Day 1668

We were out of oatmeal this morning, so instead of going to the store and getting a new box, I just went out for breakfast instead. I hadn't been to this place for a while, so I was curious if it was still the same. The menu looked the same, but when I ordered my familiar omelet, something looked different. Yup. There was less of everything. Another restaurant had discovered portion control. Everyone seems to be doing this these days. They'll put a little less in the box, or a little less on the plate and hope you won't notice. Retailers and manufacturers seem to know that their customers hate price increases, but will readily accept getting a little less for the same amount of money. Personally, I'd rather pay a little more and get a decent sized portion, but that's just me. As I continue to grow poorer, maybe my attitude will change.

I spent most of the day working on my new website project and getting my July invoices out. There were short trips to the post office and pharmacy to pay bills and pick up prescriptions, but that was about it. It's hard to get very excited about doing websites these days. It seems like every new project I get is less profitable than the previous one. I know I need to stay competitive to stay busy, but pretty soon these things won't even pay the electric bill.

It's not just traditional website design that's in decline. I saw an article the other day that said the average annual income for published authors showed the sharpest decline ever recorded during the past five years. There are well respected authors all over the world who are making less than the receptionist at an average law office. I think it's pathetic. Indie music, self-publishing, ready-made Wordpress themes, high resolution phone cameras, and a host of other innovations have created a tidal wave that is washing away folks like me. I think my financial adviser is tired of hearing me complaining about money. "Why don't you just switch to designing apps for the iPhone," he asked me the other day. It was hard to explain that creating apps was a completely different business model than being a graphic designer. Even if I was able to master the coding issues, I think my head would explode if my role in life was to come up with the next Angry Birds or Candy Crush Saga. 

I remember one year while I was going to college, I has a Summer job working on an auto assembly line. The pay was pretty darn good. I think now that the era Henry Ford ushered in with the birth of the assembly line might have been the best of times. There was a genuine need for lots and lots of people to put things together for people to buy. People bought tons of the newly affordable refrigerators, cars and light bulbs that were flooding the market, creating more jobs and more assembly lines. Wages gradually went up, since there were no robots to replace the people. The people and the jobs were actually necessary. This is what created the middle class.

Now everything is different. I've been inside huge factories where I hardly saw a person at all. Robots did everything. Automation systems are replacing people at every level. Your job is next. Sometimes I think the only thing people actually make these days are more people. We're still having babies, but what are they going to do when they grow up? They can't all be artists selling handmade jewelry on Etsy.

I'm not sure what my answer to living in an automated world will be. It's easier to think about tomorrow. I'll definitely be going back to my favorite restaurant, where I'm fairly sure that the quality and portion sizes haven't declined. I'll pick up some tasty food for the weekend at Central Market. I might even do some work.

Today's Dalmatian of the Day was one of ours. She went to the Rainbow Bridge on this day in 2004. Rest in peace Greta. You were one of a kind.

Greta is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1302

Times have certainly changed. I can remember when an oil change meant thumbing through dog-eared car magazines in the the threadbare lobby of an old garage, waiting while a grease stained mechanic did his best to leave your car smelling like motor oil for the rest of the day. Not anymore. The Land Rover dealer serves you snacks and beverages in air conditioned comfort while they work, and then they wash and detail your car before they return it to you. Of course the oil change itself costs four times more than it should.

I used to scoff at the notion that the middle class in America was being systematically eliminated, but I'm beginning to believe that this is actually the case. As a member of the vanishing middle class, I find this discouraging. I don't need tasty snacks and a car wash when I get my oil changed, but I don't want to change it myself in the parking lot of an Autozone store like the Walmart people either. The gap between the rich and the poor is definitely widening and the territory in the middle is nothing but quicksand.

Another sign that times are changing is that my website clients increasingly ask me to do things that they think are trivial no-brainers, not realizing that these things are actually quite difficult for me. People see things that they like on Facebook or Pinterest and then they ask me to put the same sort of thing on their own websites. I've given up trying to explain that sites like Amazon and Facebook have huge development teams to do all the fancy stuff. I've already learned the hard way that if I protest too much, the client will just take their business to GoDaddy or some other template site and get what they want for free. So guess what I did today? I did some difficult stuff and pretended like it was easy.

I also pretended that it didn't really matter when Dash didn't get his regular nurse at the vet today. I'm equally frustrated when I go to my own doctors and don't get the lab tech or nurse I want. It is often difficult to tell whether a doctor is any good, but at the lower levels of medicine, it is quite easy. Some technicians can draw blood painlessly and others can't. Once I even had an absent minded tech inject me with the wrong shot. Dash had to have his anal glands expressed today and memories of my own colonoscopies made me wish he had the best nurse in the building. Of course like the song says, you can't always get what you want.

I've got to get my July invoices out tomorrow so I'll have some money coming my way in August. Among other things, there's a ritzy oil change that needs to be paid for. Just so you know, today's Dalmatian is a special one. She was one of ours. Greta went to the Rainbow Bridge nine years ago tomorrow.

Greta is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1018

I'm getting really tired of all the political rhetoric. I've never seen such a disingenuous bunch of people in my life. Everyone wants to save the middle class. I'm right in the middle of the middle class. Why do I keep feeling like nobody is talking to me? I think the Republicans like to use the words middle class so people won't think they are talking to the privileged elite. On the other hand, I think the Democrats like to use the words middle class so people won't think they're talking exclusively to Walmart lowlife. I don't trust politicians. I've spent too many years sitting in advertising focus groups to believe any of them. Politicians love focus groups. They like to find out what people emotionally respond to and then that's what they say. Whether what they say is true is irrelevant.

I think the restaurant with good bacon knows I'm taking pictures of their food. Today, the chef brought my bacon to me carefully arranged in an artful star shape on a special plate. That's never happened before. Nobody said anything about this interesting bacon star, but I did think the whole thing was a bit strange.

I think I made it through a very challenging work week with no major damage. A few things came back for revisions today, but the re-writes were minor and quite reasonable. Most of my website revisions are still up as well. I always look at this as a good sign, since sometimes the revisions go up and then come right back down again. Usually, I always worry where next week's work is coming from. Truthfully, I wouldn't mind if people forgot about me for a week. I need a little time to recharge.

I've had my new phone for a week now. I still haven't made a call. I don't think I've received any calls either. This is par for the course. I think I had my first iPhone almost a month before I actually called anyone. I have received four text messages though. They were all from AT&T, asking me to take a survey.

Spanky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day