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
Considering What E=mc2 Means To Science Fiction
In 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...
The Use and Misuse of Metrics, What Do They Mean?
I was showing a book in my Kindle library to a fellow engineer this week when he noticed the time to the end of the chapter was two minutes and fifteen seconds. The book was interesting to him but the use of reading metrics was even more interesting, not because of...
Hubris, An Engineering Malady?
Hubris, excessive pride or self-confidence. Last year I barely understood what it meant, today I recognize it for the deadly threat it is. Speaking as an engineer, we all know how fun it is to impress our non-engineering friends and family with our near mystical...
Why I Finally Allowed Microsoft To Put Windows 10 On My Computer
Today is the thirtieth day after I finally gave in and allowed Microsoft to put Windows 10 on my machine. That’s an important number for Windows 10. If you change to Windows 10 and decide you don't like it, you have to do a roll back before 30 days have elapsed....
Use It Or Lose It, A Cautionary Tale To All Husbands
We’ve all heard the term, use it or lose it. All you have to do is look at the mess our current voting system is in to realize the truth of that statement. Still, I’ve promised that I’ll stay away from politics so I’ll let that one pass. In college I learned how to do...
How A Hijacked Post Helped Me Realize The Value of Comments
When I said I wanted to expand my Opinionbypen experience, I was thinking more about advertising and social media. I didn’t mean getting my website hacked or getting one of my posts hijacked and yet so far this year that’s exactly what’s happened. There's no other way...
Random Posts
Betrayal at Neverwinter Mod 6(If you’re not into MMORPGs, Neverwinter mod 6 in particular, do yourself a favor and skip this.) You say you want me to help you kill a dragon? Times must be worse than I thought when you have to scour taverns to get a group together. Still, like myself, I know that lots of the […]
Improving My Writing Means I Have To WriteWhen I started writing this blog, I had two goals, improve my writing and become comfortable sharing parts of my life. Well, there was also the lure of becoming rich and famous through my writing but reality set in quickly. Writing for a living takes a lot of work. The more writing I do, the […]
Sundae, The Life And Times Of A Dedicated CompanionI’ve been fortunate enough to spend the last 14 years under very close supervision. If I tried to stay up too late, I was gently reminded it was past my bed time. Her displeasure was clear if I tried to snack too often. I was never allowed to sit at my desk too long before […]
Random Posts
Cloud Encryption, Prudent or Paranoia?On a typical day I’ll use Dropbox three or four times. It provides an almost seamless method of sharing files between my smartphone, either of my tablets (iPad and Android) and my PC. I also use Dropbox to share pictures and files with my Wife and Mother-in-law. As far as a cloud application goes, it […]
A Plateau In Blogging, Which Direction From Here?When I was teaching fencing, my colleagues and I often observed an interesting phenomenon. If a student made it through the beginning classes, odds were good that they would usually stick with it for another six months. It was at that six month mark that students started to drop out again. It’s also around this […]
Language and CultureI read a lot of Science Fiction and Fantasy. I enjoy the way it gives the author the freedom to explore different concepts, different rules of physics, different societies. I also don’t have to look for a deeper meaning. One of the books that really made me think was “The Languages of Pao” by Jack […]
Random Posts
Terms and Conditions, a CautionEvery once in a while I read something that screams for a post. That’s the case with this news story, http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/02/tech/couple-fined-for-negative-review/. I’m not going to repeat all the details but it describes a couple who placed and order for a product they never received. Although they tried their best they could not get in touch […]
The Sundae Style of Management, Please Don’t Try This At WorkIt’s been fairly busy at work this month and nobody wanted to help me out by writing a guest blog. In a moment of desperation, I agreed to let Sundae share her views on management. To be fair, I have worked for managers who seemed to share many of her theories. Fortunately, my current manager […]
The Demise of the PC, Where I Blame EverbodyWriting this post took a lot longer than usual. It wasn’t all the additional research, the facts are staring us in the face. This post depressed me because it was so obvious. Building your own PC is about to go the way of the 70’s muscle cars, suddenly the entire industry is focused on tablets. […]
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
Knowing Mechanics Of Writing Doesn’t Make Me A WriterCreative writing has always appealed to me. During my career I’ve had a lot of practice writing reports, proposals and specifications. While these documents require the ability to communicate information in a clear concise and, hopefully, unambiguous manner, none of them require an active imagination. With the exception of a …
3D Artwork Using Poser and Daz3DYou’ve read my post on Poser Debut or maybe you’ve enjoyed a few of the pictures I’ve created and wondered just how hard can this be. I’m not going to make this a tutorial but I will take you through a few of the scenes to let you see just …
Did The Ninjas Use Mental Telepathy?Remain calm. Act normal and look around slowly to make sure no one is watching you. I don’t want to scare you but I may have stumbled on an ancient technique of the Ninjas. If I’m right, my hope is to spread it widely before I’m silenced. We’ve all had …
Whatever Happened To Compromise And Acceptance?I have no mouth and must scream is a short story by Harlen Ellison. Unfortunately it also very accurately sums up my feelings on American politics. I’ll confess to avoiding Twitter and Facebook. I have my website but I’ve accepted that the stats on my website don’t lie, nobody wants …
The Amazing Windows 8 Strategy, Thank You MicrosoftLet’s admit it, the last few years have been great for us geeks. At no other time in history has our fascination with technology been in so much demand. The fact that I could fix your computer, explain why Windows wasn’t working well and set up your router made it …