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