In Defense Of My Junk Box: Married to An Engineer

Just 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...

Justifying My AI Hobby By Finding Blaze A Forever Home

From my early teenage years, technology has always played a significant part in my life. Though I was late to the party, I joined the technology revolution as the world transitioned from vacuum tubes to transistors in 1963. By 1975, I found myself in the midst of the...

Maximizing Profit: Reliable Designs Or Frequent Repairs?

When I retired, my wife strongly suggested I put some of that newfound free time into cleaning rather than gaining another level in my current game. My trusty old vacuum cleaner, however, decided it wasn’t up to the increased workload and promptly broke a belt. Of...

From the Doghouse

A look at dogs having fun

Poser Gallery

My gallery of pictures I’ve created in Poser

Nature by Carol

A look at the less technical side of life

Shelby, The Reason I Have Australian Shepherds

Shelby, The Reason I Have Australian Shepherds

Given a number of choices, each having equal weight, I tend to use minor factors to decide rather than make a totally random choice.  In this case a post on Shelby won out because she looks really good in the previous post with my wife. Shelby was and still is...

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Why I’m Proud of My Wife

Why I’m Proud of My Wife

Most of my regular readers are probably tired of me talking about Udacity and I promise you that they only play a small part in this post. My wife has watched me spending a lot of my time studying my coursework and doing homework. She's certainly seen how frustrated...

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Speed Reading, the Good and the Bad

Speed Reading, the Good and the Bad

I've always been proud of being a speed reader. With light fiction I can hit about 1000 words a minute. If I'm scanning a document for key words, I can push it far above that. It's not a skill that I was taught, it just sort of developed. When I read I see the words...

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Language and Culture

Language and Culture

I read a lot of Science Fiction and Fantasy. I enjoy the way it gives the author the freedom to explore different concepts, different rules of physics, different societies. I also don't have to look for a deeper meaning. One of the books that really made me think was...

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Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day

If I had given thought to the idea, I would have timed my Celebration post to come out on Mother's Day. Then again, my Mother deserves her own post for all the grief I gave her as a child. The following are a few examples of what she had to cope with while raising me....

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First Impressions

First Impressions

When something irritates me, I tend to remember it a long time. Many, many years ago I applied for a summer job at Six Flags Over Texas. After filling out the resume and waiting for the interview I was told that they would not even interview me until I cut off my...

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Random Posts

  • Sundae Explains Why Fashion ChangesSundae Explains Why Fashion Changes
    While engineers are far more challenged by fashion than most of our species, I don’t believe a lack of fashion sense is limited to engineers. I have the basic rules down, well as long as I’m wearing nothing more than business casual. Throw a tie into the mix and I fall to pieces. Now before […]
  • Sundae, The Life And Times Of A Dedicated CompanionSundae, The Life And Times Of A Dedicated Companion
    I’ve been fortunate enough to spend the last 14 years under very close supervision. If I tried to stay up too late, I was gently reminded it was past my bed time. Her displeasure was clear if I tried to snack too often. I was never allowed to sit at my desk too long before […]
  • Reviewing My Blog MistakesReviewing My Blog Mistakes
    My nature causes me to review all my actions. This can be formally, as I do at work, or very informally, as when I review my actions of the day just before going to sleep. When I do these reviews, I try to be honest about my successes and failures. What did I do wrong? […]

Random Posts

  • An Insidious Plot Against MenAn Insidious Plot Against Men
    I’ve recently become convinced that my wife has embarked on a deliberate campaign to fatten me up. I don’t know why, I certainly don’t need additional help but I can find no other explanation for her actions. Consider this. It’s the weekend, I’ve spent a grueling day exercising the dogs, writing this blog and printing […]
  • In Praise of Two Moms, Mother’s DayIn Praise of Two Moms, Mother’s Day
    Mother’s day, that one day of the year that you devote the day to telling your mother thank you for everything she’s done. Of course, if you’re like my Mother and me, a full day is stretching it. Neither one of us has that much free time. When I started thinking about this post, I […]
  • Requirements, A Tale With Two SocksRequirements, 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 Chance found his permanent home, my […]

Random Posts

  • Thank You UdacityThank You Udacity
    What do I like about Udacity? From ST101 Statistics that I just finished, to CS387 Cryptography that I will have to take again, I’ve enjoyed the challenge and the learning experience. The instructors enjoy their work and it shows. With a very professional appearance in videos, coursework and instructors, Udacity has managed to make the […]
  • The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard Feynman, Too Enjoyable?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 […]
  • Inspiration, It Might Be Closer Than You ThinkInspiration, 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 spending my Saturday morning taking my Udacity course, two friends […]

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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

  • Outsourcing Our Mind To Gadgets, The Sad Case For HumanityOutsourcing Our Mind To Gadgets, The Sad Case For Humanity
    When my wife was complaining that she no longer remembered any phone numbers, her phone took care of that, I remembered something Kurzweil said in his book, we were outsourcing our mind to our machines. Remembering phone numbers is certainly not the only function we’ve outsourced to our gadgets. I …
  • What’s Amazon Whispersync And Why Do I Care?What’s Amazon Whispersync And Why Do I Care?
    I think I’ve stumbled on a great way to save money on books from Audible. It doesn’t work every time and your savings tend to vary dramatically but when it works you feel like looking over your shoulder to see if the Amazon police are watching. It’s no secret that …
  • My Theory On Why Time Seems To Be Moving FasterMy Theory On Why Time Seems To Be Moving Faster
    More and more often I hear people commenting on how fast the years seem to go by. Conventional wisdom seems to be that the older we get the faster time appears to fly. The theory sounds good, especially with a sprinkling of mathematics to lend credibility to the theory. At …
  • Bringing It Altogether – An Engineer Attempts To Justify His ToysBringing It Altogether – An Engineer Attempts To Justify His Toys
    Readers of my blog have been subjected to reviews on three different 3D printers, a CNC wood carver, a laser etcher and a host of solar projects. By now most of you have asked yourselves why is he doing all of this? The same is true of my wife. She …
  • A Cost Analysis of Blogging Versus GamingA Cost Analysis of Blogging Versus Gaming
    Hypothesis :  Blogging is cheaper than gaming. Experiment: Follow blogger through first three months and collect cost data. Results:  Collected costs after the first three months are shown below.     $300 Webhosting and Domain Name registration for 3 years…..Subject chose to do three years because it would keep him …
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