Category Archives: Engineering
I Finished July’s Camp NaNoWriMo & Links to Three Space Stories
I finished Camp NaNo last week. I took a NaNoWriMo manuscript from years ago and revised the first 55,000 words. The science fiction novel is better for it, and I’ll wear my badge proudly. In celebration of science, space, and heroes with … Continue reading
Jacarandas in May: An Unforgettable Californian Sight With Tips
The sight of those flaming lavender flowers on the Jacaranda trees in May will freeze one in midstep, but the bloom is so fleeting that I forget all about them till the trees are ablaze again. I’m sure the tree owners don’t forget. Signs … Continue reading
Doing Something Positive on Earth Day 2017
Earth Day 2017 Forget the hype, the litter left after the fundraiser marches, and the flood of sometimes dicey statistics, graphs, and theories of pseudoscientists. Let’s get real. Stop talking, protesting, and Facebooking about what everyone else is NOT doing. Take … Continue reading
Saving the Planet: A Day of Meals Part Two
BACKGROUND If every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetables and grains … the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off the US roads. Environmental Defense Fund … Continue reading
Saving My Life: A Day of Meals Part One
BACKGROUND Since 2004, I’ve been experimenting with healthier and more mindful attitudes about health, the environment, climate change, God, compassion for animals and other cultures. To quiet irritated friends, my nutritionist, family and waitresses, I transitioned from Whole Foods, plant-based … Continue reading
Close to Earth: Flying from LAX to Prescott
In September, I drove to Prescott, Arizona and tried two different routes. More recently, I decided to try the newly minted service offered by Great Lakes Airlines: flying from LAX to Prescott on their Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia, a twin-turboprop commuter airliner. It boasts … Continue reading
Risk Analysis: Choosing My Next Writing Project
Any writer will tell you that they have more ideas than time. Choosing the next project then becomes a challenge. From several decades as an engineer, I do a quick-and-dirty risk assessment to choose which of my current candidate projects … Continue reading
