Day 774

Some of you might remember me talking about the house lizard that I occasionally see darting around the house. Lizards are pretty agile and I've never been able to catch this guy. Until now, that is. This morning when I went out to the kitchen to make my morning coffee, I saw the lizard right in the middle of Dash's dog bed. It looked like he was sleeping on the bed, and maybe he was. At any rate, I seized the opportunity and carefully scooped him up in a dish towel and took him outside where he belongs. Don't get me wrong. I've got nothing against lizards. The little guy was a well mannered house guest, but he was all over the place and I really didn't want to wake up some morning and see him next to me in bed.

I had to get another credit card to replace the one I canceled last week and when I went to activate it this morning, I got a surprise. Usually when you activate a new credit card they ask you for a password or some secret word you gave them in the past. This time the security folks at the bank had a whole new way to determine if I was who I said I was. Instead of asking me questions based on information I had given them, they asked me questions based on information they had found on their own. They said all the information they had was in the public record, but the information was very personal. I don't know how they found this stuff. I was given lists of things that might have happened to me but only one of the things was actually true and I had to correctly identify the event. This kind of questioning would be much harder to hack than a simple password. I still don't know how they knew all this stuff though. It's kind of spooky. There is no privacy anymore. Anybody who still thinks their secrets are safe is just living in a dream world.

Janet and I went and walked some of the rescue Dalmatians this morning. It's nice to see these dogs improve week by week. Some of the ones who looked pretty scruffy when we picked them up just a month ago now look sleek and beautiful. It's amazing what a good diet and a little veterinary care can do.

I upgraded my Avid Media Composer application to the new 6.0 version last night. If any of you out there edit video for a living, this upgrade is well worth the money. I've not always been happy with Avid in the past, but this is the best iteration of Media Composer the company has ever introduced. It's more powerful, easier to use, and comes packed with all the things I felt were missing. I was very impressed. Now I just need to get some video production jobs that are worthy of this fabulous new software. Most of the videos I edited last year were so simple that I could have edited them using iMovie.

Tomorrow it's time to go to the dog park again. The dogs have grown to love these weekly outings. I wish there was a human equivalent of going to a dog park. It would be nice to feel as exuberant and happy as Dash looks when he's racing around with his ears flapping in the wind.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day