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
Making a Demon Skull With LED Eyes
Two weeks ago, I promised I would explain why I had a collection of demon skulls and I would have met that schedule but repairing my 3D printer took priority. That’s done and unfortunately by the time you read this Halloween is probably over too. Still, I really like...
Repairing My 3D Printer
This 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...
Tis The Season For 3D Printing
June 2014, that’s the date I got my UP! Mini printer and wrote my first post on 3D printing. That was my introduction to 3D printers and while I intend to get another, I wanted to first review my reasons for getting that initial printer. I tend to review my goals and...
Sometimes the Engineers Get It Wrong, TPMS
Yesterday the TPMS warning for my wife's canine roadshow, AKA known as a Dodge Grand Caravan, came on. In case you're not familiar with the term, the TPMS is your tire pressure monitoring system. Now my wife's relationship with tires is the stuff urban legends are...
Email Taxation, Musings From The Thought Simulation Chamber
I'm going to make a suggestion and please hear me out before you call on your fellow villagers and start lighting torches. I want the government to start taxing email. Wait, put away those lighters, I do have a reason. With approximately two hundred billion emails...
What Idiot Designed This? In Defense Of Engineers
Ever try to fix something and ask yourself, “what idiot designed this?” It’s certainly happened to me often enough. Yeah, a few of those times it was one of my own designs but we’re not going to discuss those today. Before I get too far into this post let me freely...
Random Posts
A SEO Enhanced ResumePeople tell us not to judge a book by the cover but we’ve all passed up good books because of poor cover art. If you think about it, your resume serves much the same function as a book cover and let’s face it, compared to our counterparts in marketing, most engineers write really poor resumes. […]
Food ScoutIn almost every war movie I’ve watched there’s one guy that seems to be able to scrounge anything. In the corporate engineering world we all scrounge for parts but the talent we really admire is the food scout. It’s no secret that engineers are strongly food motivated. I don’t know what the connection is but […]
Imagination, It Allows Us To See The ImpossibleI did this post after creating a scene in Poser showing my wife’s fondness for old cemeteries. I’ve never understood her fascination with them but her imagination allows her to reflect on these people’s lives and their contributions to society. My imagination only covers us leaving the cemetery. Before I had a good grasp on […]
Random Posts
WaitingJust as I feared, I got the wrong name for my website. It’s a very small thing but still annoying. I had selected OpinionByPen.com and then realized I might want more than one opinion. Easily fixed or so I thought. I then registered OpinionsByPen.com but my hosting account was still under the previous name. As […]
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 […]
The New Chair, An Engineer’s Journey In Buying A New ChairLast week the bracket securing the arm of my gaming/ current office chair broke. I’ll admit I’ve put on a few pounds during my Covid isolation and I never intended it to sub as a full-time office chair. Still, I haven’t gained that much weight and the chair was less than a year old. One […]
Random Posts
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 […]
The SainSmart 3018 PROVer CNC Router, A ReviewGiven the number of posts I’ve made on 3D printers, it’s safe to assume that I feel I’ve mastered the basic techniques. Still you always wonder if the grass is greener on the other side. In my case, thanks in part to the Covid blues and Amazon’s Prime day I ended up with a SainSmart […]
Grammar and Rhetoric, the Drout WayWhen I wrote my post on the confusing rules of writing, the last thing I expected to find was an answer. Two months later not only have I found several answers but I have a better insight into the way I learn. All thanks to two books on rhetoric and grammar. Living in rural Texas, […]
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
Without Net Neutrality Expect Cable Television Content And ServiceNet neutrality is one of the things that keeps the Internet from becoming an echo of the vast cable television nothingness. If you were to take a survey of the most hated companies in the US, I’m willing to bet that the cable companies would top the list. Nobody likes …
Becoming BorgI’m assuming that you have a basic knowledge of the Borg. No need to fear though. If your knowledge of the Borg is lacking, please read this article from Wikipedia and come back: wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg. You know who the Borg are now. You probably are thinking that I’m going to point …
The Solar Powered Chicken Coop Fan ProjectSummers 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 extension cord …
How My Quest Took Me To Red Sneakers And ScrivenerIn my plan for 2016 I mentioned that I was going to get serious about my writing. I shared a few of my stories on Amazon WriteOn and received a rather lackluster response. The overwhelming lack of response made it obvious I’m not a natural. Well, it’s not like I expected …
Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, Three Years LaterI’d like to say that I wrote about my experience with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome for humanitarian reasons, maybe to share my story with other people suffering from the early phases, but those of you who know me would see right through that lie. I wrote that post to close out a …