Sunday, February 28, 2010

Day 75

A reader asked recently why I collected watches. It's pretty simple actually. Probably pretty simple-minded as well. I went through a period where I was depressed. I hated getting up in the morning. When I did get up, all I would think about was how long it was till I could go back to sleep again. I started looking at clocks and watches a lot to see how much time I had left. Then I started buying them. After I bought two or three watches, I realized that they were quite intricate and beautiful little objects. I've always liked pretty things and when I would see a watch that looked even nicer than the one I had on my wrist, I would buy it too.

It didn't take long before I had more watches than I knew what to do with. Some of the watches quit working and batteries went dead on others. I realized I couldn't even begin to afford to keep all these things running, so I began to buy books about repairing watches. I learned how to change batteries and make simple repairs. Then I started buying more complex watchmaking tools. Within two years, I knew a lot about watches. I started repairing watches for friends. I had totally forgotten the depression that caused me to buy my first watch, but the depression had been replaced by something even worse: an obsession with watches.

Tomorrow is March 1st. At the height of my obsession, I would spend hours moving the date on every single watch from 28 past 29, 30 and 31, so it was back at 1 again. It was ridiculous.  I don't even bother to wind or set the watches anymore. The only time I need to remember tomorrow is 2 PM. That's when I need to be at one of my client's offices to take new employee pictures for their website. Like most of the obsessions I've had in my life, my obsession with watches simply collapsed of its own weight.

I certainly didn't need a watch to tell me what I needed to do today. Sunday's are always the same. It's all dogs, all the time on Sundays. We walked the rescue dogs up at K-9 University and I took new pictures of Kobe and LeBron in their winter sweaters. Next, Dash got his medicated bath over at Vhea's Laundromutt. We took Dot and Dash down to Unleashed to play, and after dinner they got their usual evening walk in the park. This was the entire day. I wonder if this is what it's like to be a soccer mom?

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Day 74

Back when I was an ad agency copywriter, I always used to keep a daily journal. I don't think I ever recorded any profound insights in these journals, but I did make daily entries for many years. Personally, I liked carrying around the little leather-bound diaries a lot more more than I liked writing in them. It looked very businesslike. Some people thought I kept a daily schedule planner in the book. Others thought that I used it for taking notes in meetings. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The journal was just an excuse to postpone working for a while, just like this blog.

Recently, I thought it might be fun to go back to these old journals and scan a page from the same day as my blog entry, but maybe fifteen years earlier. I thought that if I put the scanned page side-by-side with my current blog entry, it would show how I had matured...how I had slowly and surely achieved my dreams. Then, I went and read some of the old journals again. Oops. The old journals seemed exactly the same as what I am writing now. The only difference was that they were written with a ball point pen in a little leather book. So much for maturity. It doesn't appear that I have grown or gained any insight at all after all these years.

I ordered a colorful new muslin backdrop for the Unleashed Easter pet picture event today. Janet found some great looking over-sized Easter eggs we can use as props too. With any luck, the Easter set is going to look even better than the set we put together for Valentine's Day. I think Dalmatian Rescue is right on the verge of turning pet photography in to a major fundraiser. The golf tournament and casino parties are still essential too, but it's nice to know that there is something I know how to do well that can actually help the dogs.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Friday, February 26, 2010

Day 73

The Internet continues to amuse me. This morning I was looking at one of those website analysis sites that seem to be proliferating recently. When I did a search on my own website, it told me that the content was written for a "graduate" level reader. When I did the same sort of search on this blog, it said I was writing for teenagers. Could I have regressed from producing erudite prose to writing twaddle in fifteen short years? Sadly, it's probably all true. Too bad it was my mind that has gone downhill. If only my body had regressed to being a teenager instead.

People are paying me now to write comments on their blogs. Oddly, this doesn't even seem strange to me. In a world where our president reads from a teleprompter and "reality shows" aren't even remotely like real life, why would blog comments be spontaneous and genuine? It's actually kind of fun to comment on things you wouldn't normally even think about. A bit like doing those Sudoku puzzles. It's good for the brain.

I've been thinking more about healthcare lately, but that hasn't been so good for the brain. It's depressing! You really can't escape thinking about healthcare these days. Turn on the television and nine times out of ten, you're going to be listening to someone talking about the healthcare crisis. Health insurance seems to be the largest single expense for people I know who own a small business like I do. Even in an industry like mine, where equipment costs are high, health insurance costs trump everything else. The sad thing is that even if the folks in Washington pass some sort of healthcare legislation, it won't help people like me who already have insurance but still struggle to pay for it. It will just help people who had nothing to start with. I'm sure when all is said and done, I'll end up paying even more than I am now. Like Kris Kristofferson  told us all a long time ago  - "freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Day 72

I could have sworn there was an animal rescue meeting this evening at Tony's Pizza, but when I arrived at the appointed time, nobody was there. Actually, there were plenty of people eating at the restaurant, just not anyone I recognized. I really should should start reading my e-mail more carefully. I'll bet the message actually said that someone was bringing pizza from Tony's to a meeting at a different location. Oh well. At least I made an effort. I went home and ate another leftover pork chop instead.

I'm still catching up with people I've re-discovered on LinkedIn. In the future, I should try to touch base with friends more than once every twenty years. People have died. Kids I remembered as toddlers are now married with kids of their own. Just about everyone has changed careers at least once. I guess I've changed a lot too. It just doesn't seem that way. I've had the same phone number for 25 years. I still have a car I bought in 1972. I'm still wondering what I'm going to do when I grow up.

My leasing agent called today and asked if I wanted to renew the listing on my rent property for another three months. I'd forgotten that they'd been showing the place that long. It's amazing to me that nobody wants to lease. You'd think that I owned a rundown slum property instead of a cool looking Bud Oglesby condo that won a big AIA award in 1965. Times change, I guess. When I bought the place, the Internet wasn't even invented yet. I guess cable TV wasn't invented either. There was an antenna on the roof that got about five local channels.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Day 71

Maybe I'm one of those people who react poorly to a lack of sunlight. I think they call the condition Seasonal Affective Disorder. I know a copywriter somewhere came up with this name, because the acronym is SAD. Too cute. At any rate, it was bright and sunny outside when I woke up this morning and I found myself in a better mood all day.

Had lunch with my friend Alan today. He was amazed that I still didn't have a cell phone and was showing me how he could manage his entire life just by waving a few fingers at his iPhone. I'll have to admit it was pretty impressive. Especially when he went to his Facebook page directly from the iPhone and showed me how people were posting things and commenting in real time, right while we were eating our barbecue sandwiches. Apparently Alan had asked his Facebook friends to send him pictures of where they worked this morning and 43 people had already responded before lunch.

The whole notion of living in a real-time, totally interconnected world still escapes me. I understand all this social Internet stuff in theory, but in reality I'm still pretty isolated. Case in point. Yesterday, I was looking for something on Google and accidentally discovered that George Toomer, someone who I used to work with frequently during my ad agency days, had died last Summer. I didn't even know. There was a time where I would have discovered something like this almost immediately over a beer at the Stoneleigh P. Times have changed though. People don't actually exchange news in person over a beer anymore. They Twitter and Tweet instead. Alan asked me at lunch when was the last time I'd actually shown my portfolio in person to someone at their office. I had to admit that it had been years since I'd done this. Maybe the entire world has moved online. The dogs don't care whether I'm online or not. As long as they get their walk, they're happy.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Day 70

I finished the navigation shell for one of the new websites I'm working on today. Amazingly, all the Javascript worked. Planning the navigation structure is always the hardest part of website design for me. Adding the pictures and content is easy by comparison. I definitely don't want to put the cart in front of the horse, however. My client hasn't even seen the design yet. We're still a long, long way from launching this thing.

This afternoon when I was running errands, I stopped by my regular doctor's office to make an appointment. Usually, it takes me two or three weeks to get in. Today, they said they could see me tomorrow. This is the second time this has happened recently. I wonder what it means. Are people going to the doctor less because of the economy?  Is insurance not covering as much as it used to?  Maybe it's just random chance though.

On the way home it seemed like every other house I passed had a "For Sale" sign in front of it. I've noticed a huge increase in houses for sale lately. With interest rates so low, you'd think people would be snapping them up, but they aren't. I have this uneasy feeling that something has fundamentally changed, but I can't quite put my finger on it. The economy in Dallas is actually a lot better than in many parts of the country, but people still act like the sky is about to fall. The dogs certainly aren't worried. They've had their dinner, taken their evening walk and are now sleeping on top of a pile of blankets on the bed.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Monday, February 22, 2010

Day 69

Today was one of those "bite the bullet" days where I was forced to acknowledge that even the most unpleasant tasks have to be dealt with eventually. I lowered the monthly rent on my rental property in hopes of finally getting it leased. I went to Home Depot and got lots of stuff for fixing leaking toilets, leaking sinks and leaking roofs. I even made some new business calls to people I know would be unpleasant to work with if they ever gave me a chance to bid on something.

The weather continues to be totally unpredictable. Two days ago the temperature was in the 70's. Today it's below freezing again. I think it's supposed to snow again later in the week. I always try to do unpleasant things on days like this because I'm not expecting very much anyway. I paid some bills. Tried to find some missing tax records. Probably about the most pleasant thing I did all day was eat a leftover pork chop for dinner.

Unleashed invited us to have an Easter pet picture event down at the dog park. I'm sure we'll take them up on their offer. Dalmatian Rescue had a lot of sick dogs last year and there are still plenty of vet bills to pay.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Day 68

I've never missed a deadline on a work project. The downside of this conscientious behavior is that I am hopelessly behind on everything else. Sundays are just an endless to-do list these days. In addition to the nagging roof leak and running toilet in the rent house, there is a dripping faucet that needs to be fixed in the kitchen, a shower pan that needs to be replaced in one of the bathrooms, carpet that needs to be replaced in one of the bedrooms and something is wrong with the furnace. The perpetually clogged Epson printer is acting up again and I need to order new print heads for the HP printer. Taxes are looming on the horizon too. I haven't even started collecting tax information for my accountant yet. I sure hope he can figure out what happened this year, because I don't have a clue. I switched stock brokers twice this year, mostly because I was so was so disgusted at how poorly my investments were doing. As a result there seems to be even more paperwork than usual.

I really envy the dogs sometimes. They both got a bath today, which they didn't particurally enjoy. On the plus side however, they got two long walks, a delicious dinner and a trip down to the Unleashed indoor dog park to play. They also got all their dog beds and blankets cleaned, but that was mostly for us. The house was starting to smell pretty doggy.

The weather forecast says there is a good chance of snow again next week. Where is global warming when we need it?  I'm ready for Spring. I think this has been the wettest Winter I can ever remember in Dallas. There's got to be more to life than leaking roofs and muddy dogs.

Dalmatian of the Day
    Watch of the Day

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Day 67

Today, I drove down to Oak Lawn and spent some time cleaning up my rent property. It shouldn't get dirty since it is still empty, but dust seems to accumulate anyway. I really need to talk to my leasing agent. The place has been vacant way too long. I'm still competing against developers with brand new half empty high-rise condos in the same neighborhood. It's amazing how much has changed in just a few years. People used to wait in line for a chance to lease this building and now it has fallen out of fashion.

Mid-century modern buildings are deceptive. They look crisp and contemporary, but they are really antiques that would make good candidates for renovation on "This Old House." I always find something that needs attention when I go down to the rent house. Today, I noticed that a toilet was running. Not a big deal, but I do need to call a plumber.

Saturday errands seem to take longer and longer to complete. It was almost dark before I finished the grocery shopping and headed home to take the dogs on their evening walk. At least the days are getting longer. Pretty soon we'll be able to go out for a walk at 7PM and the sun will still be up.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Friday, February 19, 2010

Day 66

I saw part of Tiger Woods "apology" on TV this morning when I was finishing breakfast. It was stiff and almost robotic. Tiger's premise seemed to be that he had worked hard getting where he was in life and that, as a result, he thought he deserved to be able to do whatever he wanted. Big mistake! If you want to mesh with the rest of society, you can never, ever do whatever you want. Compromise is essential if you want to have friends, work with clients and maintain a relationship. The end result of doing whatever you want is Joseph Stack. You end up flying your airplane into a building just to prove a point.

I'm not even sure what I want anymore. At several points in my life I thought I had found what I was looking for in life, only to discover that it wasn't even close to what I wanted after all.  Now, I just methodically put one foot in front of the other, like a mountain climber ascending a tall summit. I pay bills, I try to figure out what clients want, I walk dogs twice a day, and once or twice a week I enjoy a great meal. Life is easier this way.

This has been a busy week and I'm glad it's Friday. I have two major web site projects in early stages of development that are taking up a lot of my time. It's also time to start putting together promotional materials for Wine on the Roof. This is a major fundraiser for East Lake Pet Orphanage and every year I do a poster and other advertising materials for the event. Everyone loved last year's poster, so it's going to be a challenge to come up with something even better this year. I'm sure that whatever I come up with, there will be a dog in the picture somewhere.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Day 65

I had to go see my gastroenterologist today. The good news was that none of the tissue he biopsied last month during my Endoscopy was pre-cancerous. The bad news was that my esophagus was still an inflamed mess and I need to continue taking my meds for another three months. I looked up the word gastroenterologist on Google a few minutes ago to make sure I spelled it correctly and discovered that the average salary for a gastroenterologist is $315,000 a year. Jeez, I sure got into the wrong line of work. I have an architecture degree, tons of awards and a lifetime of experience, but still my clients complain if I try to make the same money as an Assistant Manager at McDonalds.

Not surprisingly, although my doctror's appointment was at 3:30 this afternoon, I didn't actually get in to see the doctor until 4:15. Schedules are meaningless these days. Sometimes I'm the one behind schedule. Sometimes other people are behind. I can't really complain about the doctor being late for his appointment today, because only two hours later, I was almost an hour late for an animal rescue group meeting where I'm a board member. I had every intention of being on time for this 6 PM meeting, but just when I was getting ready to take the dogs on their 5 PM evening walk, I got a reply to an important phone call I'd made at 10:30 AM this morning. It must be a new rule in some recent time-management book that people should wait until the end of the day to return their phone calls, because inevitably I get most of my business calls between 5 and 6 PM. Life was so much easier when you could just call someone and they would pick up their own phone right when you called.

Everything eventually worked itself out though. The rescue group's meetings are so long that being late seldom matters. The dogs got their walk. I even got to watch Project Runway when I got home.

Dalmatian of the Day
    Watch of the Day

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Day 64

I'm continually amazed at how bad Dallas traffic has gotten in recent years. I really don't drive much anymore, since most of my business takes place over the Internet. When I do venture out beyond the tranquil confines of my own neighborhood, it feels like I'm back in L.A. I'm just about always late these days, because as a creature of habit, I usually allot the same amount of time it used to take me to drive from one part of town to another, instead of the amount of time it actually takes now. I tend to forget about new school zones, multi-car accidents that instantly turn six lane freeways into a one lane road, and the ever-present construction crews that turn up where you'd least expect them. As a result, no matter how hard I try, I'm always about ten minutes late to wherever I'm going.

I was actually on time to my meeting this afternoon, but it was somewhat of an accident. I just happened to hit a long string of green lights on Northwest Highway and there were no accidents to slow me down along the way. The car trip was certainly worthwhile. I had a great initial meeting with another new client who wants a website for his veterinary hospital. I enjoy working with veterinarians. It sure would be nice if projects for veterinary hospitals had the same kind of budgets as the oil and gas industry projects I used to do a few years ago. That's not going to happen though. I'm just happy that the company is staying busy this year.

Dash had a big night at obedience class this evening. He finally graduated to the advanced class tonight. There were times when I thought this would never happen. He'd been stuck in the intermediate class for over three years, mostly because he would lose interest about halfway through class and refuse to do anything right. A lot of this was my fault, because many times I would lose interest about halfway through class as well. We've been working hard in recent months thought, and tonight was Dash's night.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Day 63

Forget about waterboarding. If you really want to torture someone, just give them some esoteric web hosting problem and then put them on the phone with tech support. Calling tech support is almost always an exercise in futility. Today, I wasted hours trying to find someone who could tell me why some of my client's files were apparently disappearing on the server. When I couldn't find an answer to that question, I wasted even more time trying to find our why the same client's .htaccess files were always getting corrupted.

When I grew tired of dealing with these problems, I tried to figure out why the purchase order numbers on the invoices I was sending out in the mail today didn't match up with the same invoices in my accounting program. Not surprisingly, it was my mistake, but it took me forever to figure out what I'd done wrong. I get tired of dealing with continual computer problems. Computers are very unforgiving. I used to envy Marty, my HVAC repairman, until one day he showed me why my furnace wasn't working properly. It was a small computer hidden away inside the furnace that was causing the problem!

Dogs don't have to worry about computers, but apparently they have their own demons. Tuesday is trash pickup day in our neighborhood and Dot fretted all morning, waiting by the living room window for the garbage truck to drive down the alley behind our house. All you have to say is "Dot, it's trash day" and she starts barking. Dash doesn't barks all that much. He prefers to eat bark he finds in the back yard. That's the kind of day it was: Dot barking at garbage trucks, Dash eating bark, and me barking up the wrong tree with tech support.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Monday, February 15, 2010

Day 62

I had lunch with Tim Werner today. Tim is one of a growing list of old friends and former co-workers that I have re-discovered with the help of LinkedIn. Years ago, when I was an ad agency producer, Tim was my editor of choice. We worked together almost every week putting together TV commercials for over three straight years. Times changed however. I stopped doing commercials. Tim moved on to editing long format video and we eventually lost touch with each other.

Although we hadn't seen each other in many years, we found that we still had experienced some of the same joys and frustrations. I find that whenever I get together with people I used to work with when I was younger, our stories typically share a common theme. We all discovered that in order to stay employable on any level, it was essential to continually reinvent yourself. We found that although we are actually working much harder than we were ten years ago, we aren't making as much money. We all moved on to greener pastures, but somewhere along the way, the grass died. Budgets are tight these days. Memories are short. And nobody is very impressed with all the awards you won in 1978.

It's definitely encouraging to see that so many of my old friends are still hanging in there and actively competing for work with people who are thirty years younger. That's certainly what I'm doing. It's a bit discouraging however, that even when you do win the bid, the work itself isn't nearly as fun as it used to be. I guess some things just can't be duplicated. We were the real life Mad Men of advertising and those days are long gone.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Day 61 - Valentine's Day

Probably the most romantic thing about Valentine's Day was that it was absolutely normal. Janet took Dot up to the annual Krewe of Barkus parade in McKinney. Dash didn't go this year, because he doesn't travel well in the car. Last year we took both dogs to the parade and Dash had a seizure the next day. We'll never know if the car trip actually caused the seizure, or if it was just a weird coincidence. Unfortunately, he's still taking Phenobarbital a year later. Dash seemed happy enough to stay at home, snoozing on the bed while I went up and walked the rescue Dalmatians at K-9 University. When I returned from the kennel, I must have shoveled 600 pounds of snow off the roof in an attempt to stop the leak, and then went looking for a laundromat with a large enough commercial washing machine to clean the 20 foot square pink muslin backdrop I used in yesterdays photo shoot at Unleashed.

One of the hazards of pet photography is that your subjects often poop and pee on the set. The set actually held up pretty well, considering the number of dogs we photographed yesterday. Nevertheless, there were a few accidents. You learn pretty quickly that when a dog pees on your photo backdrop, you've got to get it really clean. Otherwise, the next time you use it, all the dogs will pee on it.

After I got the huge muslin backdrop cleaned and dried, I picked up some roses and cupcakes on the way home and then tried to tidy up the house a bit by taking some of the props that we used yesterday back to the storage warehouse. Janet and Dot returned from the parade later in the afternoon and when the chores were finally finished, we drank a bottle of Champagne that was left over from one of Janet's office parties, ate the cupcakes and were ready to call it a day by 10 PM. I think our dogs were ready to call it a day by 7:30 PM.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Day 60

I'm exhausted! I think we photographed twice as many dogs today as we did last Saturday at Unleashed. Maybe it wasn't actually twice as many dogs, but it certainly felt that way. Today's dogs were all over the place. I felt like everyone was happy with their pictures though. When the event was over and we were packing up to go home, the dog park events coordinator said she was delighted how things worked out and told us that Dalmatian Rescue was welcome back anytime we wanted to do another fundraiser. All in all, I think things worked out very well for the two Saturday event.

When I got back to the house around 5 PM, our two dogs were acting like I'd totally abandoned them. I fed them their dinner and we went on our evening walk, even though I would have much rather taken an evening nap instead. Our record snowfall is quickly becoming a memory. About the only thing that remains are the snowmen. I think every child in Dallas made a snowman this weekend. There are thousands of them all over town. I'm pretty sure we passed at least two dozen snowmen on our walk. Dot acted alarmed and barked at the snowmen as we approached. Dash just lifted his leg and peed. It was weird seeing all these snowmen sitting forlornly in grassy fields, but that's Dallas weather for you. I think it got up to 50 degrees this afternoon.

Maybe tomorrow I can get all the photo equipment put away again. Maybe I can get all the water off the roof as well. The melting snow is causing the roof to start leaking again. This is enough for one day though. As soon as I post this blog entry, I'm going to call it a day.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Friday, February 12, 2010

Day 59

The power went out for about five hours today. I often forget how dependent we've all become on electricity. No power means no heat, no lights, no telephone and no Internet. With floor-to-ceiling glass in almost every room, the house got cold really quickly. We did still have hot water, since there is a gas water heater in the house, but that was about all. Given a choice, I'd much prefer to lose power in the Summer than right in the middle of the biggest snowstorm Dallas has seen in twenty years.

With all my meetings canceled and no real reason to stay in the house, I took the dogs on a long walk in the snow. It was slow going, since the snow came up to the dogs bellies. Snow didn't seem nearly as wondrous to them today as is did yesterday. Within thirty minutes we were all completely cold and wet and I headed home again. Eventually, the power came back on and life returned to normal.

I hope the bad weather doesn't keep people away from Unleashed tomorrow. We're doing the second weekend of our Valentine's Day pet picture benefit for Dalmatian Rescue and it would be a shame if nobody showed up. I'm trying to get all the batteries charged up on my equipment this afternoon, just in case the power goes out again this evening. Batteries are definitely on the shopping list this weekend. When we woke up to no power in the wee hours this morning, I discovered much to my chagrin that most of the flashlights in the house had dead batteries.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Day 58

I woke up this morning to find a thick blanket of snow on the ground. This wasn't the almost invisible light dusting that Dallas typically gets either. It was the real thing: thick, wet "go out and make a snowman" kind of snow like I used to remember growing up in Alaska. I don't know if the dogs have ever seen snow before. Dot tiptoed daintily through the drifts that had accumulated in the backyard, while Dash raced around like a maniac. Dash would still be out in the yard making snow angels if he knew how.

The snow continued to fall throughout the day. Several meetings I had planned for this afternoon ended up getting canceled, so I drove around for an hour or so, taking pictures of the neighborhood instead. You've got to take pictures when it snows in Dallas, because nobody will believe you later.

It looks like about eight inches of snow have accumulated on the roof already. This means I'm going to have to go up there with a push broom tomorrow and sweep it all off. Otherwise, once the snow starts to melt, my roof will start leaking all over again. I had been hoping to get the roof repaired weeks ago, but it has never gotten dry enough. This has been one of the wettest Winters I can remember. I wish our house had a fireplace. This would be a perfect evening to be drinking a glass of wine in front of a roaring fire. Fireplace or not, it's still a good evening to watch Project Runway though.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Day 57

It's probably not a great idea to write the blog after Martini Night. Today's accomplishments were a bit fuzzy to begin with. Now, with a few drinks under my belt, the entire day just seems like nothing more than a long preparation for tomorrow. Truthfully, a lot of days are like this. Many of projects I work on last for weeks or even months. Usually, there's a lot of nuts-and-bolts research that's got to take place before your ideas can even start to take shape.

Today, I started to experiment with different color palettes for a new website project and later this afternoon, tried to figure out how to turn a bad Powerpoint presentation into a good web video. I didn't reach any conclusions, but at least I got the ball rolling. I wonder sometimes where the ideas come from. Maybe they come from careful reasearch like I've been doing today. On the other hand, I think that I've actually gotten some of my best ideas while walking the dogs.

Spot, our first Dalmatian, was a great idea starter. He was calm and well trained and I would often find myself daydreaming while I walked. Ideas just popped into my head. Dot and Dash are a bit less inspirational. Dot is such an avid squirrel chaser that she'll pull the leash right out of my hand if I'm not continually on my toes. Dash just likes to eat crap he finds on the ground. I've got to watch him like a hawk as well. With this wild pair you can forget about inspirational daydreaming. It's not that bad though. We do get a lot of heart-healthy exercise. Without our daily walks, I'm sure I'd be at least ten pounds heavier.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Day 56

We got another new customer today. That's always a good thing. The company seems to be developing a niche working with veterinarians. I've been quite pleased to see this develop, since I've always liked animals better than people anyway. It's still strange to me however, to see how word-of-mouth recommendations can make you an expert in areas you never would have expected. At previous points in my career, I've had short periods where I was considered an expert in oil and gas marketing, fashion photography and even German translation. Truthfully, I've never come close to being an expert in anything.

I think the only reason I've even been moderately successful is that I have an extremely short attention span. I can do the same thing over and over again and still approach a new project completely fresh, mostly because I have completely forgotten about all the other virtually identical projects I have already completed. At any rate, I'm delighted to have new problems to solve and a brand new website to develop.

It's amazing how a little nice weather can change things. One nice day with blue skies and suddenly I've got a new client, the Dow is up 150 points and I've even got a new follower on the blog. Let's pray for blue skies again tomorrow.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Monday, February 8, 2010

Day 55

It certainly wasn't the best way to get the week started. More rain! When you're soaking wet, standing in four inches of standing water on top of your own roof, trying in vain to find the source of a roof leak, you have to drop all pretenses of being an advertising mogul. You're just another wet idiot who bought a mid-century modern house. Water leaks have become the bane of my existence. They're hard to find, almost impossible to repair and they return year after year just like the Swallows of Capistrano. I have two leaks now and I'll probably have more, since the rain just doesn't seem to want to quit.

The dogs drive me nuts on rainy days. Neither one of them likes to get wet and they both seem convinced that, since I can open doors and turn on light switches, I can also stop the rain.  I take them outside to do their business and they won't even go off the porch. They just give me this "make it stop" look and go back inside. After a while they get frantic, because they really do need to go. I put totally useless dog raincoats on each dog and we go take our regular walk. After everyone is totally soaked, the dogs poop and pee and we go home again to spent half an hour getting dry. We've been doing this over and over again ever since Christmas. I wish I could just train them to use the toilet.

One of my clients wants a virtual tour of their facility that they can play on their website. I received twenty-five e-mails with attached source material for the project this afternoon and not one of them was readable. There's got to be an easier way to make a living.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Day 54 - Super Bowl Sunday

I was disappointed in this year's crop of Super Bowl ads. The game itself was pretty good though. As an advertising person, I always look forward to the ads just about as much as the game. It seemed like this year, most advertisers just wasted their money. I'm glad there was still one classic Budweiser Clydesdale ad with inspiring animals and a Dalmatian sitting on top of the beer wagon. It wouldn't be a proper Super Bowl without these Clydesdale ads. The Letterman show ad featuring Dave, Oprah and Jay watching the game together managed to catch my attention. CareerBuilder.com's "Casual Friday" commercial was actually pretty funny too. Denny's should have quit while they were ahead with their "Free Grand Slam" commercials. The first ad featuring the horrified chicken was funny, but after seeing three or four more ads build around the same theme, I quickly grew tired of them. Ditto for the eTrade 'baby" ads. Enough already.

I stopped by to take a look at the Culwell & Son Super Bowl Sunday Sale after Janet and I finished walking the rescue Dalmatians at K-9 University. The once-a-year sale only lasts from 1PM to 5 PM in the afternoon, but it's well worth waiting for. You can save up to 75% on almost everything in the store. Not surprisingly, I walked away with another brown leather jacket. Lord knows how many almost identical brown leather jackets I already have, but I find these things hard to resist.

I finally got most of the equipment we used at yesterday's photo shoot returned to its proper place. I don't know why I even bothered to unpack everything because I'll be packing it all up again next Friday. Between now and then, it looks like it's going to be a very busy week.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Day 53

The Valentine's Day photo shoot at Unleashed went really well today. The turnout was much better than I expected, and it felt like I was taking pictures of dogs non-stop from the moment we took our first appointment at 11AM to the last picture was finished around 3:30 PM. Every one of our customers was very happy with their pictures and Unleashed said we were welcome back any time we wanted to do this again. Hopefully, everyone who had their dog's picture taken today will tell their friends and next Saturday's turnout will be even better.

Pet photography is pretty grueling, especially if you've got bad knees like I do. Dog don't stand still very long and I was continually kneeling and standing up again all day long to get the shot.  After about five hours of this you just want someone to carry you away in a stretcher. It was a good day though. The Great Danes and Rottweiler's didn't destroy the set and nobody peed on the backdrop.

I wish I could just leave all the gear in the car until the next time we do this for Dalmatian Rescue, but that will never work. I need to move the lights and backdrops back to the studio this weekend, so I can use them for work again. Our own dogs will be riding in the car tomorrow anyway. I'm too tired to put all the equipment away tonight though, so it's sitting in a big pile in the entryway.

Dalmatian of the Day
    Watch of the Day