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
Death By PowerPoint, Together We Can Prevent This Dreadful Disease
We've all heard the term, Death by PowerPoint. If you work in an office environment, odds are you've come to hate PowerPoint presentations. Surprisingly, I'm not going to attribute this to Microsoft. No, the blame for this hatred lies solely with us, the creators...
When Did the Definition of Unlimited Change?
It always irritates me when I see commercials preying on our stupidity. I guess that’s why watching Sprint’s commercial extolling how their reliability is within one percent of everyone else, always results in my wife having to endure a rant on the difference between...
Musings On Why Organizations Fail and How You Can Prevent It
Just after Easter, a friend told me about attending the last meeting of a club he had helped start almost 42 years ago. Their downfall was caused by a simple problem, nobody wanted to serve as officers. I suspect there were other factors too but considering the state...
How To Flirt With An Engineer And Why You Might Not Want To
A few months ago, I got a suggestion on posting how to flirt with an engineer. The more I considered it the more I questioned the wisdom of such a post. It’s not that I don’t believe you should engage in a relationship with an engineer but until you understand...
Musings On Fear From an Engineer and Aspiring Writer
I’ve never understood the fascination roller coasters hold for my wife. This from the woman who complains about my sudden starts and stops when I drive. Personally, I hate roller coasters. It's not motion sickness or fear but when I ride one I'm wondering what safety...
Married To An Engineer, A Matter of Convention
My wife always groans when we’re watching a movie and the climatic point is the hero trying to defuse a bomb. She knows that in about 2.3 microseconds I’m going to make some derogatory comment about bombers always using the same wiring convention. As I always explain...
Random Posts
Shelby, We Miss YouOur first and oldest Australian Shepherd, Shelby, died early Monday morning. Her death was a natural one brought about by old age. We knew it was coming but the knowledge did little to soften the loss. She spent fifteen too short years with us, having joined our family as a rescue at the approximate age of two. […]
A Futuristic Design Concept, REPTILEToday’s post doesn’t fall into any of my normal categories. It won’t educate you or make you think about an issue. It won’t give you a better idea of how to cope with an engineer (although you will see the imagination that my wife has to put up with). No, today I’m sharing a futuristic […]
Repairing My 3D PrinterThis week had a number of coincidences. After telling you that my wife is like a magnet for nails, she ended up with another nail in her tire and right after I published my latest post on my 3D printer, my printer died. My wife felt it was a very convenient coincidence that my printer […]
Random Posts
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 […]
Color, Fashion and an EngineerHave you ever considered what a wondrous thing it is to see color? In spring I get to enjoy the vivid green of my pasture, the bright red of the cardinals as they feast on the insects trying to eat my pasture, the mixed reds and yellows of my wife’s roses, even the black and […]
Communication, Google and a Nexus 7Communications has always been an important issue for me. Over my career, I’ve had to fix more problems caused by poor communications than anything else. These problems can be caused by someone assuming that their audience is in possession of more information than their actions suggest or by not responding to the question. If I […]
Random Posts
The Importance Of Good Grammar, A Mathematic LookEvery once in a while I have to let my inner engineer interact with the real world. I apologize to you now but this post is the result of one of those times. About a year ago I wrote a post bemoaning the confusing rules of writing. It’s my nature to look at a system […]
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 store. A sheep in the […]
Technology Or Magic, Is There a Difference?Do you believe in magic? If you answered no, why not? The evidence is all around you. As an engineer I have a very pragmatic view of the world. I’ve been taught the scientific method. I’ve been taught math, physics and chemistry as foundations of science. I’ve been taught that these subjects are not magic […]
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
Adobe Premier Elements 10, Almost a ReviewOne of the things that I’m trying to improve on is the inclusion of videos in my posts. Enforcing that, my wife has recently started using her iPad to record dog runs during her Agility shows. That gives me the perfect excuse to start looking at video editing software. When …
If You Want To Become A Better Writer, First Become A Better ListenerSix years ago, when I started Opinionbypen, I had a goal to become a better writer. Somehow I assumed that the constant practice provided by weekly posts would miraculously improve my writing. That’s certainly not the first thing I’ve ever been wrong about. Think about it this way. Suppose I …
Musings On A The Existence Of Parallel UniversesThe concept of parallel universes has always fascinated us. Think about worlds identical in every respect to ours except for a single difference. Somewhere out there we took that job in California or married our childhood sweetheart or won the lottery. Roger Zelazny envisioned worlds separated from ours in terms …
Who Supports Ending Net Neutrality? Texas Senator John Cornyn, But Why?I’ve always believed you shouldn’t get involved in a fight you have no hope of winning. I find it unfortunate that I’m not heeding that advice with regard to net neutrality. Still, I can’t help but wonder why Texas Senator John Cornyn supports an organization using fake comments to support …
Maximizing Profit: Reliable Designs Or Frequent Repairs?When I retired, my wife strongly suggested I put some of that newfound free time into cleaning rather than gaining another level in my current game. My trusty old vacuum cleaner, however, decided it wasn’t up to the increased workload and promptly broke a belt. Of course, it was so …