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
Why Don’t I Have Any Visitors To My Website, Do I Have Bad SEO?
When I started Opinion by Pen, I knew I was posed for fame, fortune and wealth. All I had to do was get my website established, put some advertising up and the money would start rolling in. Only two things stood in my way. I had no advertising on my website and I had...
When Did It Become Rude To Ask A Direct Question?
You’re sitting at the airport terminal reading your Kindle when someone comes up to you and says, ”Pardon me but do you know what time it is?” If you’re like me, you look up, answer "Yes" and go back to reading. Rude? Maybe but which of us was being rude? We can...
What’s Amazon Whispersync And Why Do I Care?
I think I’ve stumbled on a great way to save money on books from Audible. It doesn’t work every time and your savings tend to vary dramatically but when it works you feel like looking over your shoulder to see if the Amazon police are watching. It’s no secret that I’m...
I’m Not Insulting You, That’s My Aspect Starting Up
I want you to take a simple test for me. Look at the picture below and identify the engineer. Not too hard was it? All of you got it. Well, all except for the person reading this that said they're just Poser characters, none of them are engineers. Must be an...
The Importance Of Good Grammar, A Mathematic Look
Every 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...
The Puppy With No Name
In almost every culture there is a belief that one’s name has magical properties. There’s no question that I respond much quicker when I hear my name. I can hear my name being used in situations where it’s impossible to understand the other words being said. When my...
Random Posts
Magic, An Engineer’s PerspectiveBeing an engineer isn’t easy. I don’t mean the bewilderment that comes with social interaction. I don’t mean dealing with math and science. I’m talking about trying to enjoy a good fantasy book. I’m drawn to fantasy because it gives me a vehicle to explore new concepts. The problem is that I automatically start thinking […]
A Review Of The Audible Books I Listened To In 2018In years past, my first post of the New Year tends to be a retrospective of the previous year for Opinionbypen. These have included a look at the numbers of visitors, my favorite posts, what I did right over the year and even a look back at how well I met my goals for the […]
Quitting Doesn’t Always Mean FailureI spent a lot of time thinking of ways to say I was not finishing Udacity’s Interactive 3D Graphics course without sounding like a quitter. I even wrote a post on the difference between failure and quitting. The funny thing is that I’m probably the only one that cares. It’s not like Udacity is going […]
Random Posts
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 get absolutely shredded for that […]
Negative Reviews, They Don’t Always Represent Bad ProductIf, like me, you read a lot of reviews before making a purchase you wonder why a lot of big name companies are sending out shoddy merchandise. Sure it looks like the majority of people are completely satisfied with the product but there’s always a few dead on arrival or dead within a few weeks. […]
An Engineer Muses On Fictional WritingIf you’ve seen the movie, Apollo 13, you remember the scene where the mission director comes in with a box of stuff dumps it on the desk and says this is what we’ve got, make it work. I don’t think there’s an engineer out there who wouldn’t love to have that challenge. Just watching the […]
Random Posts
- 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 get absolutely shredded for that […]
The Eternal Conflict Between Human Behavior And Engineering LogicThe popularity of my Married to an Engineer posts tells me that most of you have difficulty understanding how engineers think. As an engineer, I can tell you that difficulty is mutual. We try to design based on rational human beings and the truth is most of you are anything but rational. Okay that’s a […]
A Followup to Amazon Polly and My Solar FountainI live in Texas because I enjoy the hot summers, mild winters and the food. Well, also because my wife has told me she’s not moving out of Texas. What I really dread is springtime when my allergies kick into overtime and I feel like a druggie looking for my next Claritin fix. The majority […]
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
Synergy And A New BeginningSynergy is a great word that’s become a victim of its own sexiness. A few years ago it seemed to be an unwritten rule that this word must be used in corporate mission statements everywhere. I sure you’ve seen statements like “Utilizing the synergy of our multiple sites we will …
FocusIn gaming, you get to pick specific attributes that contribute to your characters success. Real life is similar, but we don’t get to choose our attributes. In a way I was lucky, one of my strongest attributes is focus. For an engineer, the ability to focus on a problem is …
In Defense Of My Junk Box: Married to An EngineerJust about every electrical or mechanical engineer I know has some kind of junk box—a treasure trove of parts accumulated over the years, all saved with the hope they might come in handy someday. My own junk box started at a very early age. Too young to work a part-time …
How to Create a Mind by Ray Kurzweil, a Review of the AudiobookI bought How to Create a Mind by Ray Kurzweil because Audible put it on sale the same day I had an argument animated discussion with a co-worker about Artificial Intelligence. Knowing I was right, I bought the book to provide supporting material for my position. While the book did support …
Spam, Spam and More Spam, A Closer Look At The DetailsReceiving more spam than email? Drowning in Amazon order cancellations? Wondering why your spam filter is so inefficient? I still believe I had the perfect solution when I suggested taxing email but no one seemed to like that idea. If you consider knowledge as power, I’m going to give you …