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
Writers In The Field, I Wish I Had Known About This Earlier
It was a dark and stormy morning. No really, despite sounding like the start to a bad novel, it’s extremely appropriate given where I was headed and what I was facing. I was supposed to be one of many lecturers at an event aptly called “Writers in the Field,” a...
The Solar Fountain, A Case Study In Poor Planning
Ask anyone in the engineering profession what the most important phase of a project is and they will tell you planning. Okay, a few of the engineers already embarking on a career of management will say funding but they’ve already gone over to the dark side. I can...
The Art Of Communication, Let Your Audience Dictate How You Say It
There are times when my wife is so frustrated from trying to talk to me that she wonders if I’m an idiot savant with the emphasis on idiot. Why? Communication. Exchanging concepts between two people is difficult. Throw an engineer into the mix and it's almost...
An Opinion On Opinions. Why The Other Guy Isn’t Always Wrong
With all the freedom and enlightenment our society is supposed to have, I find it amazing how little tolerance we have for someone with an opinion that differs from ours. Maybe the anonymity provided by the Internet reinforces this behavior, Twitter certainly seems to...
How To Torture An Engineer, An Engineer’s Wife Shows You The Way
Ever wonder how to torture an engineer? You know you want to get rid of that smug know it all attitude. No, I'm not talking about staking us to an antbed. Over the years, my wife has developed some very effective techniques. Let me share an example with you. Last week...
The Solar Powered Chicken Coop Fan Project
Summers in Texas are brutal, especially if you’re a chicken locked up in your coop every evening. Sure, it’s for their own protection but on those evenings with little or no breeze, it can get very stuffy. Adding an electric fan would help but running a 200 foot...
Random Posts
What It Takes To Be A Winner by RoninThere are times when you don’t feel like writing. This week, I’m trying to beat the rain and finish the new chicken coop for my wife. When I asked for volunteers to write, Ronin was the only one to speak up. Here’s hoping you like it. What it takes to be a winner Ronin Ever wonder […]
Considering What E=mc2 Means To Science FictionIn a world where we have to struggle just to keep up with the latest in technology, it’s all too easy to take things for granted. For example, we’ve all seen Einstein’s equation, E=mc2. Most of us know the equation has something to do with mass, energy and the speed of light but it has […]
Storing Passwords In Your Browser, A Poor Security Practice?When it comes to computer security, I used to pride myself on being pretty savvy. That self-assuredness shattered when I had the daunting task of replacing my wife’s computer. The moment revealed to me a shocking truth about my own security ignorance. Her ancient machine wasn’t quite dead, but it was gasping for life. I […]
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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. […]
Baby Knowledge, An Important Concept In Being UnderstoodWhen we moved out to our ranch, my wife had to impress on me that horses were not merely big dogs that we could ride. Wagging their tail does not indicate pleasure at seeing you. Rolling on the ground doesn’t always mean their back itches and yawning certainly doesn’t mean they had a late night. […]
Re-occurring Bills, Do The Companies Just Not Get It?It’s that time of the month again, the week most of my bills come due. Prior to retirement, I gave very little thought to making insurance payments as they were automatically extracted from my paycheck. Retirement brought monthly insurance bills. Just thinking about the cost raises my blood pressure by ten points, but I have […]
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How Did My Website Get Hacked?Getting hacked was not one of the new experiences I planned for my website in 2016. True, when I went to Rome’s Porta Portese flea market, I carried a spare wallet just so I could say I’d been pickpocketed but that was an experience I was planning for. I’ve already written my 2016 plan. I changed […]
The Way We Present Numbers Reveals A Lot About UsThe first time I saw Spock turn to Captain Kirk and say, “This plan only has a 5.377 percent probability of success,” I was hooked. Spock was able to use his massive intellect and compute the probability of the Enterprise surviving an encounter with the Romulans to three decimal places. That one action immediately earned […]
Time Travel, We All Do ItRead enough science fiction and sooner or later the subject of time travel will come up. I think we all agree that time travel is not only possible, it’s inevitable. We are always traveling forward in time at a more or less fixed rate. I say more or less because our rate of time travel […]
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
Why Does A Request For Advice So Often Result In An Argument?If there’s anything that can cause conflict between my wife and me, it’s a misunderstanding of my role in life when she makes a request for advice. Hmm, I said that poorly, let me give an example. You’re sitting at your computer, trying to understand why your 3D printer is …
Do Electronics Have Feelings? How Can You Doubt It?This morning as I left the shower, I heard my wife barking out orders to Alexa in a very forceful tone. Although Alexa has become an essential fixture in our life when she becomes confused, we tend raise our volume and enunciate very clearly. Almost like we were chastising her …
What Happened To Conversation?I remember the day I made my first and last comment on LinkedIn. It was a discussion on a manned Mars mission and how it should be abandoned because the odds against the voyagers surviving were high. I remarked that Columbus’ crew probably faced the same fears. Boy, did I …
A Plea For An End To Tiny Instruction ManualsOne of the movies being released this Christmas is Downsizing, a tale of people being shrunk to reduce their cost of living by reducing the resources needed to support them. It’s a sad commentary on our current state of affairs that my first thought was they would be able to …
Technical Arrogance, No One Is ImmuneIf there’s one thing the engineering world is full of, it’s arrogance. Don’t get me wrong, I suffer from the same affliction. I think it comes with being an engineer. After you’ve done the simulations and all the testing, it’s not a surprise that your design works. Enough successes and …