Day 1653

I moved a client's site from one server to another today. After I pointed the DNS to the correct address, uploaded all the files, and configured the server, everything worked perfectly. The client never even realized the site was offline. I was amazed. Usually, when I try this, there are all sorts of snags and it takes days before things start to work properly again. Even more amazing was that I only had to make a single call to tech support during the entire process and wasn't even put on hold for a long time. Complicated things like this give me hope. Maybe I'm not getting senile after all.

The rain continued today. It would rain for an hour and then stop for an hour, as wave after wave of showers passed through town. The intermittent showers gave me plenty of time to walk the dogs, and since there was no thunder, they eventually settled down and forgot it was raining. Since I had no place to go and the roof no longer leaks, I eventually forgot it was raining as well.

Moving the website took quite a bit of time, but it was tedious and somewhat boring, so I found myself entering contests again. I keep telling clients that they ought to consider online contests. They're about the only thing that gets me to visit a website these days. When I'm bored, I'll enter anything that promises a free guitar, camera, or a chance to get published. That's probably why I get so much spam. I like so called "creative" contests the best. There probably isn't a chance in hell of winning, but I enter anyway. Today I entered a contest that promised that the winner's photographs would be sold as framed limited editions in a major furniture store chain. After I picked a photo and entered, I discovered that to win, you had to convince other people to vote for your entry. That immediately turned the contest into a game and I hate games. I would have preferred that a panel of photo experts judged the entries or something. I'm not going to win this one.

Remember that Amtrak Writers in Residence program that I was telling you about earlier this Spring? This was the program where Amtrak paid selected writers to travel around on their passenger trains and describe their experiences. Well, I wasn't a winner here either. I got a short letter from Amtrak a few days ago thanking me for my entry and encouraging me to enter again next year. I don't know why I kept thinking I was going to get selected for this. Especially since over 8,000 other writers entered. Hey, I like trains and I have plenty of time. I guess the other writers were thinking the same thing.

I'll start on a other new website project tomorrow. I guess I should be glad that I've still got plenty to do, but it infuriates me that I've had to lower my rates to a pittance to compete with all these mass produced template sites. The weird thing is that if I had won that Amtrak Writers in Residence grant, I would have been paid even less for my time than I'm getting for this website. Writing on a train seems glamorous though. Sometimes a little glamor can make all the difference.

Shiner is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1005

I'm quite familiar with the concept of luck. I've spent a lot of time in Las Vegas and my favorite charity likes to use casino parties as fundraisers. I'm usually the roulette dealer when we have these casino parties. I can tell you one thing about roulette. If you play long enough, it is a mathematical certainty that you will lose all your money. Sure, the odds are pretty good in roulette. Sure, some lucky people do win huge amounts. The arithmetic works against you though. If you play long enough, you will lose.

The winners in roulette are those who put a huge stack of chips on red and then walk away when the ball lands on red. The same can be said for most games of chance. The winners are those who make a conscious choice to leave the game after they get lucky. Of course if you have the resources to stay in the game longer, your chances of getting a random lucky break improve, but it's still a game of chance.

I think politicians are like gamblers. Sometimes good things happen and they have the good fortune to be able to take credit for them. Sometime bad things happen and they take the blame instead. In both cases, the politicians are not nearly as much in control of events as they think they are. I like to imagine politicians sitting in the basket of a hot air balloon. There is a big wheel attached to the basket which they love to turn. They think they are controlling the balloon's direction, but you and I both know it is really the wind.

Dalmatian Rescue has another casino party tonight. People always have fun at these events. I think people basically like to gamble. How else could you explain the choices many people make. I'm not much of a gambler myself. I'll take a sure thing any time I can get it. It's a sure thing that I'll be tired tonight when we return, so I'll post a little early today. I'm a methodical person. I'll spin the wheel for other people, but I certainly don't want to take the chance of missing a post myself.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 980

No time for the pool today. I was busy. One of my clients has a retail location in Caesar's Palace, and I went over to the store to interview the manager and take lots of pictures of the place. I wish I had an assistant, or at least a roadie. By the time I carried my 35 pound bag of gear from the Bellagio to Caesars, I was already tired. The interview went well though. The manager was delightful and regaled me with stories of what it was like to run a high-end business inside a casino. I'm glad I brought good lapel mics and a mixer with me. Las Vegas is a noisy place. You don't do anything in this city without a soundtrack in the background. You seldom see where the speakers are hidden, but the music is everywhere. Just going to the drugstore to get some toothpaste can feel like you're inside your own music video. Actually my video interview worked out pretty well. I won't need to add a soundtrack later. It's already there.

Janet won $200 last night while I was writing the blog. She said I brought her luck by staying away from the casino while she was gambling. Works for me. I have terrible luck at the tables. Playing slots is definitely not a game of skill, but I think having the right attitude helps. Janet thinks the glass is half full, while I tend to think it's half empty. It's not surprising to me that she consistently wins more than I do while we're in town. I've usually convinced myself that I'm throwing money away before I even start.

Now that I have today's pictures and video clips safely saved to a hard drive, I feel better about tomorrow's busy schedule. I will be doing several more interviews at the big WWD Magic show that's currently underway at the Las Vegas Convention Center.  Janet want's me to scour the booths for free fashion swag while I'm at the show, but I'm afraid if I put one more thing in my already heavy bag, I won't even be able to lift it.

It's hard to know what to wear in Las Vegas. While it's blistering hot outside, the casinos and hotels are always freezing cold. It's disorienting to spend the day going from one extreme to the other. When I'm inside the casinos I'm always looking for a sweater. Outside, it's a much different story. It's almost impossible to dress light enough to be comfortable walking down the strip.

I'm going to have to get a wake-up call tomorrow morning. We have one of those blackout curtains in our room. No light gets in whatsoever. If nobody opened the curtains, I'd probably sleep till noon.

Cookie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day