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
Adjusting To Retirement After A Lifetime Of Employment, A Journey
For all the fears I had about retirement, I wasn't expecting the real problems. First, there was the insurance dilemma. It turns out that my wife was too young for Medicare, and there's no such thing as a family plan that covers both of us. I ended up juggling two...
Company Buyouts, Good For The Consumer?
You're justifiably proud of your waffle maker. It was a lesser-known brand, yet it cost half as much as its competitors, and its brilliant texture sensor guaranteed you got flawless waffles every time. Unfortunately, as soon as you plugged it in, someone mistook your...
Interspecies Communication As Experienced By An Engineer
I thoroughly enjoyed the first season of Star Trek: Enterprise because they spent much of the time grappling with communication issues. Universal translators, missing databases, peculiar methods of communication, and one memorable episode without a translator. I...
A Conspiracy Theory Regarding Encryption Creating My Dilemma
It seems that the current trend on social media is overwhelmingly conspiracy theories, especially as elections draw near. I’m not particularly drawn to the political ones, but I'm gripped by a conspiracy theory regarding encryption that's threatening to upend my...
Musings On My Greatest Achievement As I Enter Retirement
When I retired, there were a few questions that everyone seemed to ask: how did I feel about stepping into retirement (frankly, terrified) and what was my first project going to be (the rebuilding of my dilapidated well house). Yet, there was one question that...
On The Design Of My New Business Card
About 40 years ago, during a period of self-discovery, I chanced upon a handwriting analysis book. Naturally, I used the book to analyze my own handwriting. What hidden aspects of my personality might it reveal? We won’t go into the gritty details, but the picture it...
Random Posts
Your Incredible Power To Influence Technologic EvolutionEvolution is one of those topics on which everyone has an opinion. Don’t worry, I’m not going to try influencing your opinion but I am going to tell you how it works to your advantage. Consider your phone for example. Wait, you thought I was talking about the biology version of evolution? No, I’m sure […]
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 […]
Windows 10 Versus Chromebook, What Does Intregity Have To Do With It?I’m writing this on a Chromebook. Think of it more as an experiment rather than a review of Chromebook capabilities. Why? When my wife asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I saw it as an opportunity to upgrade my computer. A little research and I realized that in order to upgrade, I would have […]
Random Posts
Married To An Engineer: We See Problems DifferentlySeveral years ago, there was a study on the differences in the way dogs and wolves interacted with people. Now I’m not going to insult your intelligence by comparing engineers to wolves but the study did reveal an intriguing similarity. Like wolves, Engineers see problems differently than our counterparts. When the wolf was confronted with […]
Daylight Savings Time, A Tale Of Two Time ZonesIt’s official, I hate Daylight Savings Time. I know several hundred blogs were written on the subject this year and I saw no reason to add my voice then I started thinking about my post on apathy and realized I have to add my voice to the crowd. I’ve always wondered what kind of bogus […]
Reviewing My Blog MistakesMy nature causes me to review all my actions. This can be formally, as I do at work, or very informally, as when I review my actions of the day just before going to sleep. When I do these reviews, I try to be honest about my successes and failures. What did I do wrong? […]
Random Posts
How To Talk With An EngineerLast week when I described my current systems engineer position as being all about communications, I almost lost my wife to uncontrollable laughter. When she finally recovered, all she said, while still trying to catch her breath was, “how do you stay employed?” She has a point. If you have an engineer in your life, you […]
The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology?When I started this blog, I knew that I wanted to stay more or less on technical issues. Politics was an issue I would avoid. Aside from too many other talented people writing on politics, there was also too much rhetoric, emotion and a seeming lack of ability to do basic math on the part […]
One Year In The Making, A Blogging QuestOne year in the making…that’s how long this post has taken me. Exactly one year ago I started this blog with my first post, Beginning, embarking on this quest. Since then I’ve written 95 posts on a variety of topics. In response to those posts, Opinionbypen.com has had over 6500 page views and over 10,000 […]
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
Death By Productivity ImprovementHave you ever screamed in frustration when your favorite software company announced that they had come up with new methods of productivity improvement? Personally I’m tired of all the help I’m getting. Windows 8 serves as a perfect example of a productivity improvement that nobody wants. Unless your job consists …
The Rubbermaid 7’ x 10’ Shed, A ReviewThis is a review of the Rubbermaid 7’ x 10’ shed but my story begins with a humbling confession of my own ignorance. When I bought my dream ranch, complete with a charming old barn, I was blissfully unaware of the storm of frustration that lay ahead. Neither the barn …
The UP! Mini 3D Printer, A ReviewI bought the UP! Mini 3D printer from Amazon for $599. I found the sale price too good to pass up. Having had it for almost 48 hours, I don’t have buyer’s remorse but I might do more looking if I had it to do over. While this post is …
Closing Out 2019 In Bits And PiecesI 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 get …
Udacity RevisitedIt’s Thursday night and I’m doing my homework for week two of Udacity CS253 Web Application Engineering. I haven’t even started doing CS387 Applied Cryptography content for this week. I may have bitten off a little more than I can chew for this run. My struggles cause me to think …