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
Does Communication Method Influence Thought?
I want to confess that my previous post was an experiment in communication. No, there’s no subliminal messages or hidden phrases. It wasn’t written using a random buzzword generator. Instead, it was written almost completely by dictating it to Dragon Naturally...
Great Appearance, Good To Have, Bad To Vote For
I have a point to make but before I do so I want to put my audience in the proper frame of mind. When I consider the perfect woman I think of somebody who is very slender, drop dead gorgeous with perfect makeup and long hair. Of course with these attributes there’s no...
A Caution On Considering An Engineer As a Companion
Like many other bloggers, I check my logs frequently. I love seeing what articles people find interesting, what search terms they used to find me, and of course, did they find me interesting enough to read another post. I have two posts that always make me feel...
Needed, A Balanced Approach To Positive Communication
Recently I received a thought provoking email from a friend resolving to take a more positive approach in his communications about people. I applaud his motives and had written this post on that issue but I realized that this is not the simple issue I was trying to...
All Natural Ingredients With Scientific Proof
Have you ever considered exactly what they are telling you when you hear “all natural ingredients” or “scientific proof” in an advertisement? I know that “all natural ingredients” is trying to infer that natural ingredients are better than artificial ingredients. If...
So Much Knowledge Lost Through Retirement
I have a friend who has retired after many years as a mechanical designer. He was as good as most engineers when it came to mechanical design but he didn't have the degree that would allow him to call himself an engineer. Certainly he recognized his limitations. If...
Random Posts
A Dangerous Trend, Amateur Social IsolationistsI’ve always dreaded social gatherings. It’s not that I can’t do small talk, no, that would be a lie. I’m abysmal at small talk. Thirty seconds into my part of the conversation, I start seeing blank stares and glassy eyes. At forty five seconds, they usually develop an urgent need to visit the bathroom or […]
Where I Admit I Made A Mistake About CongressSpend enough time doing anything and sooner or later you’ll make a mistake. Some mistakes are unavoidable. You might say those are the cost of making decisions and although some of us never do, we’re expected to learn from our mistakes. In electronics it’s almost a given that your first prototype will have problems. That’s […]
Stop Insulting My Intelligence, A Rant For The Rest Of UsI’m tired of people insulting my intelligence. No, I don’t mean the comments on Opinionbypen suggesting my writing is only slightly better than what my dogs could write or the few choice words my supervisor uses after reading my latest progress report. I’m not even talking about the 500 emails I get every day telling […]
Random Posts
How My Wife Caused A Microwave To Be An Engineering DilemmaI guess you could say my dilemma started somewhere over twelve years ago when a Panasonic engineer in the microwave division made a poor decision. Then again, Panasonic continued to build these long after the defect was obvious. He may have received a hefty bonus for ensuring the microwave failed shortly after the warranty expired. […]
Office 2013 Terms, Marketing Ploy or Greed?Revised March 6, 2013: After reading my post Microsoft had a change of heart and relented on allowing you to transfer your copy of Office 2013. They made the announcement today allowing you to transfer it every 90 days. They did not mention my blog in particular but I know that’s they way it happened, […]
Musings On My Greatest Achievement As I Enter RetirementWhen 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 genuinely made me pause and reflect deeply on my career: […]
Random Posts
An AI Assistant Comparison, Alexa, Google and Folgers?Once they hit the market, it was a given that sooner or later I would acquire one of the AI assistants on the market. The only thing holding me back was bandwidth and cost. When Google dropped the price on their mini and Amazon dropped the price on their Dot. I was unable to decide […]
Is Windows 10 So Bad I Should Consider Using Linux?If you’ve ever been frustrated to tears by some of the “enhancements” Microsoft has added to Windows over the years, sooner or later you’ll consider using Linux. As I’m writing this on my Windows 10 laptop, Microsoft has already told me that my version of Word is out of date, asked me if I want to upgrade […]
Musings on Parallel UniversesAll my life I’ve been fascinated by the concept of parallel universes. You know what I mean, universes that coexist with ours, having only minor differences. Then again, maybe you don’t know what I mean. The idea goes something like this. Every time you make a decision, a universe exists where you made a different […]
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
A CelebrationThis is my 20th post on this blog. I realize that raw numbers don’t really mean anything unless you attach importance to them but 20 is a significant number and I felt it should be celebrated. My big problem was how do you celebrate a blog? I’m sure there are …
Amazon vs Hachette, A Consumer’s ViewIn the current argument between Amazon and Hachette, I’m not qualified to discuss the finer details of price points and author royalties. What I can discuss is my opinion and my response as a consumer. I don’t expect anything I say to influence Hachette. I think they see e-books as …
What’s Your Opinion On MOOCs?A good friend sent me this link because he knew that I often recommend Udacity courses, San Jose State suspends collaboration with online provider. The story tells how San Jose University is scaling back their partnership with Udacity because things were not going as well as San Jose wanted. The …
Why Isn’t There An American Micro Bit?I don’t know if you’ve seen this headline, “Every 11-year-old in Britain is getting a free minicomputer,” or what you thought when you did but I found it amazing that this was being done in Britain. The Micro Bit giveaway is a program sponsored by the BBC in a joint …
Duolingo, How To Enjoy Learning A LanguageToday I completed my 76th consecutive Spanish lesson with Duolingo. Why Spanish? Why Duolingo and why is the number of days important? This isn’t my first attempt to learn a new language. My work brings me in contact with a number of different languages and while I try, the project …