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
Bugs, My Blog Has a Few
Once I discovered WordPress I thought Blogging would be easy. Let me correct that statement, I thought that writing interesting posts on a regular basis would be the hardest part of the blog. I was so wrong. Don't get me wrong, I still consider style and content to be...
The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology?
When I started this blog, I knew that I wanted to stay more or less on technical issues. Politics was an issue I would avoid. Aside from too many other talented people writing on politics, there was also too much rhetoric, emotion and a seeming lack of ability to do...
Shouting Is A Poor Form Of Communication
A few nights ago I was playing Tera with a friend who wanted to try it out. He was on a trial account and while he could receive messages from me he could not send them to me. This lead to a mildly frustrating 30 minutes involving phone texting and emotes. I...
The Importance of Teamwork in a Design
Imagine if you will, a design team that has been tasked with designing a tablet that will be crucial to the future of their company. The team consists of the best and brightest engineers and programmers in the company. For those of you that like names, let's call the...
Comments on Udacity vs. Colleges
Today I got to read an interesting article by David Youngberg , "Why Online Education Won't Replace College—Yet " He gives five points to support his beliefs and even took CS101 from Udacity as research. I think he's very right in his main assumption but he certainly...
My Experience With Ramsay Hunt Syndrome
This is not something I wanted to write about but as I said in Questing, I'm trying to be more open and share my experiences. I told myself that once this was not a major factor in my life I would write about it. About 8 weeks ago I had a slight earache. Well, not...
Random Posts
The Challenge of Blogging and an OfferIt should be obvious that I write this blog in hopes of other people reading it. I have no advertising on my site and certainly no one is paying me to write it. I do get some satisfaction out of the creative effort and working on this blog has certainly improved my ability to express […]
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 […]
ControlsI want you to try an experiment. Pick a remote control that you use frequently and tell me what each switch does. Odds are that you can’t. I would even guess that you only use a few of them. As an engineer I love choices. The more controls you give me the better. As a […]
Random Posts
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 job, my chances of obtaining […]
Time, A Perspective and An ApologyWhen it comes to time I seem to have a lot of conflicting behaviors. If a meeting is supposed to start at 10AM, I strive to be there on time. If my meeting is supposed to last one hour, it will end before the hour is up. These actions are categorized by many people as […]
Dessert Selection, A Description of One Engineer’s Decision ProcessMy wife constantly tells me that nobody but an engineer thinks the way I do. I say she’s exaggerating but in an attempt to keep peace in the family I’ve agreed to a test. I’ll write about an ordinary decision process and leave it up to my readers. The Decision In Fort Worth, there’s a […]
Random Posts
Spam and Scams Filling My Email – Sound Familiar?One look at my investment portfolio and you know my ability to predict the future is seriously flawed. This trend gives me hope I’m wrong but if history is any guide, no one will be using email 10 years from now. Impossible you say? Before the advent of robocallers and phone soliciters, we looked forward […]
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 no […]
Imagination, It Allows Us To See The ImpossibleI did this post after creating a scene in Poser showing my wife’s fondness for old cemeteries. I’ve never understood her fascination with them but her imagination allows her to reflect on these people’s lives and their contributions to society. My imagination only covers us leaving the cemetery. Before I had a good grasp on […]
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
Married To An Engineer, A Matter of ConventionMy wife always groans when we’re watching a movie and the climatic point is the hero trying to defuse a bomb. She knows that in about 2.3 microseconds I’m going to make some derogatory comment about bombers always using the same wiring convention. As I always explain to her, unless …
Why Does Change Seem So Random?It’s a given that change happens. From fashion to transportation to political viewpoints, it always changes, but why? Change is seldom welcome so why does it happen? And why does it happen so often to the things you like? Why does today’s Big Mac more closely resemble a White Castle …
Married to an Engineer, It’s More Complicated Than You ThinkUnless you’re also an engineer, living with an engineer is an exercise in controlled frustration. Engineers live so closely tied to technology that we automatically assume everyone else has the same love and understanding of technology we do. My house is filled with technology, computers, 3D printer, WIFI, smart lights, …
Opinionbypen Hits 10,000 ViewsSometime this last week, Opinionbypen had its 10,000th page view. For those of you who, like myself, love numbers, that’s an average of 556 views a month or 18 views a day. I’m proud of that number because those are page views by real humans, not bots. If I counted …
Shouting Is A Poor Form Of CommunicationA few nights ago I was playing Tera with a friend who wanted to try it out. He was on a trial account and while he could receive messages from me he could not send them to me. This lead to a mildly frustrating 30 minutes involving phone texting and …