Day 1420

Today was dismal. The skies were sullen and grey, accompanied by a cold, all-day rain. I would have preferred to just have stayed under a blanket today, but I had to pick up some more phenobarbital for Dash at the vet and the dogs still needed their walks. Every time I went outside, there were muddy shoes that needed to be cleaned and wet dogs that needed to be dried off. I wish I could just train the dogs to use a catbox on days like this, but we all know that's not going to happen.

While we were walking in the rain, I noticed a film crew working in the park. There were four grip trucks, several tents, and a large motor home for the actors. Why would anyone want to film something on a day like this? Maybe they were in the park for the same reason I was. Some things just can't be postponed. On the other hand, maybe the movie had a scene that takes place in the rain. In that case, they picked the perfect day.

This would have been a perfect day for me to hunker down and write, but I seldom get writing assignments on Mondays. Usually the writing assignments start filtering in later in the week when I have plenty of other things to do. Without any pending deadlines to spur me on, I uploaded some more pictures to Shutterstock. So far, more people seem to be downloading my images on Shutterstock than on iStockphoto. Although this is encouraging, Shutterstock pays less, so I doubt that the increased activity will net me any more money in the long run.

When I saw my Hepatologist recently, he suggested that I probably ought to see a kidney specialist. Apparently, the radiologist had noticed that something had changed in my kidney on the MRI they took. I don't know why each organ in the body needs its own doctor, but that's apparently the way it works. You'd think that a liver doctor would work on kidneys too, since they both filter things. Nope! I needed to see a kidney doctor, so that's where I'm going tomorrow.

I wonder how long it will be before I see the sun again. I do much better when the sun is shining. The weather forecast isn't encouraging. It looks like there will be at least two more days of continuous rain.

Ginger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1417

It was a busy day. After walking the dogs and eating breakfast at my favorite restaurant, I went to help a friend get a website set up. We accomplished everything we needed to do over a cup of coffee at Starbucks while using public WiFi. Before I finished my coffee, we were done. It was that easy. In a nutshell, this is why there is no money in website design anymore. Well, there's no money in designing private websites anyway. As we've all learned recently, there's apparently still plenty of money available to design websites for the government. Maybe I should have bid on designing HealthCare.gov myself. My site might have crashed too, but the cost would have been way lower than the reported $112 million that the government has already paid the main contractor.

I found a moth hole in the suit I wore to last Wednesday's networking breakfast. I went to a tailor in the neighborhood to see if they could fix the suit. They said that they probably could, but that the cost for reweaving would be $70 per moth hole. Jeez, it's tiny little moth hole. I hope I don't have a lot of moth holes. I'd better check the rest of my suits to make sure that they aren't riddled with $70 holes. It's been ten years since I've worn some of these suits, so the moths have had a long time to do their dirty work. The odd thing about these old suits is that they are back in style again. Lapels, pleats, and fabrics have changed quite a bit over the years, but now they are right back where they started from. I kind of lucked out, since my weight is right back where it started from as well.

As an experiment, I've been submitting some of the same photos to both Shutterstock and iStockphoto. As you might expect, some get accepted and some get rejected, but there is no consistency between these two stock photo sites. Since both sites are incredibly picky about the images they accept, you'd think they'd reject the same images. Nope! An image that has too much grain for Shutterstock might be just fine for iStockphoto. An image that iStockphoto considers out of focus might be perfect for Shutterstock. There is no rhyme or reason to the process. I've had pictures taken with an iPhone accepted and pictures taken with a Hasselblad rejected. Go figure!

I'm not really looking forward to the change back to Standard Time this weekend. I can always get up a little later to walk the dogs in the morning, but there's no escaping sunset anymore when I walk the dogs in the evening. I try my best to avoid walking the dogs after dark. The coyotes start coming out around dusk and I'd hate to be attacked by a pack of them. I know that some people say coyotes aren't a threat to anybody, but it is well documented that urban coyotes are losing their fear of humans. I just don't trust them.

It looks like we're going to have another beautiful weekend. Since the grass is still growing in the front yard, I might have to drag out the lawn mower one last time.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1409

I got accepted as a Shutterstock contributing photographer today. I'll be interested to see if Shutterstock is any different than iStockphoto. I've been a contributing photographer with iStockphoto for five years now and only make a few dollars a year. Granted, I haven't made much of an effort, but it's just so much trouble to get photos accepted. I wish these stock photo agencies would let you upload a big batch of photos and not require you to add titles and keywords until after the photos were accepted. I can't even tell you how much time I've wasted writing elaborate descriptions of photos that didn't make the cut.

Even though the amount I currently make from stock photography and Google AdSense ads is miniscule, I'm still intrigued with the idea of passive income. It's all a matter of scale. Right now, I only have 10 photos on iStockphoto and another 10 on Shutterstock. If I had the patience to upload a minimum of 1000 photos, I might actually start making some real money. In theory, this is certainly possible. I certainly have thousands of decent photos in my files. So far, it just hasn't been worth the effort to upload them. The photos aren't doing me any good just sitting on my hard drive though. If I could bring myself to move them all from the hard drive to the stock photo servers, it might turn into a nice little retirement income someday.

Dot was very tired today. We didn't even get halfway through our morning walk before she wanted to turn around and go home again. Her condition varies from day to day. Some days she is active and full of energy. On other days, she is so stiff that she can hardly move. When we got home, Dot slept for the next four hours. When she woke up again, she was fine. We took our evening walk after dinner, and Dot had no trouble keeping up with Dash. Something is obvious wrong with the girl, but it isn't anything that shows up on X-rays, MRI scans, or blood tests. Her vital signs look extremely good for an older dog.

It was a busy day. I got two websites updated and finished all my writing assignments. Since I finished my work with time to spare, I went to the gym as well. Tomorrow, I've got to remember to get some more blood tests done before I go out for my Friday breakfast. When the blood work is finished, I'll celebrate by having some bacon.

Ellis is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day