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
The Royal Cobbler, A Fairy Tale For Small Business
A long time ago there was a cobbler of great renown. He made a comfortable living selling very nice shoes to rich people. As luck would have it, word of his skills reached the king. The king being a very noble and wise king ( they always are, aren't they) decided to...
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...
Random Posts
Communication As Seen By An EngineerCommunication, the human race has been attempting it for thousands of years. Whither it’s art, music, writing, movies, even this website, it’s all a form of communication. With that much practice, you would think we’d be better at it. Honestly, I don’t know why we aren’t better at it but I think the problem exists […]
Heidi’s Heavenly Cookies, WowI enjoy writing this blog because I’m not constrained to a single topic. Today is all about cookies. Let me set the background. I love cookies. Everyone who knows me knows I love cookies. The only thing that lured me off my Atkins diet was cookies. My Food Scout quickly learned how much I loved […]
WaitingJust as I feared, I got the wrong name for my website. It’s a very small thing but still annoying. I had selected OpinionByPen.com and then realized I might want more than one opinion. Easily fixed or so I thought. I then registered OpinionsByPen.com but my hosting account was still under the previous name. As […]
Random Posts
How To Drive Customers Away, Why I’m Done With NetgearOver the years I’ve used a number of Netgear modems, routers and switchers but this weekend I received what will be my last Netgear product. It’s a simple Wi-Fi range extender and probably works well but Netgear’s attempt at customer retention is not acceptable. Netgear will not let me setup the extender until I enter […]
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 […]
Married To An Engineer – Part 2It’s happened again this year, once again I’ve forgotten my anniversary. Every year that it happens, I swear it won’t happen again. I’ve set alarms on watches, PDAs and smartphones. I went so far as to enlist my Mother-In-Law’s help but every once in a while all those mechanisms fail simultaneously and I’m left red […]
Random Posts
Why Can’t I Find A Good Book, The Evolving Nature Of LiteratureThere’s nothing as wonderful as starting a new book and finding yourself totally immersed within the first chapter. Sadly, such books are becoming scarcer than finding a worthy political candidate. I find myself reading more books and enjoying far fewer of them. I used to think that this was caused by self-publishing but this has […]
An Engineer Attempts Valentine’s DayToday 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 comes to romance, I don’t have a clue. I […]
Needed, A Balanced Approach To Positive CommunicationRecently 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 make it. We’ve all known people we […]
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
An Opinion On Opinions. Why The Other Guy Isn’t Always WrongWith all the freedom and enlightenment our society is supposed to have, I find it amazing how little tolerance we have for someone with an opinion that differs from ours. Maybe the anonymity provided by the Internet reinforces this behavior, Twitter certainly seems to thrive on a crowd mentality. Still, …
What’s This Thing Called Cache? A Non-Technical ExplanationSpend enough time with computers and you’ll encounter cache. When your browser is acting up, the first thing you hear is, “your cache is corrupted you’ll have to clean it.” When your computer is running slow, you’re told you need more cache. Obviously cache is important but what is cache? …
Some Advice Before You Move To The CountryYou’re tired of your annoying neighbor that gets up at 6AM on a Saturday morning to mow his lawn. Or maybe it’s the neighbor that mows his grass once a month and seems to cultivate all those weeds that find their way to your yard. Or maybe you don’t like the …
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 …
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. …