Day 603

The heat is really starting to get to people. The talk at dog training class tonight centered around broken air conditioners, shifting foundations, and hot water coming out of the cold water tap. We're close to setting an all time record for longest number of days above 100 degrees. I'm amazed our own air conditioner hasn't had any problems. It's been running 24x7 for weeks now. I just hope it will just hang in there for another month. By mid-September, things should start cooling down again.

I think my broker is getting sick of all my questions. He is encouraging me to use the company's real time site, so I can see what is happening as it happens, instead of calling him all the time. I need to explain that this would probably only make things worse. If I could always see what was happening to my portfolio in real time, I'd probably have twice as many questions. Something must be working though. All the major indexes dropped between 4 and 5 percent today and I held my losses to less than one percent.

I had to take a stool sample to the vet today to complete Dot's yearly exam. I took a plastic bag with me on our walk this morning so I could gather a sample. Unfortunately after I put the bag in my back pocket, I forgot it was there and ended up sitting down on it as soon as I got back in the house. Yuk. At least the bag didn't break.

I bought Adobe Lightroom yesterday when I discovered there was a special one day only sale on the Adobe website offering the software for 50% off. I was real pleased with myself until I downloaded the software and discovered it was almost exactly the same as Apple's Aperture 3.0 which I already had. With all these powerful ways to organize my pictures, I'm going to go out and start taking some new pictures. I've taken very few personal pictures this summer. My favorite time to go shoot is on cloudy bright days with no shadows. Right after a rain is perfect. We haven't had many of these days recently.

I fixed a couple of Janet's watches this afternoon. Somehow, this slow delicate work seems peaceful compared to my usual fare of racing to complete a 1200 word article to meet an end of day deadline. It's amazing how much faster my writing has become, now that budgets are lower.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 602

Today was a day of questions and answers. I tried to explain to a client why a 72 DPI image that was only 300x200 pixels in size wouldn't look very good when printed in their upcoming calendar. I tried to explain to another client why I couldn't keep making modification to their website indefinitely without charging them for the changes. I tried to get the folks at Epson to explain to me why my warranty had already "expired" on a printer that I just purchased last month. Nothing seems to be easy or obvious these days.

The biggest mystery of the day was why the stock market dropped 200 points right after the Fed report was released, only to bounce back almost 700 points just an hour or so later. It just doesn't make any sense. Nothing fundamentally had changed. The news from the Federal Reserve that people apparently hated right after lunch is still exactly the same as it was when the news was released. The only thing that I can think of is that the steep drop in prices triggered computerized buy programs designed to snap up bargains, and when the program trading kicked in, everyone else feared they were going to be left behind and started buying as well. The market just doesn't act rational anymore. To me, it's starting to act more like a flash mob.

Dot had her annual exam today. For a dog that's ten years old, she's really very healthy. The vet wanted to change her food, because she has too much protein in her diet for a senior dog. She's going to need her teeth cleaned as well, since she's starting to show some redness around her gum line. Older dogs are prone to gingivitis and we're going to have to work at keeping her teeth clean as she get older. Dash keeps his teeth cleaner looking because he likes to chew bones. Dot refuses to chew bones or chew toys however.

I've been watching all the mindless rioting in England on television and wondering if the same thing could happen here. Sadly, I think it could. I don't think this sort of thing would happen in Singapore though. It probably wouldn't happen in China either. Something has gone terribly wrong with Western values. These riots in England weren't the "Arab Spring" riots we witnessed earlier this year. There was no oppressive regime that needed to be removed. These rioters are just spoiled thugs. I have a friend who is a well known author of parenting books. He tells me that when you bring up several generations of children who think that the entire world revolves around them, society starts to crumble. I think he's right.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 601

What a dismal day. I got my August invoices out this morning and was forced to acknowledge that everything I billed out for the entire month didn't even come close to offsetting what I lost in the market in a single day. I'm utilizing a complex strategy involving gold, managed futures and inverse ETF's to minimize the carnage as best I can, but there's no way to avoid losing money on a day like this.

On the business shows, I keep hearing about contagion. The pundits keep wondering if the contagion will spread. I've got news for you guys. It's a bit late to worry about contagion when the patient already has the disease. When you look at all the mindless riots in London, the ineffectiveness of our congress here in the United States, the endless unrest in the Middle East, and the fact that the entire world is drowning in debt, it's no surprise that the markets were in turmoil today. We've managed to make a big mess of things and I wonder if we've got what it takes to clean everything up. What did that nursery rhyme say? All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again.

On a brighter note, I'm now the mayor of the Post Office on foursquare. Pretty soon I'll be the mayor of everything in my tiny, self-contained world. Foursquare has made me realize that I really don't do all that much away from the computer. If Dalmatians could design websites, I think my life would be more or less identical to what my dogs currently experience. Eat. Work. Sleep. Repeat. That's about it.

For months now, I've kept thinking that one of the wooden mileage markers on a trail where I walk the dogs was out of place. There was a marker that said "1/2" that was placed after the one mile marker. I was convinced this marker should have been placed before the one mile marker, until I realized today that it was exactly midway between the one mile and two mile markers. Duh. It's been saying one and a half miles all along. What a dummy I am.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 600

Our Casino Party last night was held at a restaurant called Seňor Jalapeño. I'd never heard of this restaurant before and probably won't be back again, but it certainly caught my attention. The place was located in a nondescript strip center in a marginal neighborhood. It wasn't what you'd expect though. When you went inside, the place was spotlessly clean and was exceptionally well designed for a hole-in-the-wall cafe. The decor was all clean lines and Mediterranean colors. There was definitely an architect involved somewhere. On the walls were a series of framed drawings of various architectural projects. They kind of looked like student projects but I wasn't sure. I liked the designs. Before I got a change to ask questions, the party started and I spent the rest of the evening spinning the roulette wheel. I still wonder who built this restaurant and why? The food wasn't particularly good, but the place looked wonderful.

I couldn't really figure out who was at the party either. I knew it was a political action committee that hired Dalmatian Rescue for the event, but the people attending certainly didn't seem like political operatives. Each table was sponsored by a different local judge or state representative, but none of the sponsors seemed to be in attendance. The people who were at the party did like to gamble though and everyone appeared to have a good time. Who knows. Maybe these folks will hire us again and I'll be able to learn who is behind the mysterious Seňor Jalapeño.

There was nothing mysterious about today. It was just another hot August Sunday. We took the dogs to the dog park early to avoid as much of the heat as we could and then went about our Sunday chores. Dot and Dash got a bath today, which they hate, but it was definitely time. Dogs get dirty quickly in the Summer. I gave the shrubs in the back yard a bath too. It's probably hopeless keeping the yard looking green. The water coming out of the garden hose this afternoon was actually hot.

I was still in a cleaning mood when I finished the yard chores, so I took some more stuff down to the storage warehouse. Even though I've given myself an entire year to get my office cleaned up, I still don't know whether I'll be able to meet my self-imposed deadline. It's August already and at best, I'm only about halfway to the finish line. It's discouraging to spend time at the storage room too. The place is a museum of failed projects and unrealized dreams. Other people build relationships. I buy tools. I've got a tool to start just about any project imaginable, but only about 10% of these projects ever get finished.

All is not lost however. It's Day 600 today. This humble blog appears to be a project I haven't given up on yet. Writing for 600 straight days without missing a single post has got to be an achievement of sorts. If I can make it to Day 1000, I'll either get a book deal or carpel tunnel.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 599

Early this morning, we went and set up the gaming tables for this evening's Dalmatian Rescue Casino Party. A political action committee is hiring us to do the party this time. I wish more PAC's would hire us. Politicians have a lot more money for these type of things than people planning a 40th birthday party for their husband. We don't turn many people down, however. The dogs waiting for homes still need food and medical care, even when adoptions are slow.

I saw an ad on television saying that new episodes of Dr. Who are coming back later this month. That's good news. With an endless string of 100 degree days and an economic meltdown on the horizon, a little escape is probably good medicine. I could watch Dr. Who, Top Gear, MI-5 and Fawlty Towers over and over again. I probably already have watched some of these shows over and over again. British television is just better. I think the last American show I really liked was Frasier, but I continue to enjoy newer offerings from the UK, like Outnumbered and After You've Gone.

No TV tonight though. I'll be spinning the roulette wheel, like I normally do at Dalmatian Rescue parties. I've watched dealers in Vegas and this seems like it would be a very stressful job. Being a dealer for charity parties is much more relaxed. Most of our players seem to be little kids who have no idea what they are doing. A little pretend gambling with Monopoly money still seems pretty exotic to them.

I wonder how far the dogs are going to want to walk this evening. Probably not far at all. Both dogs are getting pretty smart about dealing with the heat. They used to keep walking until they got too hot and then just sat down and refused to go further. Now, they are learning to drink from water fountains and are turning around to head home again before the heat gets to them. Our walks are shorter, but the return journey is much less traumatic.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 598

I got my electric bill today. We've had hot Summers before in Texas, but I can't recall ever seeing an electric bill this high. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. The air conditioner has been running 24x7 for three weeks solid. It doesn't even cool down enough at night anymore to bring the inside temperature down to a comfortable 75 degrees. I guess I could just set the thermostat higher so the compressor would eventually shut off, but I hate to sweat while I work. Impossible deadlines are bad enough, but sweaty impossible deadlines are simply unacceptable.

After watching the DOW bounce around like a billiard ball all day, I can't say I feel any better than I did yesterday. Sure, the market closed up 60 points, but a 60 point gain after a 500 point drop can hardly be called a rally. I can't imagine what's going to happen Monday morning. As Janet and I were eating dinner, a message scrolled across the screen on the TV saying that Standard & Poors had just lowered the nation's credit rating. Hey, another first for the country. Hardly as glamorous as that first step on the moon though. We should have seen this coming twenty years ago when everybody and their uncle started buying houses with a zero down payment. I had a well paying ad agency job at the time and remember driving through neighborhood after neighborhood thinking "Jeez, I can't afford these houses, I wonder how all these other people can?" The truth was, they couldn't either. You simply can't spend more than you make indefinitely, either as an individual or as a country.

Dalmatian Rescue is feeling the money crunch too. We've had a lot of sick dogs this year, so we're having another casino party fundraiser tomorrow night to help pay the vet bills. The plan is to go set up all the tables tomorrow morning, before it gets too hot. I think we could set everything up in the middle of the night and it would still be too hot.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 597

The big news of the day has to be the 500 point drop in the market. I sold some things; held on to some other things; and bought an inverse fund that goes up whenever the DOW goes down. Will these strategies help to stem the carnage? Lord only knows. I've just about given up on predicting the stock market. The market seems to be totally driven by current events these days. It's all amazingly fickle. If anything good happens tomorrow, the world will breathe a collective sigh of relief and the market might go up 400 points. Who knows? Of course, if tomorrow's jobs report is dismal, as many expect, the market will inevitably drop even further. Whatever happens, there's a good chance that we will all be selling our stuff on eBay and picking up aluminum cans on the side of the road in another ten years.

The dream of substantial passive income seems as illusive as ever. I think I made three cents from Google Adsense today. I seem to have thousands of Twitter followers writing YA vampire novels, but I wonder if many of these aspiring authors are actually making money? My favorite Borders Books closed recently because the company went bankrupt. Half the Kindle books I see are given away for free. I have one author friend whose last book sold over a million copies and even he isn't rich. I keep hearing all these Field of Dreams people say that if you are doing what you truly love, the money will come. Maybe. In my own little world, the evidence says otherwise. The people I know personally who are doing really well all have jobs they hate.

It's hard to decide what car to take to the airport to pick up Janet later this evening. An old, brittle rubber hose could easily crack in the old Land Rover and leave me stranded on the side of the road. On the other hand, the heat might fry a computerized sub-system in the new Land Rover and leave me stranded on the side of the road. I'm really ready for this extended heat wave to be over. Even the simplest things seem twice as hard when it's 110 degrees outside.

At least it's Friday tomorrow. I've got the trash hauled out to the street already and I'm ready for anything.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 596

Now that I'm writing a lot about watches, I've started noticing that there are other watch writers out there. Some of these folks seem to routinely get invited to polo matches in Argentina and are given expensive watches by manufacturers to "evaluate." Jeez, I must be one of the most unglamorous watch writers on the planet. None of these things has ever happened to me. I do occasionally write as if I'm at a glamorous red carpet event, but I'm really just sitting here at the computer with a dog under my desk. Although I keep waiting for a small package in the mail , nobody has sent me a watch yet either. Come on, Omega and Rolex. Send me a nice timepiece and I'll get a beautiful Dalmatian to wear it for you. See if you other watch writers can top that.

A word to the wise. If it's 110 degrees outside, don't even try to go out and mow the grass. I got the mower out this morning and almost keeled over from the heat. It is unbelievably hot this Summer. I think we have gone way beyond the "fry an egg on the sidewalk" stage. We take our morning walks earlier now, because every hour we wait means an increase in temperature. If we walk right around sunrise, it is only 88 degrees. If we wait until a few hours later, the temperature is already over 100 degrees. I really ought to get up on the roof while it's hot and dry like this and do some serious patching, but I'm afraid I would stick to the melting tar.

I watched the old 2007 Top Gear episode where Richard and James make a futile attempt to launch a space shuttle made out of an old Reliant Robin for probably the third time while I was eating dinner this evening. I love this show. I always tell people that if women really want to know what men are like, all they need to do is watch a full season of Top Gear.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

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.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 594

I heard that it got up to 108 degrees outside today. I wouldn't doubt it. When I took the dogs on their evening walk, it felt like we were inside a furnace. Needless to say, we didn't stay outside long. Dot and Dash have actually adapted pretty well to the Summer heat wave. They do their business right away now and then turn around immediately to indicate they are ready to go home. We spend most of the day indoors, hoping that the air conditioner doesn't break.

I worked on a few writing jobs today and paid some bills. It really wasn't a very productive day. I always think I should be out marketing the company on days like this, but I don't even know how to connect with people in the real world anymore. You certainly can't just call them on the phone and ask if you could pop over in 30 minutes and show them your portfolio. People are too busy for that. I don't even answer the phone myself unless it is someone I already know. Probably a lot of other people do the same. On the bright side of things, I am starting to get work from online connections, but the budgets aren't the same. More work for less money is the name of the game. Brave new world, I guess.

I made some calls today trying to figure out whether Avid Media Composer will work on my existing computer hardware. Nobody seemed to know. They were certainly willing to sell me the software anyway though. I'm going to need to replace Final Cut Pro soon, but I'd hate to buy something that isn't going to work. I guess that's what these 30-day free download trials are all about. Nobody has customer service gurus anymore who can answer all your questions over the phone. You just download the trial software along with the 100 page PDF file manual and figure it out for yourself.

While I'm on the subject of technology, I might as well tell you that my brand new large format printer is already starting to clog. There's nothing wrong with the printer. I just don't make enough large format prints to keep the lines clean. Somehow, this has become a general theme with me. I don't take enough pictures to remember everything my digital cameras can do. I don't do enough video editing to remember all the keyboard shortcuts. I don't even design enough websites to remember how to properly insert PHP code into my HTML.

I do a lot of writing though. I'm actually writing a lot more that I was ten years ago. I think my writing has improved a bit and I've certainly gotten faster. Unfortunately, I'm not content to just be a writer. I feel compelled to try anything and everything. In a way I envy those people who are content with their chosen specialty. If I could have ever focused my attention on just one thing, I'd probably be really good at it by now.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 593

I needed to take Janet to the airport a lot earlier than we anticipated because the online reservation system wouldn't assign her a seat. This has happened to me as well, and it is always frustrating. You have to arrive early and wait and wait until they finally release your seat at the last possible moment. I always think I have been reclassified as a stand-by passenger and won't get a seat at all. Actually, I've gotten so used to printing out a boarding pass online and going straight to the gate that anything else seems unacceptable.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I rewrote a watch article that needed revision. I drove over to Fry's Electronics and wandered aimlessly around the camera section for a while. I went to Lowes and picked up a timer for the sprinklers. The dogs didn't want to go outside at all, but I took them on their evening walk anyway. I learned a long time ago that a walk in the heat is a lot more desirable than having the dogs wake you up in the middle of the night so you can take them outside to do their business.

I wonder if Google+ would be any good as a blogging platform? You can write as much as you want. It's easy to comment. It's friendly with pictures and video. Sure sounds like a blog to me. The whole experience is much more bloglike than Facebook, since only your own posts appear on your profile page. So many different things can appear on your Facebook wall that it doesn't even feel like your own page after a while. I'm going to stick with the blog, but it sure would be easy to just start blogging on Google+. Personally, I hope that this is the last new social network I encounter for quite a while. Checking in on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ everyday is all the activity I need. Please don't invent any more of these things.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

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.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 591

One one hand, it was a perfectly normal doctor's visit. On the other hand, it was a perfectly normal client meeting. I'm still getting used to having my personal physician as a client. During my visit today, the doctor would check me for signs of Carpal tunnel syndrome, while I would take videos of him talking about osteoporosis. These two sides to the visit would be happening almost simultaneously. The doc would tell me how to reduce my cholesterol levels, while I would be telling him how to improve his SEO.

I actually like having everyone I know as a client. It makes life simpler. I probably have slipped over to the dark side though. While the rest of the world worries about keeping medical records private, I kept asking the nurse if she could burn me a disk of my X-Rays today so I could put them on the blog.

There are other signs I have succumbed to the digital world as well. I have this cool smart app on my iPhone that lets me deposit checks in my bank just by taking a picture of them. Do I ever use it? Well, not exactly. You see, I also have this cool dumb app on my iPhone called foursquare that tells me I am the Mayor of my bank. So, instead of taking a quick picture with my phone, I drive all the way to bank, just so I can check in and keep someone else from becoming Mayor. I'm Mayor of several other places too, but they're all equally boring pedestrian venues. I'm right on the verge of becoming Mayor of the Post Office.

I got a message from my broker today, saying that the comptroller of a REIT I've been investing in had been caught embezzling from the fund and had managed to steal 7% of the fund's total assets. Nice. What could top this bad news? Oh right...the country's going to go bankrupt next Tuesday. I can't believe that congress still can't get their act together. What did we elect these guys for anyway?

I just found out that two Dalmatians in the rescue program passed away today. I knew both dogs were sick, but kept hoping that they would improve. Harley had bone cancer and I don't know if we'll ever really know the true nature of Bentley's illness. It's really sad when you do everything you can possible think of to bring these guys back to good health and it still isn't enough.

I'm glad our own two dogs are still healthy. I'm also glad that I'm apparently a bit healthier than I thought I was. In between everything else we were talking about this afternoon, my doctor told me that the meds he put me on are working and that although I'm still in a risk group for getting diabetes, I definitely don't have the disease.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 590

I went to a video editing seminar today. I'm not actually editing anything right now, but I enjoy hanging out with other editors and commiserating with them about clients who have decided to edit their next TV commercial themselves using iMovie. It's happened to me, and it's apparently happened to a lot of other editors as well. The seminar today was about Apple's new Final Cut X and the implications it has for video editing professionals. It looks like Apple has chosen to throw editing pros under the bus in exchange for making it easier for everybody else to put together better looking YouTube videos. This democratization of the creative process was the same general theme I heard the magazine publisher talk about last Wednesday. In the publisher's case, it was bloggers taking over the role once held by newspapers. Today, the message was more about everyone in creation thinking that they are a filmmaker.

I'm not really worried though. I guess if worse comes to worse, I can always go down to the Apple store and get a job at the Genius Bar. Even though a lot more people are using editing software and recording everything that moves with fancy camcorders, their knowledge of how these gizmos actually work is paper thin. There will always be a need for someone who can get under the hood and fix something when it breaks. Creative folks need to remember this. I make more money fixing botched writing jobs and failed websites than I do building these things from scratch. I don't really like Final Cut X, but I might buy it anyway, just so I can learn how to use the software and be ready when my clients turned filmmakers start telling me that they can't get it to do what they want.

My doctors office called me twice today to remind me of my appointment tomorrow. Either they're getting forgetful, or something is wrong. Often, when they are eager to see me, it is to tell me to stop taking some pill immediately. I'm really not fond of pharmaceutical companies. If you take any meds for an extended period of time, you are essentially a guinea pig. A lot of side effects don't even begin to appear until years after you initially started taking the pill. Personally, I'd much rather go back to eating bacon for breakfast and drinking generous amounts of wine with dinner. It's just not fair that bacon doesn't have any health benefits.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 589

Do you ever have days where you feel slightly out of place, no matter what you do? I went to another of those business networking breakfasts this morning and listened to a magazine publisher talk about the dramatic changes that were taking place in the media world. Even though the speaker was talking about my own industry and everything rang true, I still felt like I was party crashing. Everyone at my table was so efficient and businesslike with their Blackberries and schedule planners, mapping out the rest of their day. I was just going home to walk two Dalmatians after I finished my omelet and waffle. When people started passing out business cards, I discovered that I only had three cards in my wallet. I gave them to the first three people I saw and then went looking for more orange juice.

When I got back home, I discovered that Google+ was making me feel out of place as well. When I first set up my account, I created a circle for humor+ and it is still empty. Nobody is funny on Google+. They're all so serious and self-important that it makes me realize all those videos on Facebook of dogs doing goofy things aren't so bad after all. I remember my Dad, who was a well respected zoologist, liked to watch The Three Stooges on TV when he came home from work. Maybe there's still some of that in my gene pool.

A friend of mine told me today that my constant Twitter feed was ruining his LinkedIn experience. Evidently there were more of my Tweets on his status updates than the normal BS about someone being promoted to Senior VP. This is one more person who is taking things way too seriously. I told him there was a simple solution to his problem. All he had to do was remove me from his contact list.

It was so hot at dog class tonight that our teacher let us all out early. I'm sure the dogs think we are crazy for even trying to march them around a hot dusty field on a day like this.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 588

Here's a little irony for you. I think I lost the translation job I've been telling you about as the result of a translation problem. When the company initially contacted me, they told me they needed the translation job completed by next Friday. I wrote back and said this was fine and that there would be no problem completing everything before August 5. This date, of course, is next Friday. Later in the day I got another e-mail saying that they awarded the job to another company. They explained that they needed everything done by July 29, which is actually this Friday. They thought when they said next Friday, I would understand this to mean the next Friday that appeared on the calendar, which happens to be this Friday. Confused yet? So am I.

I think I'm becoming addicted to Google+. It's easy to get distracted because I'm constantly logged into my Google account anyway. Since I already use Google documents, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google Search and a raft of other Google products on a daily basis, the Google+ icon seems to always be waiting for me at the top of my browser menu. Every few minutes it tempts me with that little red box which tells me something new has appeared in my stream. Usually these new things are posts written by semi-famous Internet pundits who seem to have all day to sit around and share links and opinions with each other. These guys don't seem any wiser than the normal folks you'd hang out with at your local Starbucks, but since they're famous, ever word they utter seems to garner a million +1 recommendations. I find myself adding my own two cents to some of these threads, but I don't expect the Illuminati to add me to their own circles any time soon.

It's so hot outside that all the park critters are getting real lethargic. Dot almost caught a raccoon this afternoon while it was sleeping near the base of a tree. Last week, Dash almost caught a rabbit the same way. I definitely don't want the dogs to catch a raccoon, since these critters are notorious carriers of rabies and other diseases. The drought has become so bad that I see all kinds of animals in the back yard trying to drink out of the bird bath. I never thought I'd say this, since I complain about water on my roof so often, but I'd welcome a little rain at this point.

I'm invited to another of those networking breakfasts tomorrow morning. Maybe I'll wear a suit. I never wear a suit anymore. There just aren't many occasions to wear a suit anymore. Nobody seems to wear a suit to work, or even to church these days. Hey, I'm too old for weddings and too young for funerals. I think my suits are all going to get eaten by moths.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 587

Early this morning, I took Janet up to pick up a loaner car while her car was in the shop and then went and got gas for my own car. My tank was almost empty and I didn't want to wind up stranded as well. By the time I got home again, the dogs were indignant that their morning walk was late. Both dogs are creatures of habit and would like their lives to run like clockwork. They always let me know when I am out of sync or off schedule. I don't know why they were in such a hurry to go outside. It was just as hot as it was yesterday and the day before. They both bounded out of the house like usual, and five minutes later their tongues were hanging out and they were ready to come home again.

I got some positive feedback regarding the translation job I'm bidding on, so I decided to have a positive attitude and go ahead and get started. I usually have to translate several pages of something like this anyway, before I can get a sense of how to bid the job. I translated six or seven pages today and will turn in my bid tomorrow. Translating is more like putting together a jigsaw puzzle than regular writing. The words are already there. You just have to get them to make sense again.

Hanging out on Google+ could easily give you an inferiority complex. The famous people and the pundits get an unbelievable number of comments for saying fairly ordinary things, while everybody else gets ignored. It's still interesting reading though. I'm usually so oblivious to what's going on in silicon valley that it's not hard to impress me with something new. Today, I downloaded and started to use Evernote. This isn't exactly a new application, but I'd never heard of it before. Evernote is actually extremely useful in my line of work and I probably should have started using it several years ago. I also followed a link to a cool site that shows real time traffic information for Dallas and other cites. This one is going to get bookmarked on the iPad right away, since you can see at a glance which roads are congested and should be avoided.

The giant market meltdown that was supposed to happen today if congress didn't reach an agreement on the debt ceiling never materialized. Somehow this didn't surprise me. I take what all the pundits say with a grain of salt these days. Even some of those Internet wizards who pontificate on Google+ are probably wrong.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 586

Dash did a lot better on his first solo trip to the dog park than I thought he would. He whined a bit, but was really no worse than he usually is. Probably I just couldn't hear him as easily, since my car is a lot noisier than Janet's. It's surprising how many people know these dogs. All weekend, Dash and I would run into people who would stop us and ask where Dot was. Even at the dog park, where few people know us at all, someone inquired about Dot.

It was so hot this weekend that I worried my car would break down and leave Dash and I stranded. Being stranded on the side of the road in 100 degree weather with a dog in your car is not a good thing. My car was just fine this weekend, but unfortunately Janet's car did break down. As soon as she and Dot returned from Houston this evening, Janet turned around and went to the grocery store. About two hours later, I got a call that she was stranded in the grocery store parking lot. I made one trip to retrieve the groceries before they spoiled, and then I made another trip to follow the tow truck up to the Land Rover dealer. At least her car is still under warranty. The warning light in the dash said something was wrong with the transmission and that sounds expensive.

I practiced translating a few pages of the German technical manual this afternoon to see if I still remembered enough to make it worthwhile to even bid on the job. Surprisingly, everything came back to me quicker than I thought. I can do this! I've done work for this company before and I still remembered a lot of the technology involved. That definitely helps. I'll call the guys tomorrow and give them a bid. The only question now is whether translation jobs still pay anything anymore. Back when I used to do a lot of this stuff, these type of jobs paid quite well. I suspect that things have changed however. Machine translation has come a long way. Now, anyone with a browser can get a rough translation in virtually any language with a few mouse clicks. I'm fairly impressed with Google's translation tools. They're much more sophisticated than the old Babelfish website. Maybe there's still a need for what I do though. We'll see.

I've got something to do out of the office every day next week. It's nice to be busy, but I'm getting real close to being too busy. I'm hanging in there the best I can. Hopefully, I won't have any more website revisions until I get caught up with everything else.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 585

Dot and Janet left earlier in the day for a dog show in Houston with their friends Willow, Pat and Ann. Dash and I stayed behind to eat frozen pizzas and watch late-night science fiction movies on TV. Dash was beside himself when Dot left. He's kind of an insecure dog anyway and always likes to have another dog nearby. It's too bad he couldn't have gone to the dog show too, but he never would have made it as far as Houston in a car. One of the reasons we've been driving to a dog park in far North Dallas every week is to get him used to traveling in a car. We usually can't go five miles before he starts howling and acting like the sky is going to fall. The one time we tried to take him on a long car trip, he got so upset that he had a seizure the next day.

My favorite clothing store was having a big sale, so I went and picked up a couple of new shirts this afternoon. I don't know why I even bother to buy clothes anymore. I never go anywhere and typically end up wearing the same things over and over. The dogs certainly don't care what I look like. My clients don't really care either, since I mostly just communicate with them over the Internet. Oddly, I still like the idea of nice clothes, even though I usually just wear jeans and left-over t-shirts from Dalmatian Rescue golf tournaments.

I'm still kind of fascinated with Google+. I find myself being drawn into conversations that I would never have on Facebook. It's so easy to comment on someone's post. I wish that blog comments were handled this way. When you try to leave a comment on someone's blog and you have to cycle through a dozen different cryptic looking captchas before you can find one you can actually read, it hardly seems worth the effort. I think Google+ came along at just the right time to give my mind a little jump start. Once I started checking in on foursquare, I was afraid I had begun that long downhill spiral that could only end at the gates of Mafia Wars and Farmville.

I'm wondering whether to take Dash to the dog park tomorrow. He dislikes riding in my car even more than riding in Janet's car. We'll see how brave we both are.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 584

I got another business inquiry from LinkedIn. Things certainly have changed. Business relationships used to be nurtured over a long lunch. Now, you just need to make sure your name is mentioned on the right online lists. I think I liked things the old way a lot better. There's no sense in being nostalgic though, because I have a feeling that more and more strangers are going to be hiring me in the future. Already, a significant chunk of my business originates from people I have never met in person.

Today's inquiry was about translating German technical manuals. I used to do a lot of this sort of stuff in the past, but it's been a while. I never spoke German all that well. Today, I probably couldn't hold a coherent conversation with a four year old in German. That's not going to stop me from bidding on this job though. Even at my best, I was a terrible translator. I do understand technology though. When I got these sort of jobs in the past, I never bothered much about literally translating the German words. I just looked at the pictures to figure out what the subject matter was about, and then rewrote the entire thing from scratch in English. My clients generally thought I was a brilliant translator, because their brochures sounded like they were written by a native speaker. Actually, they were. I've been speaking English since I was a baby.

I'm spending more time on Google+ and less on Facebook these days. To me, Facebook seems a lot like shopping at Walmart. Google+ seems a bit more like shopping at Williams-Sonoma or Whole Foods. I like the concept of circles of interest too. If you find someone saying interesting things, you just drag them into a circle and read what they have to offer whenever you feel like it. The whole concept of "friends" on Facebook always made me a little uneasy. Jeez, in real life I only have a small handful of friends. On Facebook, I have over 500. Something is very wrong with this picture.

How many days can a body stand these 100 degree temperatures? This is one of the hottest Summers I can remember. We get 100 degree days every Summer in Texas, but usually they don't go on for weeks at a time like this. It even seems to be hot up North this Summer. Personally, I'm ready for Winter.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day