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
Knowing Mechanics Of Writing Doesn’t Make Me A Writer
Creative writing has always appealed to me. During my career I've had a lot of practice writing reports, proposals and specifications. While these documents require the ability to communicate information in a clear concise and, hopefully, unambiguous manner, none of...
Professionalism, Why Is It Disappearing?
I had no idea what was happening when I watched my first fencing tournament. The director was giving directions in French, the opponents would come together, lights came on the scoring box, the director would call halt and award a point. I did not yet have the...
Symbols Of Power, The Exclamation Point
They say symbols have power. My first response as an engineer is to deny that. Symbols don’t have any power, the power of a symbol is based only on our perception of the symbol. You could say symbols represent power. If we’ve never seen the symbol or don’t recognize...
Requirements, A Tale With Two Socks
Chance was and still is a very energetic Australian shepherd that spent last spring with us as a foster. His major vice, in my opinion, was that he loved to chew on my socks. Worse he managed to convince another dog, Cajun, that this was entertainment. By the time...
Inspiration, It Might Be Closer Than You Think
On our journey through life we meet a number of people that have profound influences on us, our parents, our teachers, our friends, even our co-workers. I've been very fortunate to encounter a number of people who were very positive inspirations. As I sit here...
Technical Arrogance, No One Is Immune
If there's one thing the engineering world is full of, it's arrogance. Don’t get me wrong, I suffer from the same affliction. I think it comes with being an engineer. After you’ve done the simulations and all the testing, it’s not a surprise that your design works....
Random Posts
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard Feynman, Too Enjoyable?The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard Feynman was an unexpected treat. You would expect a collection of lectures from a Nobel Winning particle physicist to be dry, containing lots of math and another incomprehensible discussion on why they believe certain subatomic particles to exist. That was certainly not the case. Please understand, I’m […]
Wanted, a Women’s Magazine for the Rest of UsTop-Drawer Women’s Magazine Wanted By Zee “Top Drawer” is fine because our flexibility to bend down to the bottom drawer isn’t what it used to be … but we still want to be acknowledged as important, but not “aged” or “senior” or “mature” or other dastardly names we’re called after we pass about the age […]
Married To An Engineer, The New CarBefore you start reading, I should warn you that this post has a lot of math. It’s not complicated, it’s not difficult and you really don’t need to follow the math to get the point I’m trying to make but the math is there. I only want you to see that I don’t think differently than you […]
Random Posts
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 to be great the first […]
Amazon Explore, Or Where In The World Is My Wife Tonight?I thought I was having a very productive weekend until I saw what my wife had accomplished. Not to brag but I replaced fence posts, repaired fences, did some major tree trimming and repaired a bathtub faucet for my Mother-in-law. Not bad for a weekend’s work, right? Then I made the mistake of asking my […]
An Engineer’s Plan For Romance On Valentine’s DayIt’s not that I hate Valentine’s Day but I certainly have reason to fear it. From my point of view, nothing good comes from this holiday. Forget it and I’m in the doghouse. Use the day to tell my wife I love her and my wife questions me about the other 364 days. Putting in a bird […]
Random Posts
DALL-E versus Poser Image Generation, Both Have Their Place[Fair warning – I’m cheap, my website is slow and this is very picture intensive. It will load slowly] When I started Opinionbypen.com, I quickly learned that people wanted pictures. There’s a number of photo sites out there but between usage rights and finding the right picture, I quickly turned to Poser as a way […]
Whimsy, This Engineer’s Stress ReliefSuch a funny word, whimsy. It’s almost self-defining, although that could be because I’ve known what it meant for so long. For the rest of you, it’s defined as a capricious humor and I think there’s far too little of it in today’s life. Most people tend to think of engineers as boring people with […]
Using Data To Influence My Content, How Opinionbypen.com ChangesIn the design and maintenance of Opinionbypen.com, there are two guiding principles I always consider. When it comes to technology, resisting change is the best way to become forgotten. Then again maybe you’re still using a rotary telephone as you watch your VHS tapes on that black and white television. Whether you’re a gadget or […]
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
Idle Thoughts on TeleportationI don’t know how it is with other engineers but I don’t idle well. When I’m supposed to be having fun at the company picnic or at a social gathering, small talk is just not something I want to take part in. Working out the details of a design in …
How Do I Know If an Engineer Loves MeAbout once a month I see a Google query from someone wanting to know how to tell if an engineer loves them. Google, for reasons best known to Google, directs them to my post How to Argue With an Engineer. I don’t know if this is always the same person …
Is It Murder If You Club Your Beeping Carbon Monoxide Detector Into Silence?I like to think that my wife has learned a lot from me about dealing with recalcitrant electronics. Still after analyzing the situation,when she uses a hammer to completely destroy a beeping carbon monoxide detector in her RV, I find myself applauding her initiative. To make it worse, I realize …
After The Crash, Comparing Backup Software, Acronis, Aomei and ParagonThe idea behind a software review is to give an unbiased appraisal of the program. Unfortunately most reviews are anything but unbiased. As hard as I tried, this review is no exception. After my experiences last month, I decided to see what else was out there for backup software. Given …
Retirement, A Very Personal FearFear is a funny thing. I’ve seen grown men injure themselves to escape a common garden spider. Personally, I’m petrified when I have to climb higher than 3 feet on a ladder. They’ve never been bitten by a spider, I’ve never fallen off a ladder, so why the paralyzing fear? …