Day 197

Today seemed a lot more enjoyable than yesterday. It was still raining outside. I still didn't have much luck getting input from my customers. About the only thing different about today was that instead of watching the financial news on CNBC while I was eating breakfast, I watched the Graham Norton Show instead. Maybe that made all the difference. I'll have to admit that I am getting pretty tired of hearing the same bad news everyday. Could the solution be as simple as just stopping listening to it?

When I was out running errands this afternoon, I stopped by a little neighborhood jewelry store where I used to take watches to be repaired. There were entirely new faces inside the store. Evidently the people I knew had sold the business recently. This was actually good news to me, because the previous owners weren't all that good at fixing things. I have plenty of broken watches, so I'll have to take something to these new guys next week and see if they're any good.

I didn't really think that we'd have our dog training class this evening because it was still raining a bit when it was time to leave. Janet said that nothing short of a hurricane could stop our teacher from showing up, so we loaded the dogs in the car and went to class anyway. Sure enough, Tom was there. The class was smaller than usual and the dogs were all wet, but we went through most of the normal exercises as if it was a sunny day. Some of the dogs actually seemed to enjoy the rain, but our dainty Dot wouldn't even do a basic sit and stay tonight. She doesn't like getting her butt wet.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 196

It's hard to get excited about a day where the market dropped 268 points, the phone didn't ring, and the dogs used yesterday's rain as an opportunity to track mud through the house. Slow, rainy days like this would be a good time to start a new book or go to a movie. I didn't feel like driving anywhere though. Instead, I watched CNBC all day and let the dismal market news drag me down while I puttered around the house.

I've been trying to reorganize my portfolio to appeal to a broader audience. Right now, most of my clients are veterinarians. A few years ago most of my customers were in the oil and gas industry. Before that, it was all high-tech. I need to keep reminding myself that when I initially started my company, I was doing network television commercials for companies like Pepsi and Mountain Dew. How did I slide from shooting big budget soft drink commercials to writing inexpensive brochures for veterinarians? I don't think I did anything wrong. I just tried to stay in business while the world kept changing around me.

I talked to a friend who is still in the agency business recently. He said he thought the traditional advertising agency was a dinosaur that couldn't last much longer. He was hoping his own agency would last another five years. The problem is that nobody wants to pay for advertising anymore. Why should they? Instead of sending an expensive creative team to Los Angeles for two weeks to put together their next commercial, they can accomplish more or less the same thing by sending somebody to Starbucks for the afternoon with a laptop and some good editing software.

At least I'm not in the newspaper business. When I was a kid, I remember going on a school field trip to the local newspaper plant. We watched as Linotype operators melted lead in huge machines to make the type that would be used to print the evening paper. Hundreds of people with specialized skills used to  be needed to put together a newspaper. I wonder what happened to all of them? Most of their jobs don't even exist anymore. Pretty soon, the newspaper itself won't even exist anymore.

So here I am, sitting at the edge of the blogosphere, wondering what comes next. My sister says I ought to concentrate on writing more dog stories, because people love books like Marley and Me. My friend Alan says my blog would have more readers and I could be the next William Wegman if I did humorous videos of Dalmatians, instead of just having a single still picture each day. Janet says if I would bust my ass and work harder, the rest would take care of itself. Probably everybody is right, but I still wish the rain would stop and the market would go up.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 195

I went and took some new employee pictures for a friend who was unhappy with what their corporate photographer had done. When I looked at the previous pictures, I could tell that the photographer was in a hurry and just used the on-camera flash and then tried to fix all the unflattering shadows in Photoshop. That usually doesn't work very well. It's odd. Everyone seems to have a fabulous camera these days, but very few people know how to light anything properly. Pretty lighting is the secret to good photography.  In the right light, almost anything or anybody will look fabulous.

That's why, for even the most mundane photoshoot, I still take along my heavy Norman strobes and bulky softboxes. I hate lugging hundreds of pounds of equipment around, but the results are worth it. There's just no substitute for good lighting.

If decent lighting is step one, convincing my subjects that they can look good in a photograph is step two. Everyone seems to think that they'll look the same way in a photograph as they do when they look at themselves in the mirror. Mirrors are actually more forgiving that photographs. To look natural in a photo, you have to do things that initially seem a bit unnatural. Most people don't even realize how much they squint in real life. You have to tell almost everyone to open their eyes wider than normal to get the look that they're trying to achieve. Think about it. When you look at someone's face, you're almost always drawn to the eyes first. Everyone worries about their smile, but the eyes are even more important. A lot of people worry about wrinkles too. I tell them to stick their chin out a bit and the wrinkles and double chins will disappear. It usually helps.

Years ago, I used to shoot a lot of fashion. I noticed very quickly that the best models weren't necessarily the prettiest or most handsome ones. They were the people who understood what they looked like. If you ask a good model for a very specific look, they know exactly what to do. Knowing in advance what you're going to look like when you move your head or body in certain ways comes naturally to good models.  If you don't really know what your expressions and movements are going to look like, the photo session is likely to be more like taking pictures of dogs. You just take a ton of pictures and hope that you accidentally get something wonderful.

Everyone was happy with their pictures today, but I'll have to admit that the previous photographer set the bar pretty low. Dot was definitely not happy when I returned. It had started raining while I was away and she had to hide under my desk alone. I keep hoping that Dash will eventually teach Dot that rain is no big deal. Unfortunately, since Dot is the dominant dog, exactly the opposite is happening. Now Dash seems to be developing a fear of rain as well. Sometimes I wonder if children are this difficult.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 194

Do you ever find yourself doing things that you consider totally pointless? In the Winter, trying to find the leak in the roof is pointless, because whatever I do, water somehow always finds its way inside anyway. Expecting Dash to act like a normal dog when I take him for a bath is pointless, because he is always going to howl and carry on and be a total embarrassment, just like he was today. Fixing the screen door is equally pointless, because the dogs are just going to jump through it again the first time they see a rabbit in the back yard.

I fixed the screen door anyway this afternoon because I have become a connoisseur of doing pointless things. I've probably put a new screen on this door at least a dozen times since I bought the house. Every dog we've ever had has either scratched the screen or jumped straight through it in their continual quest for backyard critters. It would make a lot of sense to get rid of the screen door entirely, cut a hole in the back door, and install one of those doggie doors that everyone seems to have these days.

I really like mid-century modern architecture though and stubbornly cling to the idea of having the house look just like it was designed to look in 1955. The dogs could care less about such things. I certainly don't begrudge the dogs for acting like dogs, so I just keep replacing the screen. When I first started replacing back door screens, the wire was thick and substantial and I could find the aluminum mesh pre-cut to exactly the size of my door frame in almost any hardware store. Now, the only size available is 36"x84" and the metal material is so flimsy that you'd think the screen was made out of recycled McDonalds wrappers. That's progress for you.

It's hard to believe that the year is already half over. It still seems like I just took down the Christmas tree a little while ago. Sometimes I wish I could slow down time a bit. The days just blur together now. It will be July 4 next weekend. Then Janet has her annual family reunion. Then there's the Dalmatian Rescue golf tournament. And then it's Christmas again. I wonder if they'll have that oil spill stopped by Christmas?

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 193

I stocked up on all sorts of odds and ends at Home Depot today. I do this periodically, and always with the best of intentions. I wander from aisle to aisle, buying nails, screws, staples, screen wire and other paraphernalia. I'm convinced that if I can gather together the right materials, I will finally be able to make a dent in the long list of things that need to be fixed around the house. The garage is filled with little bags of hardware from previous trips like this. Instead of doing the fix-it job right away, I typically set the stuff I've bought aside for another day. I'll wait for a day when the weather is cooler, or maybe when there aren't a hundred other errands to run. Months later, when I finally decide that the time is right to fix things, I almost always forget that I've already got the materials I need in the garage. You guessed it. I run to the hardware store and buy the same stuff all over again.

Home Depot and the grocery store were almost empty this afternoon, which is unusual for a weekend. It was probably just too hot for people to go shopping. Or maybe everyone was watching the World Cup. At any rate, without the usual crowds, I sailed through my Saturday errands in half the time.

So, did I use the time I'd saved running errands to fix the screen door with a new roll of screen wire I'd just purchased at Home Depot? Nope! I watched an episode of Top Gear on BBC instead. The dogs didn't want to do anything either. When I took them on their evening walk, they both did their business in record time and headed straight back to the air conditioned comfort of home. There's still a lot to be done. I guess I could vacuum the house or do a few loads of laundry, but Dr Who will be coming on in a few minutes. Oh well. There's always tomorrow. Or maybe the next day.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 192

Once again I find that I'm all dressed up with no place to go. I've got my entire portfolio transfered to my iPod. Photos, TV commercials, documentary films, print ads...just about everything worth showing has been loaded and is ready to go. Unfortunately, I can't think of anyone to show the stuff to. Just about everyone with the courtesy to take a look is already a friend or a customer. The rest of the world is so well insulated that it's unlikely that we'll ever meet. It wasn't that long ago that the cold call was a time-honored way to prospect for new business. Not anymore. Telemarketers, spam and a lousy job market have created a toxic environment where people just don't want to talk you if they don't already know you. If you call the office of someone you aren't already familiar with, they are not going to pick up the phone. If you send them an e-mail, it will probably end up in their junk mail folder.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm the same way myself. I never answer the phone anymore without looking at Caller-ID first. I don't even bother to open e-mail if it looks like a sales pitch or a message from someone who wants me to hire them. It's a shame the world has come to this. Over the years I've found some very nice customers by making cold calls. I don't even try anymore. Virtually all my business now comes as a result of recommendations from friends. People just don't want to deal with strangers anymore, and I can't say that I blame them.

If cold calls no longer work, maybe online advertising will. What the hell...it's worth a try anyway. I've been experimenting with running online ads for my company, but haven't reached any conclusions yet.  Google Adwords certainly seem to deliver exactly what Google says they will, but Adwords can get kind of expensive. Running Adgitize and Entrecard ads will definitely increase your page rank at a much lower price, but I wonder if any of the new visitors will stay long enough to get to know you. With all these new technology tools out there, I have a feeling that taking someone to lunch still works better.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 191

I'm growing increasingly frustrated at my inability to control my investments. The market has become so random and capricious lately that flipping a coin would probably provide me with the same results as all my carefully thought out plans. It's hard to know what to do. If I had ignored my last financial adviser and kept my Apple stock instead of selling to avoid the dreaded "double dip" that never happened, I would own twice as many shares today. Why? Because I wouldn't have had to buy the stock back later at a much higher price. On the other hand, if I hadn't sold everything on my broker's doom and gloom advice, I would still have owned Halliburton and Transocean when the Deepwater Horizon exploded causing the world's biggest oil spill and the shares of these two stocks to plummet. Basically, nothing is predictable anymore. You can still get lucky in the market, but you can still get lucky in Las Vegas too.

I finally found some free time to update my own websites today. Typically, my own sites are woefully out of date. By the time I've finished with my clients websites, I'm usually so sick of using Dreamweaver that I don't even care what's on my own sites. There's still a lot of work to be done, but at least I've corrected some of the most glaring errors and omissions.

The June bugs have returned for the Summer. I don't know what it is about June bugs, but Dalmatians seem to love them. Spot, our first Dalmatian, developed a taste for the critters when he was still a puppy and most of the dogs we have had since pursue the bugs as well. The larvae of these beetles live in the soil until they mature and Dash has made it his mission to dig them up. I wish he'd just wait until the bugs grew up and started flying around. I'm having a hard enough time getting grass to grow in the back yard as it is. With Dash digging holes every few feet, it's just about hopeless.

I discovered a new form of tech-support torture today. I'm having trouble with some software I bought recently and the only way I can contact tech support is by using e-mail. This particular company only responds to tech-support questions once a day. If their response doesn't answer your question, you've got to send them a follow-up e-mail and wait at least 24-hours to hear anything from them again. At this rate, it's going to be August before I get the software working properly. I bought the application to help me with a deadline too. Silly me.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 190

I've got to quit using Neosporin as a lazy man's solution for everything that ails me. I put some on my eyelid this morning to get rid of a little redness and all the sudden I couldn't see. It felt like someone had smeared Vaseline in my eye. With my other good eye, I looked at the label with a magnifying glass and sure enough it said "Don't use near the eyes." Oops. I should have known better, but I hate the idea of sitting in the doctor's waiting room for over an hour just to get a prescription for eye drops. I guess that's what I"ll have to do tomorrow though. I even thought about using Dash's eye drops to avoid a trip to the doctor, but I'd feel real bad if his eye infection didn't get better because I'd used up his medicine myself.

I just wish that going to the doctor's office didn't involve so much waiting. At least it's not as bad as jury duty. Janet had jury duty today and it reminded me that I haven't been called for a while. Inevitably, I get the jury duty summons when I'm really busy at work or planning a vacation. When things are slow and I actually wouldn't mind jury duty, I never hear from them.

I'm still trying to salvage information from the video drive that crashed the other day. I thought I might be able to buy some DVD ripping software and use it to recreate the lost Quicktime files from the backup DVD's of the completed projects. I found a software package on the Internet that looked like it would do the job and promptly downloaded it. Unfortunately, when I tried to install the software, I got a message saying that the program wouldn't run on a non-Intel Mac. It would have been nice if they'd told me this on the website before I paid for everything. This is the fourth time something like this has happened to me. I quess my old Power PC computers are getting so old that the software developers aren't even bothering to write universal code like they used to. Snow Leopard doesn't help matters either. It's becoming more and more apparent that the Apple world has more or less abandoned folks like me.

Training class was a little shorter than usual tonight. Everyone got nervous when we saw a police car slowly circling the field where we worked with the dogs. You can get a ticket in Dallas if your dog isn't on a leash. and many of the training exercises are done off leash. You wouldn't think you could get a ticket for training your dog to be better behaved, but you never know. At any rate, our trainer decided to end the class a bit early just to stay on the safe side. No complaints from the dogs. Most of them were getting too hot anyway.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 189

When I turned on the television this morning, the news was all about General McChrystal. I feel sorry for the General. What's happening to him has happened to almost all of us on a much smaller scale. People are always asking what you're thinking these days. They encourage you to be open and candid. Generally, people who ask you to be candid don't really want to know what you're thinking. They want you to agree with what they are thinking. The smart, successful folks in this world are the ones who've come to realize that when someone asks what you're thinking, it's almost always best to keep your mouth shut.

I saw another television news team in the park this morning when I was walking the dogs. They didn't want to interview us like they did last Winter though. I think the news crew must have been doing a story about summer school programs for children, because they were filming a bunch of kids and their teacher next to the lake. We might have made the news anyway, because as we walked by, all the kids looked up and in unison said "Look, it's a Dalmaaaatian."

After lunch, I went over to have a look inside the new Second Chance Treasures store. I was impressed at how professional everything seemed. You'd never know that the entire store was put together by a bunch of animal rescue volunteers. I think a resale shop like this is a great idea for fundraising. The store gets most of its merchandise by cleaning up after high-end estate sales, so inventory costs are very low. The rescue group gets invited to some very nice estate sales, so the store is filled with unique and unusual items. It all seems to work. I told the manager that I'd come back next week and take a bunch of new photos that I will use to relaunch the store website with a new and better look.

It's a good thing I didn't have any important deadlines today, because I had several major computer problems. One of my large external backup drives crashed and took a ton of video files down with it. I tried with no success to revive the disk using Diskwarrior. The Apple disk utility didn't work either. I'll try taking the drive up to a data recovery place tomorrow, but I'm afraid that I may have seen the last of these files. Luckily, most of the files were from projects that I completed several years ago. I still hate when this happens though. If I ever do need to re-edit the video clips on this drive, it's not going to be easy.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 188 - Summer Solstice

Sometimes it's embarrassing how little actually happens during a typical day. Today was the longest day of the year. It could just as easily have been the shortest day of the year. It was hard for me to tell the difference. I paid a few bills. I answered a few e-mails. The entire day was a non-event.

I should use my time wisely and plan ahead on days like this, but usually I don't. Maybe I should be more like the client who asked me to add a new employee to their website today. This particular employee doesn't actually begin work until August. I've never been this organized and tend to wait till the last possible minute to get things done. Most of my other customers aren't all that organized either. Many of them don't even think about adding new employees to their websites until they've been around for at least six months.

I'd be the first to admit that there's usually a ton of stuff I could do on slow, uneventful days. I could send some new photos to the stock photo agency. I could wash the car or mow the grass. I could finally get around to painting the atrium. Somehow, it's always easier to do these things on busy days though. Once I get myself in high gear, it's pretty easy to add something else to my "to do" list. It's getting started in the first place that's always the hard part.

I did manage to get a few things done however. I went over to Second Chance Treasures and took some pictures of their new building for the website. This was definitely a last minute endeavor. I think the grand opening is tomorrow. On the way home I stopped by the watch repair store to get a crystal replaced that I had scratched last week. While I was there, I asked about an Omega that I had brought in for service quite a while ago. They still weren't finished with it. I think they've been working on this watch for over a year now. This slow pace is lightning fast compared to the mechanic who is currently working on my Citroën SM. He's had the car for over five years. I never ask these people to hurry up and finish what they're doing. They do good work. More importantly, they make me look fast by comparison.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 187 - Father's Day

Father's Day is always the third Sunday in June, which means it usually falls very near my birthday. Every once in a while my birthday is actually the same day as Father's Day. My Mom used to tell Dad that I was her Father's Day gift, but personally I think he would have preferred a Bass boat instead. I never had children myself. Growing up in a loving but largely dysfunctional family left me with no desire to repeat the whole crazy process.

Over the years, people have told me that I would have made a good Dad, but I'm not so sure. I think I'm much better suited to raising Dalmatians. The simple loyalty a dog provides is something I understand and value. The complex dynamics of family life, where love and hatred are often blended together so homogeneously that it becomes impossible to tell these emotions apart is something else entirely. I don't enjoy living in an emotional stew pot. I've often wondered if I was mildly autistic. I know that I'm a lot better at fixing things than I am at feeling things. I think a good Dad needs to be good at feeling things.

This was the first Sunday in a long time that the dogs didn't get to go to Unleashed. We've been looking for alternatives, but since Unleashed was the only indoor dog  park in the entire country, there really aren't any. We did find a really nice little outdoor dog park near downtown that we took the dogs to this afternoon. I think this park was built and is still managed by the Meadows Foundation. It seems to be located on their property near Swiss Avenue anyway. If the park is run by the Meadows Foundation, it would certainly explain why is so much cleaner and nicer than the city run dog parks. The city dog parks are mostly just dirt and mud holes. This park featured a well manicured lawn of St. Augustine grass. I guess in the dog world, this must be the equivalent of private schools versus public schools.

Dash didn't get a bath this week. I'm beginning to think that his frequent medicated baths are doing more harm than good. We'll try once every two weeks for a while and see what happens. One of our neighbors gives her dog Claritin for skin allergies. I'm not so sure about that either. Dot has a thick, healthy looking coat. I wish she'd just tell Dash her secret.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 186 - My Birthday

Today is my birthday. I'm a typical Gemini. I'm attracted to anything bright and shiny and have an unhealthy fascination with the superficial side of life. Like most Gemini's, I've gone through much of my life thinking I needed two of everything. Time has taken its toll though. With each passing year I am becoming less and less acquisitive. As my health and wealth slowly deteriorate, I'm happy just to be here at all. Life is still full of surprises, but I don't look forward to being surprised anymore. A little predictability is just fine.

When I was young, each new birthday seemed like a countdown to bigger adventures ahead. Now, birthdays feel more like I'm passing a mile marker in a marathon race. If it's a marathon I'm running, I'm more than halfway to the finish line now. At least I'm still in the race. All in all, it was a very pleasant day: a subdued, but definitely happy birthday. I hope to do the same thing again next year.

I think today was the hottest day of the year so far. Even early this morning it was uncomfortably warm. We passed one of our neighbors on our morning walk and their dog was just sitting by the side of the road refusing to move. I knew exactly what was happening, because Dot and Dash do the same thing. I don't know how you teach a dog to pace themselves and start heading back home before they get tired. They like to follow their regular route and don't appreciate it when you anticipate their fatigue and turn back home early. Instead, they'd rather keep walking until they're completely tired and then just stop.

We're going to take a kiddie pool with us when we go up and walk the rescue Dalmatians tomorrow. On hot days some of them love to get in the water and splash around. Dogs are funny about water. Some love it and others don't. Dot and Dash both act like they're going to melt if they get wet. I just can't seem to convince them that a swimming pool is the best way to survive a Texas Summer.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 185

It was a busy and surprisingly productive day. It makes me wonder if it's really Friday. I got the petrochemical industry article I've been working on completed and send it off to my German client. I launched a new website for another client that had been lingering on the back burner for several months. I went to Aaron Brothers and got the Dalmatian Rescue poster I made yesterday dry mounted for tomorrow's adoption event. On the way home I even had time to stop by Culwell and Son and do a little shopping for Summer clothes. One of the sales associates told me that I should have come in a little earlier because Ross Perot had been in the store a few hours ago doing some shopping. I asked my friend Mark at the store if he had gotten any pictures of the occasion and sure enough he had. The picture was already on the store's Facebook page.

Well known people must do a lot of shopping in Dallas. I've been out shopping several times recently and heard that Laura Bush or Don Henley or Janine Turner had just been in the store. Maybe these shopping sightings are true, but I certainly don't see famous people very often when I'm out and about. Every once in a while I do see Erykah Badu, but that's only because we live in the same neighborhood and my dogs like to poop in front of her house.

Janet and I went out to eat at Kona Grill in Northpark tonight. The food was fabulous, but they certainly don't like people to linger. Every few minutes one of the waiters would come by our table and ask if they could take away a plate or an empty glass. They took away my silverware by mistake before my dinner even arrived. Everyone was real friendly about hurrying me along with my meal though. Maybe I was just eating too slow. Truthfully, I do everything too slow. Some people can handle it and it drives other people nuts.

I'm starting to take my iPad everywhere. It doesn't fit in your pocket like a phone, but it's a lot handier than all the crap I used to carry around in a briefcase. Hopefully, I won't succumb to constantly showing my iPad pictures to total strangers the way everyone does with their cell phones.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 184

This morning I designed a new a poster featuring Kobe for a Dalmatian Rescue event this weekend. Kobe recently became a finalist in  Purina's Rescue Story of the Year contest. Last year, another Dalmatian Rescue dog named Willow was also a finalist in this contest. Kobe certainly has an amazing story and hopefully he'll win this year. When we found Kobe, we discovered that he'd been hit by a car and had numerous injuries that had never received medical attention. The worst of these injuries was a broken hip which had never been set or repaired. Several vets thought his leg needed to be amputated, but we found a wonderful orthopedic surgeon who was able to completely repair the broken hip and allow Kobe to walk again. After several surgeries and extensive physical therapy, Kobe is now a healthy, playful dog who walks completely normally. If you've got a minute, please vote for Kobe at the Rally to Rescue website. The exposure will help him find a home and if he wins, Purina will provide some much needed support for the Dalmatian Rescue organization.

If you've got an iPad, be sure to download the Google Earth app. The combination of the Google mapping system with GPS is simply amazing. The GPS is so accurate that Google Earth could tell which room of the house I was in. The detail in the satellite imagery is astounding. When I zoomed in on the area where the dogs and I walk everyday, I could actually see cyclists riding along the bike path. I looked to see if the satellite had managed to capture an image of the dogs and I, but we were nowhere to be seen. I guess I'm easily amused, because this was my entertainment for the day.

A lot of my customers are moving their hosting accounts over to GoDaddy because it is so cheap. I'm finding that I'm having to spend a lot of time on the GoDaddy website looking for the code I need to modify these sites so they still work like they did before. I can't believe that GoDaddy doesn't even have a toll-free tech support line. You've got to call them long distance and half the time you don't even get connected to someone who knows anything about your problem. It's irritating. I guess you get what you pay for though. GoDaddy's prices for web hosting are next to nothing compared to what most of my customers are used to paying. I can eventually find the answers I need on the GoDaddy website, but it would sure be nice if there was a friendly, free tech support geek to talk to when I had a problem.

When I looked out the window after lunch, Dot and Dash were both lying on their backs in the grass with their feet straight up in the air. I guess they were sunbathing.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 183

I had to drive up to far north Dallas today to pick up my computer from the repair shop. Inevitably, if I use the freeways to get somewhere, I encounter is a big wreck along the way and get stuck in traffic. On the other hand, if I choose the back roads to avoid such things, I always pass through a dozen different school zones and manage to hit every single red light. I chose the back roads today, and true to form, I managed to time my journey so that every light was red when I arrived. It's a good thing I'm seldom in a hurry, because it's just about impossible to get anywhere on time in Dallas. It doesn't even matter when I leave the house. There's always a surprise somewhere that seems to make me ten minutes late.

The Brazilians I interviewed several weeks ago seem unhappy that the story I wrote hasn't been published yet. I find it hard to explain that a lot of stuff I do seems to fall into a black hole as soon as I'm finished with it and is never seen again. I assume the the story will be published eventually. You never know though. Maybe the editors are looking for something different now. I just hope I get paid.

Top Chef, which I always enjoy watching, starts a new season tonight, but unfortunately it airs this year at exactly the same time that the dogs are in obedience class. I vaguely remember that there's something included in our cable package that lets you record a show you like and view it later at a more convenient time. I'll probably never learn how to use this feature though. It's easier just to wait until the show is repeated again. It's hard to miss a show on cable because they all seem to be replayed about ten times every week.

I think Dot and Dash would have preferred that we stayed home tonight and watched Top Chef instead of going to class. It was quite hot this evening and just about everybody brought water bowls for their dogs. All the dogs did well at exercises that involved sitting or lying down in the grass, but were slow at everything else. I can't blame them. When it's still over 95 degrees at 8 PM, even the dogs would rather be indoors watching television.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 182

I had lunch today with Jim Hradecky. Jim hired me at Bozell & Jacobs to work on the American Airlines account. We later worked together at Stern Monroe. That was a long time ago. Neither of those ad agencies even exist anymore. I haven't seen Jim in years, but LinkedIn brought us together again. I don't know if LinkedIn actually helps anyone with their business, but it certainly is good for finding old friends.

It was enjoyable catching up on things over lunch at Ziziki’s. Jim told me funny stories about making commercials with Jimmy Dean, the recently deceased singer and sausage king. I told Jim stories about having dinner with Rudy Vallee and Jim's old boss Stan Richards. Most of our stories were about things that happened a long time ago. Nothing very interesting has happened in advertising in recent years.

When I got back from lunch, there was a call on the answering machine saying that my computer had been repaired and that I needed to come pick it up. Oddly, I've gotten used to using my older spare computer and don't really feel like going back to the newer one again. I've still got to go pay for the repair though. Then I'll have to decide what to do with the computer. The older G-4 Mirror Door that I'm using now works perfectly with the older software I prefer to use. I just wonder how long I can avoid the inevitable day when everything in my entire office is officially obsolete.

The blog is almost six months old. I enjoy writing everyday more than I thought I would, but I'm already getting tired of clicking on Entrecard widgets. Dropping takes way too much time when there's work to finish and deadlines to meet. I wonder if some people just hire their kids to do their dropping for them. Maybe that's how kid's earn their allowance these days. 

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 181

It seemed like I spent the entire day paying bills. Paying bills used to be simple. There was the electric bill, the gas bill and the water bill. Now, these basic necessities have been replaced by the necessity of staying in touch with the rest of the world. There are a multitude of phone bills: regular land line phone bills, cell phone bills, data line bills, cable company bills, even bills from companies that connect one form of communication to another. The electric bill used to be my biggest recurring expense in the Summer. Now, all the various telephone and Internet bills make electricity seem like a bargain. The ironic thing is that I don't even talk on the phone much. I still think having a functioning air conditioner is far more important than having a functioning phone.

I went to another one of those free lunch seminars today. This one was about event planning software. This software would actually be quite useful to the Dalmatian Rescue group, since we organize an annual charity golf tournament, along with several other events throughout the year to raise money for the dogs. Even though the speaker made a point of mentioning that there was special pricing available for non-profit groups, the cost was still way too high for most animal rescue organizations. Maybe the SPCA could afford something like this, but it's way out of our league for the Dalmatians. The lunch was good though, so the time I spent wasn't a total loss.

I'm beginning to wonder if the money I'm spending on Google AdWords is a total loss though. I've been running my campaign for several months now, and as far as I can tell, it hasn't resulted in any new business at all. Apparently, a few more people now realize that Sealander & Company is really an ad agency instead of a resource to find information about dogs, but that's about it. I've never run Yellow Page ads for my company, but people I know who do use the Yellow Pages say an Adwords campaign is a lot more affordable. Probably so. I do know that an Adwords campaign is more expensive than sending out postcards ever once in a while, which is all I ever used to do. I'll probably continue the campaign for a while, but it would be nice to see some tangible results.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 180

Unleashed was really crowded this afternoon. I'm sure a lot of people were there because it was the last day the park was open for business. It's ironic. If all these people had brought their dogs to the park during our mild Spring weather, the place could probably have stayed open a lot longer. Everyone we talked to seemed genuinely sad that this was the last day they could bring their dogs to play. Lots of people had ideas about how the park could have stayed in business, but hindsight is always 20/20. I'm sure the owners did everything they possibly could to keep the place open. To me it was just a case of monumental bad luck. If the country's very first indoor dog park hadn't opened for business at the start of the biggest economic downturn in the past thirty years, I'm sure it would be business as usual tomorrow morning. When we left for the last time, I noticed that some of the staff had tears in their eyes. This was a dream for a lot of people, and now it's gone.

It seems to get a little hotter every day. We're started taking water with us when we walk the rescue Dalmatians on Sunday morning because it's getting too hot for the dogs. We don't walk them as long as we do in cooler weather, but they still enjoy sitting in the shade under a tree with us. I wonder how people lived here at all before there was air conditioning. When I took Dash for his weekly bath at Vhea's Laundromutt today he was completely dry by the time we got home again. This is the time of year when it would be nice to have a swimming pool in the back yard. Unfortunately, during the Fall and Winter it wouldn't be nearly as nice, because the pool would be completely full of leaves from our three large Oak and Elm trees.

I found an nice little app that allows me to open and edit Microsoft Word and Excel files from my iPad. Now, I'll be able to do real work from just about anywhere. I have this fantasy that doing my work while drinking Lattes at Starbucks would be pleasant, but it probably wouldn't be. I grind my own beans every morning and think my coffee tastes much better than Starbucks anyway. Actually, it's way too much trouble to drive somewhere just so I could do the same thing I do right here. I guess I'll just stay home with two dogs under my desk and use the iPad as a wireless mouse for my big computer.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 179

The dogs have already decided it's too hot outside. I'd have to agree with them. For the next three months I need to hope that I won't be caught up in a major traffic jam, because my aging Defender 90 will overheat. I need to remember to make the trip to the grocery store last on my list of Saturday errands, so the produce won't spoil sitting in the car. I need to remember to water the grass frequently, because we don't have an automatic sprinkler system. I'm not a big fan of Summer. I'm not a big fan of Winter either, but every Summer I can't wait for the cooler weather to return.

This afternoon, our Wednesday dog training class had their annual Summer party. Like a lot of other people who show their dogs, enter agility competitions, or work with rescue groups, we have let dogs become the center of our social life. Just about everything we do with other people seems to involve dogs these days. I like dog people. They are straightforward and unpretentious compared to the artists and musicians I used to hang out with. Dog have a way of bringing out the best in people. Even though I ate way too much at the party and Dot didn't want to participate in the party games, we all had a good time. Dash seems to be the social butterfly of the family. He wanted to say hello to all the other dogs and had a good time getting in a kiddie pool full of water and playing the "bobbing for biscuits" game.  He didn't win unfortunately, because the Labs and water dogs were much faster at snagging the required ten dog biscuits floating in the water. Dot got hot quickly and just wanted to go home.

I've noticed that bag worms have gotten into our Wax Myrtle trees again. We get them every year, but this season they seem worse than normal. I know you are supposed to use an insecticide like Talstar to control the worms, but I just cut the affected branches off instead. I hate to use insecticide around the dogs and usually the trees need trimming anyway. Even though I'd rather just sit inside tomorrow with the AC cranked up and download new apps for my iPod, I know I'd better deal with these worms instead. The trees are depending on me.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 178

One of my customers asked me to come down to their offices and take new employee pictures today. I don't do this nearly as often as I used to. Companies just aren't hiring as many people anymore. It seems like for every new employee I add to the websites I manage, I delete three other people who lost their jobs as a result of the poor economy. I listen to the pundits on television talk about how the economy is finally starting to rebound. Maybe so, but from my vantage point, it certainly doesn't look that way.

I wonder how long things can go on this way? For the past month or so it's been hard to turn on the television without hearing an endless barrage of bad news. The country is drowning in debt. The Gulf of Mexico is drowning in oil. Unemployment is high. Confidence in the government is low. And sales of Prozac are going through the roof. Maybe the Mayans were right. It doesn't seem all that implausible that the world will end in 2012.

I think the dismal state of the world is one of the reasons I focus so much of my energy on stray dogs. I can't stop oil spills. I can't make Wall Street honest again. I can't even choose where my tax dollars go. One thing I can do is help find a dog a home. Somehow this seems more worthwhile than all the empty rhetoric I hear coming out of the mouths of politicians. Personally, I'm getting tired of hearing all these people talk a good game while accomplishing nothing. Isn't it about time to stop talking and actually start doing something?

Oh, well. At least it's Friday. To celebrate the end of a long week, we took the dogs out to dinner again at Cafe Lago. Dot and Dash were amazingly well behaved. I think they understand the concept of going out to dinner now. It's a simple concept: be nice and you get to eat good food. Both dogs sat quietly beside us while we ate and didn't bark or try to steal the other diners food. I was impressed. Gaby recently added a special new meatloaf dish to the dog menu and both dogs loved it. There was a nice breeze on the patio and the Navy Bean soup I ordered was delicious this evening. Not a bad way to end the week. As the sun set and the air grew cooler, it was easy to imagine that the world wasn't in such bad shape after all.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 177

The first thing on this morning's list was getting Wendy to the vet. When I picked her up at the K-9 University kennel, she was coughing pretty bad. She tested positive for heartworms when we initially picked her up from animal control, so her cough could be from Bordetella, from the heartworms or both. At any rate, we can't begin the heartworm treatment until she's healthier. I don't think people realize sometimes how much effort goes into making sure these dogs are healthy before we put them up for adoption.

By the time I made the forty mile round trip between the boarding kennel and the vet, there wasn't enough time to have my normal breakfast of pancakes and sausages, so I just ate a bowl of cereal and took my own dogs on their morning walk. I didn't want to expose Dot and Dash to Bordetella, so I threw my clothes in the laundry and got dressed for a second time before we did anything. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a watch out of my pocket and it went through the wash along with my clothes.

I did manage to make it to the Avid Media Composer seminar and was glad I went. A lot of folks like me use Final Cut Pro for editing because it is less than half as expensive as Avid. Avid is still the Cadillac of the digital video editing world though. Over 90% of all feature films are edited on an Avid these days. I'll certainly buy one when that elusive "big job" finally comes my way. It's nice to dream though. It was also nice to chow down on some fabulous MOOYAH burgers while listening to the sales pitch for the Media Composer 5 launch. The MOOYAH team came out and grilled the hamburgers on the spot for us. Delicious! I asked them to add some bacon to mine. That's about as close to living dangerously as I can get these days.

There were lots of website updates to make today, but that's just because it's Thursday. There are always website updates on Thursday. I sure wish I didn't throw my watch in the washing machine. It was bound to happen some day though. It looks like the first thing on tomorrow's list will be a trip to the watch repairman.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 176

I wonder what it means when you can't even tell the difference between being totally isolated and totally connected. I seldom talk to anyone anymore, but it is not uncommon to get e-mails from clients in three different continents in a single day. I think the bank teller recognizes me when I go in to make a deposit. I say hello to the FedEx guy when I have to sign for a package. I occasionally talk to the mailman. That's about it. One of my best clients hasn't seen me face-to-face in almost three years. The Internet has changed everything. People don't even call to invite you places anymore. I get these Evites in my inbox instead. I got two today; both with an offer of free lunch if I would listen to their pitch for expensive software solutions.

I think I might accept the Evite for the Avid Media Composer seminar tomorrow. I know an offer of free lunch will bring some of my video editor buddies out into the light of day for a short while and it would be great to see them again. I could ask these guys to lunch myself, but they would all say they are too busy. Production company people have a keen nose for free stuff though, so I know a lot of them will be at this event. At any rate, it beats talking to the dogs while I eat a tuna sandwich and watch CNBC on the  TV in the kitchen.

My guest appearance on The Horror Movie Show went live today. I thought the podcast would be a total disaster, since my Skype connection was terrible for the recording session. The show turned out pretty good though. You'd never know there were serious technical problems. My Skype connection went dead about every two minutes, but with a few exceptions, the finished show makes it appear that I was there the entire time. Cudos to HorrorGuy for a great editing job.

I need to figure out how to make Skype sound better, especially since it seems to be a great way to talk for free on my iPad. I have a feeling that if I enabled port forwarding on my network router, Skype's performance would improve dramatically. I've managed to lose the instruction manual for the router though, and I'm a bit reluctant to just dive right in and experiment. With my luck, I'd probably port forward the wrong thing and be offline for the rest of the week.

Wendy has come down with kennel cough, so I'm going to have to get up early tomorrow and take her back to the vet where she can stay in an isolation kennel until she gets better. K-9 University takes Bordetella seriously and I need to get Wendy moved as soon as possible. It's going to be a busy day.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 175

I'm having a hard time figuring out what to feed Dash. He has tendency to form crystals and stones in his urine, so I can't feed him a high protein diet. He also has a weak heart, so I can't feed him the low protein diet that vets often recommend for dogs with urate stones. Most of the foods that are "right in the middle" contain too much grain and give him gas. I don't know what to do. I had to take Dash to the vet today because he has an eye infection and the vet and I had the "what to feed Dash" discussion again. This time we decided to substitute eggs for meat or fish as a source of protein. I'm certainly willing to give it a try. Eggs are easy to digest and are a good source of protein. Dogs love eggs too. Maybe this will be the solution he needs. Dot is healthy as a horse and can eat just about anything, but we still haven't found the magic mix of ingredients for Dash.

We're usually too busy to take the dogs to Unleashed during the week, but we took them this evening because this is the last week the park will be open. The place already looks like a ghost town. The fixtures are being sold now and the place seems much emptier than it was even a week ago. I hope all the staff can find new jobs. The park employed over 30 people at one point and now there are less than half that many remaining. It's sad. As the final days approach, Dash is finally learning how to interact with other dogs and he had a great time running and playing tonight.

It was a slow work day, so it was a good time to get my monthly invoices in the mail. It was also apparently a good time to learn something new. I've been using Dreamweaver to design websites for many years and never realized until today that there was an easy way to create text rollovers on the fly without the need for CSS style sheets. The handy shortcut was readily available from the main menu, but I never even noticed it before. I guess I could have read the instruction manual, but as you probably already know, guys never read the instruction manual.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 174

I went to Elliott's today to look for an obscure brand of concealed hinge to repair the doors on some built-in cabinets in the house. Home Depot and Lowes are fine for light bulbs, paint and garden tools, but if you're looking for something odd, Elliott's Hardware is still the only place in town where you even have a chance of finding it. I took one of the old hinges with me and started looking through the bins for something similar. At first I couldn't find anything, but then I noticed a hinge that looked almost identical. My original hinge had a brand name engraved on one side and said "made in Italy." The new hinge was exactly the same size, but had no markings whatsoever. I looked again and saw some very tiny letters that said "made in China." I know the Chinese make almost everything now, but why would they copy this strange Italian hinge that almost nobody uses anymore?  Probably everything in the hardware store is made in China now. I'm glad that somebody copied the hinge however. If I had to depend on the Italians to keep this obscure design alive, I probably would have been out of luck.

When I got back to the office, I got a call from the computer repair shop. They said the computer I brought in last week needed a new power supply. I suspected that this was the problem. What I didn't expect was the price they quoted me for the repair. When I asked why the price was so high, the technician said that the power supply cost $400. I've burned out several power supplies before and never paid more than $250 for a replacement. When I mentioned this to the tech, he said the lower price was for a refurbished power supply and that he only recommended using a brand new one. I distinctly remember the last time I had a bad power supply, the technician told me that on a computer this old, virtually all the repair parts were refurbished anyway.  It's hard to tell who's telling you the truth these days. Many times the lies sound a lot more plausible than the truth. I'll probably never know the true story on this one. Repair people have you over a barrel. If you want your machine back, you usually end up paying whatever they're asking.

I got an e-mail from a friend today apologizing for not answering a message that I'd sent him. He actually did reply though....over six months ago. I was pleased to receive this misplaced apology. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one with a terrible memory.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 173

It felt like a wake when we took the dogs down to Unleashed this afternoon. All the regulars were extremely sad that the park was going out of business next week. We'd gotten to know a lot of these people and some had become good friends. We live close to the park, but many people drove forty or fifty miles every single week, just so their dogs could play here. Everyone wondered what they were going to do when the park was gone. Although it had been in business just a little over a year, the park had become an important part of all our lives. I wonder how many other small businesses are being destroyed by this economy. Many successful businesses are seasonal in nature and have always depended on bridge loans or a line of credit to get through their slow season. The banks aren't lending anymore though. If you want a loan these days you have to go through the government, and the government is mired in red tape. I think Unleashed simply ran out of time.

My own business has been hurt by the economy too. Luckily, what I do is not seasonal in nature. I'm glad I don't have to depend on a line of credit to get through slow periods. Life is stressful enough already. Something has to be done though. If you want to buy a house these days, you just about have to get an FHA loan from the government.  Banks don't want to lend you the money anymore. Small businesses are even in worse shape than individuals. Nobody wants to lend them money.

We brought a new dog up to the K-9 University kennels this week. She was abandoned by her owners after she had a litter of 18 mixed-breed puppies. Luckily, both the mom and the pups are safe. We rescued Wendy, the mom, and another rescue group that has good luck placing puppies took all 18 of the pups after they were weaned. I took pictures of Wendy today, so we could get her up on the Dalmatian Rescue website. She's today's Dalmatian of the Day as well. I am continually amazed at how many dogs are abandoned by their owners. This is Day 173 on the blog and I haven't repeated a dog of the day yet. That's a lot of dogs. Keep in mind that this is just a single rescue group, operating in a single town, trying to help a single breed of dogs. When you realize that the same thing is happening to all breeds of dogs in hundreds of cities all over the country, the total number of abandoned animals is simply staggering. Wendy will get a home though. I think that's all you can do these days. Concentrate on the little things and just hope you are making a difference.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day