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
An Engineer Muses On Fictional Writing
If 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...
I’m Male But I’m Not That Stubborn, Really
I want to make something perfectly clear. When I wrote my post about male stubbornness, I was talking about other males, I was certainly not talking about myself. Despite what my wife may think, I’ve always considered myself to be very reasonable. That is until this...
An Engineer Attempts Valentine’s Day
Today is that most feared of all days, Valentine’s Day. You don't fear Valentine’s Day? That can only mean you’re not an engineer or you’re not married to an engineer. Still not understanding? As an engineer, I automatically analyze all aspects of my life. When it...
I’m Male, My Stubbornness Comes Naturally
Male stubbornness is legendary. I think more jokes have been made about us never asking for directions than jokes about lawyers. We know you’re making fun of us and we still refuse to ask for directions. Let’s face it, Garmin is making a fortune off that trait. It’s...
Email Scam or Luckiest Man Alive?
I must be the luckiest man alive. Three weeks ago when I was looking at my bills and wondering how I was going to pay them, I got an email from an attorney in England. Some wealthy relative I didn’t even know about had died and left me his fortune. I immediately sent...
A Look Back at Some of My Favorite Posts
Each post I write is a snapshot in time. Sometimes I go back to correct them or add a little more information but I’ve learned that I always need to continue looking forward. Rewriting my old posts, as much as they might need it, doesn’t give me time to write new...
Random Posts
UdacityWhen I signed up for CS101: Building a Search Engine at www.Udacity.com, I had no idea what to expect. I’ll admit what I really wanted to sign up for was CS373:Programming a Robotic Car. After a careful examination of the requirements for CS373, I realized I’d always wanted to build a search engine. Udacity is […]
Intelligent Garden Spiders? It’s Not Even HalloweenLet me make it clear, I don’t like spiders. It’s not like I run away screaming when I see one. I’ve been forced to share the bathroom with a wolf spider and we both survived but neither of us enjoyed that experience either. On the other side of the spectrum, my wife see’s them as […]
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 […]
Random Posts
How The FCC Wants To Improve Rural InternetI caught on to Santa Claus fairly early in life. It’s unfortunate then that it took me so long to realize that, despite their strongly spoken rhetoric, my government really doesn’t care about helping me. Sometimes this truth is so evident that I question my intelligence in ever believing their intentions were good. Avoiding the […]
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 […]
Why Are We Allowing The News Media To Manipulate Our Opinions?I know, I vowed no more political blogs but that was last year. This really isn’t about politics anyway. It’s about the manipulation of our society by the news media. I believe the divisiveness we see today is driven largely by this manipulation. Remember the recent headlines about a high school student harassing a Native […]
Random Posts
Creating An Alexa Podcast For OpinionByPen Using Amazon PollyIn my previous post I took you on my journey to add Amazon’s speech synthesizer Polly to Opinionbypen. I have to admit I did this as an excuse to play with some of the emerging technologies offered by Amazon. Although there were a few minor obstacles along the way, Amazon has made adding speech to […]
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 at your phone, your Bluetooth […]
How To Identify An EngineerHow do you identify an engineer? My wife and I have frequent discussions about engineers being a unique class of people. She feels that communication with me is difficult because I think differently than most people. I feel that communication with me is far simpler than with other people as long as you follow the […]
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
The Solar Fountain, A Case Study In Poor PlanningAsk anyone in the engineering profession what the most important phase of a project is and they will tell you planning. Okay, a few of the engineers already embarking on a career of management will say funding but they’ve already gone over to the dark side. I can safely ignore …
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 …
Want To Be A Great Writer? You Need Great CharactersWhy this topic? Why now? Perhaps an explanation is in order. Recently I had to send a white paper I had written several years ago to a colleague having similar problems. Prior to sending it, I took the time to read it and almost spent the rest of the day …
Tis The Season For 3D PrintingJune 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 my achievements for all …
Married To An Engineer, The Christmas Dinner DilemmaI just discovered that I’ll be having steak for Christmas dinner instead of the ham everyone else will be having. Truthfully, I don’t see this as a bad thing but I hate to see this happen simply because my wife and I don’t seem to communicate on the meaning of …