponsible to publish a post on living with an engineer. I certainly can’t argue the logic behind that line of thinking. On the other hand, the prospect of being cooped up with an engineer for an...
The Eternal Conflict Between Human Behavior And Engineering Logic
The popularity of my Married to an Engineer posts tells me that most of you have difficulty understanding how engineers think. As an engineer, I can tell you that difficulty is mutual. We try to design based on rational human beings and the truth is most of you are...
Time Travel As Viewed By Einstein. A Simplified Discussion
Time travel, I don’t know of any other concept so used and misused in Science Fiction. Although judging from Avengers Endgame, a lot of writers have problems with the concept. Still, despite the inherent paradoxes, from the time I was first introduced to the concept,...
Companies Not Reading Your Complaints? You’re Probably Dealing With A Chatbot
Ever write to a company about a problem and their response made it obvious they weren't reading your message? No, it's not your spouse moonlighting as customer support. Odds are, you've just encountered a chatbot. Chatbots have been around as long as I've been...
Closing Out 2019 In Bits And Pieces
I admit it. Sometimes very logical conclusions completely escape me. I started Opinionbypen because I realized I was too isolated. At the time it never occurred to me that nobody cared. In order to people to take time out of their life and read my blog, they have to...
The Overly Contemplative Writer’s Dilemma, How Do I Spend My Time?
It’s amazing how far we go to kill time. I have a firm rule when I travel, I never turn the TV on. This is supposed to encourage me to write, read or catch up on Audio books. To re-enforce this, I have no games on my phone or tablet. Nor do I have Facebook. You would...
Random Posts
Style, What It Means To An EngineerIf you have an engineer within your close circle of friends, save yourself some trouble. Go to YouTube and watch “Dilbert – The Knack”. As the doctor is explaining young Dilbert’s condition he characterizes an engineer with two statements, “extreme intuition about all things mechanical and electrical” and “utter social ineptitude”. Yep, that pretty much […]
Wonder Why Society Is Failing? Blame It On The InternetWonder why society is failing? I blame it on the Internet. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Internet but I also believe it’s responsible for causing us to become a very mean-spirited society. Until now, we’ve always had some amount of personal risk for displaying bad manners. Prior to the Internet, duels, gunfights, libel […]
Needed, A Balanced Approach To Positive CommunicationRecently I received a thought provoking email from a friend resolving to take a more positive approach in his communications about people. I applaud his motives and had written this post on that issue but I realized that this is not the simple issue I was trying to make it. We’ve all known people we […]
Random Posts
3D Printed Christmas Presents, A Good Idea Or Not?One of the attractions of a 3D printer is all the money you can save with 3D printed Christmas presents. I mean who wouldn’t want that collection of cute animal figures you’ve been printing. Never mind that it took sixty hours to print and that they could find better quality in the bargain bin of […]
I’m Male, My Stubbornness Comes NaturallyMale stubbornness is legendary. I think more jokes have been made about us never asking for directions than jokes about lawyers. We know you’re making fun of us and we still refuse to ask for directions. Let’s face it, Garmin is making a fortune off that trait. It’s far easier for me to trust a […]
Idle Thoughts on TeleportationI don’t know how it is with other engineers but I don’t idle well. When I’m supposed to be having fun at the company picnic or at a social gathering, small talk is just not something I want to take part in. Working out the details of a design in my head is fun but […]
Random Posts
Surviving An Engineering PresentationIf you’re a nontechnical person and had the misfortune of having to sit through an engineering presentation you probably felt the presentation was never going to end. There was just not enough coffee in the room to keep you awake. There’s a reason for all of this. Like many engineers I never enjoyed giving these […]
Why Do We Feel the Need To Revise History?I’ve always liked the mystique of being a Texan. While I miss that six foot plus ruggedly handsome stereotype by several inches and …on second thought, several inches is as far as I will admit. Every country I’ve been to fully expected to see me wearing boots, six gun and a ten gallon hat. I […]
Victory DanceAmong engineers there is a deep dark secret. After something goes incredibly right or when we find the solution to a problem that has been plaguing us for month , we do a victory dance. Mine is fairly vanilla but it’s also on a purely involuntary basis. Think about every engineer you’ve ever seen and […]
From the Doghouse -It’s all about them
A look at dogs having fun!
Short Stories
With posts like these, ever wonder what kind of fiction I would write?
Random Posts
Vampires, They Exist and Their Numbers Are GrowingThere was a time when Science Fiction described different worlds, aliens, spaceships and ray guns. Sometimes the science was a thin veneer for the author’s own social/political views but even those were usually entertaining. Not quite Science fiction but close enough to be stocked with the Science Fiction were the …
School Funding, Some Skin in the GameSaturdays are often lively at my local feed store. People go to buy feed but they also enjoy sharing their opinions on politics, drought, school funding and other elements of life in Texas. It would be unfair to describe me as out of my element in a North Texas feed …
Engineers From Technicians, A PerspectiveIn electronics you have two classes of knowledge experts, Engineers and Technicians. I’m ignoring the programmers for the moment because they only complicate this discussion. The distinction between the two classes can become very blurred but Engineers are expected to create designs, while Technicians implement and troubleshoot those designs. At …
Wilson Cellular Signal Booster, a ReviewI’ve been impressed by how well the Wilson Cellular Signal Booster does what it promises but there are a few caveats in using it. It doesn’t amplify your cell phone signal so much as it enables you to take advantage of a better signal if it’s available outside your house. …
An Engineer’s Observations On Becoming A Better SupervisorThere was a time, long ago, when I thought the design was everything. Not to brag, but I was really good at it. I did the hardware, the software and the testing. I was a one man show. Fortunately, my management recognized this limited the complexity of the designs I …
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