Day 595

When I was out and about today, I passed a large city truck with the words "flood control" and the city of Dallas logo on the door. Where was this truck going? I don't really think that flood control is a problem right now. We haven't had any rain in over a month. What do I know though? Maybe the guy was going to see a rainmaker.

Every once in a while a client calls and wants to make a simple change to a document I originally created eight years ago. You'd think these requests would be easy, but they typically turn into huge problems. I either no longer have the computer I used to make the file, stopped using the software I created the file with years ago, or I just erased the file completely because it was so old. I got one of these requests to go back in time again today. Amazingly, I still happened to have a very old Quark Express file that actually opened. Of course, none of the fonts used in the original document were installed on my current computer and half of the picture files had simply disappeared. As a result, a simple request to change a price list became a three hour job to recreate the entire flyer from scratch.

So, they finally passed the debt ceiling deal in Congress today and the country is no longer on the brink of going into default. Is the market happy? Apparently not. The DOW dropped 265 points. Is tomorrow going to be a good buying opportunity, or will the market drop even further? I honestly don't know anymore. I don't think anyone else does either.

I visited two different vets this afternoon. One, so Dash could get his bi-weekly antigen shot, and the other to deliver some marketing materials. My back-to-back foursquare check-ins must have alarmed some people however, because several Twitter followers wrote asking if Dot and Dash were OK. Everything's fine guys. It's just a little hot here in Dallas.

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Day 592

I was doing some video editing today and discovered, much to my chagrin, that my little laptop is much better suited for this task than my large, and very well equipped desktop machine. I kind of suspected as much when I was editing YouTube videos on the fly in Houston last May, but I never had anything convenient to compare. The desktop is only a few years older than the notebook, but the difference in processor speed apparently makes a huge difference. It's things like this that force me to buy new equipment a lot more often than I'd like. Once you've experienced faster, it's real hard to go back to slower again.

The dogs got their trip to the dog park today, instead of on Sunday as they usually do. Tomorrow, I need to take Janet to the airport and it's just going to be too busy. I don't think the dogs care what day they go to the dog park. They just like the attention. Dash was much better behaved today. We placed a spray bottle filled with water in one of the cup holders in the console between the front seats. We didn't even need to squirt Dash with the water. He just looked at the bottle and kept his mouth shut. I may be wrong, but I think this would tend to indicate that Dash doesn't have any underlying fear of cars. He's just being a bad dog.

I couldn't turn on the television today without landing on a channel that was showing live coverage of the debt ceiling debate in congress. I wonder if these guys have any idea how irritating their actions are to their constituents? The house wastes a lot of time passing a bill that they know in advance will never get though the senate. Then the senate turn around and does exactly the same thing in reverse. Two or three week ago I asked my broker if he had a contingency plan if the country defaulted. He brushed the whole thing off and said nobody would ever be stupid enough to let this happen. I wonder what he's thinking now? I think the odds are about 50/50 now that the country actually will default.

Two weeks ago I had three pair of those little Apple ear buds sitting on my desk. Now, I can't find any of them. I've looked everywhere and they've just disappeared. I think somewhere in my office there's a tiny black hole that just sucks things into it.

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Day 577

I finally bit the bullet and got my Google+ profile set up today. Jeez, just what I need...one more chunk of social media real estate to watch over. My friend Larry Brauner convinced me that Google+ was important for bloggers though, and Becky Kopprasch had a neat tutorial on her blog showing how to conveniently move all your Facebook friends over to Google+ without a whole lot of pain. Two hours later I was good to go. The whole process was a bit more difficult than I expected. Before you can even sign up for Google+ you have to be invited. Then, you have to figure out how to attract friends. This is probably the hard part, because the last thing most people need is a second Facebook. Before I got my account properly configured, I found myself setting set a Yahoo account and a G-mail account as well. Somewhere along the line, I added Klout and Spotify accounts too. Maybe it's worth the effort though, because Google+ is totally integrated with Google search and participation will probably increase your Google ranking. Basically I've got a Google+ account now for exactly the same reason that my blog is hosted on Blogger: Google owns the Internet and I'm just along for the ride.

The rest of the day was pretty normal. I answered client's questions. I wrote some articles. I made a few website updates. I finished up the day by going to the bank and picking up something for dinner at Central Market. This is what I do every Friday. I'm supposed to write something on the topic of celebration for my writers group this month. My mind is a blank. I think the whole concept of celebration has become a bit fuzzy to me. Life isn't bad, but I'm certainly not giddy with excitement.

Maybe I should just quit watching television. Is anyone else sick of listening to politicians argue about the debt ceiling? That's all that seems to be on television these days. I'm tired of all the posturing on both sides. Jeez guys, just shake hands, make some sort of deal and move on. That's what most of us want you to do. I've had to make plenty of compromises in my life. I expect the people I've elected to do the same thing.

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