Day 618

What a difference a little rain makes. We had an early morning shower and even though the rain didn't last long, everything looked a lot greener on our morning walk. The few remaining flowers didn't look quite so wilted, and if you looked closely, the yellowed prairie grass in the meadows had already grown some tiny green shoots. From a distance, these patches of native grass had an odd yellow/green color that reminded me of vintage bathroom tiles. The temperature was only 85 degrees this morning, but this pleasant interlude didn't last long. By the time our evening walk rolled around, it was back up over 100 again.

Today was a day to deliver things. Somehow, it is a lot more satisfying to deliver a large framed photo to a client than it is to simply attach a Microsoft Word file to an e-mail. When I deliver a physical object I have created, it feels like I've accomplished something. The things I attach to e-mail seem to disappear from my memory the minute I hit the send button. The next day, I wonder if I've actually done anything at all. Maybe there's a lesson in all this, but probably not. Even most of my photo jobs are delivered electronically these days. It was nice to get out of the office, but I probably won't have any more large physical objects to deliver again for quite a while.

I'm trying to decide whether to buy Avid Media Composer. On one hand, Avid has a fabulous special price right now for Final Cut Pro users, trying to lure them into the fold. On the other hand, the price after the special discount is still pretty expensive and I'm not actually editing anything right now. My logic for buying something that I don't really need is usually if I don't buy it, the money will just disappear in the stock market anyway. It's hard to tell these days though. Who knows what the market is going to do? At one point today, the market was way up because Warren Buffett bought a bunch of Bank of America stock. Then it was way down again just a few hours later because of something that happened in Germany. With this kind of sea-saw action, Avid Media Composer probably is a much better investment. Hey, if I could just teach my dogs a few tricks, I could make wildly popular YouTube videos. The dogs would rather sleep than learn silly tricks though. Truthfully, I'd rather sleep as well.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 617

I started the day aimlessly wandering through the park with the dogs and ended the day aimlessly wandering through the Quark Express manual, trying to figure out how to make tables do what I wanted them to do. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I do so many different things as part of my job that I can never remember the nuances of the various software I use. By the end of my intense week of video editing last May, I had gotten quite proficient at using Final Cut Pro. Unfortunately, I haven't had a big video editing job since, so the next time I get put to the test, I'll have to learn a lot of stuff all over again. The same thing is true with printed advertising. So few people ask me to do printed pieces anymore that some of the finer points of desktop publishing escape me. I used to know Quark backwards and forwards. Now it's all backwards.

Amazingly, it rained today. It didn't rain long enough to help all the water starved plants, but it certainly rained long enough for Dot. She could tell the rain was coming when we took our afternoon walk and she didn't relax again until about an hour after the storm was over. I thought that dog training class might be canceled for a while, but by 7 PM, all signs of moisture had evaporated. The only reminder that it had rained at all was a vague musty smell in the air.

It felt like the end of an era when I heard that Steve Jobs had resigned from Apple today. I got my very first Macintosh in 1984, right after they were introduced. That first Macintosh didn't even have a hard drive. You had to load a floppy disk with the system software and then eject that disk to insert another disk with the applications. It was pretty crude and simple by today's standards, but it made the Osborne-1 computer I had used before look like an antique. If it weren't for Macintosh, Photoshop, Quark Express, Adobe Illustrator, Media 100 and dozens of other game changers, I probably wouldn't have been able to start a company like mine. So, thank you Steve, for opening some doors for people like me that might have stayed locked for a long time without you.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 616

We always see interesting things on our morning walks. Today, I noticed a slice from a giant tree trunk in a neighbor's driveway with a colorful butterfly painted on it. The tree trunk was obviously too heavy to lift, so it was still sitting on the pallet where the delivery truck left it. I don't know if this large chunk of wood is destined to become a coffee table or if it is artwork that will hang on a very sturdy wall. It is pretty though. I'm glad the dogs didn't pee on it as we walked by.

I heard about this morning's earthquake on Google+ about two seconds after it happened. Maybe the way the world gets its news really is changing. They say that Twitter is bustling with news of current events around the world. Maybe so, but most of the Tweets I get are either about somebody's dog or about the latest new YA vampire novel. It is interesting about the earthquake though, because evidently the news traveled faster via social media than the actual seismic wave and people in some parts of the East Coast learned about the quake on Google+ before they actually felt the shock themselves.

I took Dot to the vet this afternoon for more blood work. They think she might have a thyroid problem and wanted to do some additional tests. Dash thinks a trip to the vet is a social outing, but Dot is still terrified of the whole experience. I was amazed to see Dot sitting right next to a rabbit in the lobby. She was so concerned about what was going to happen next that she didn't even notice the bunny. Ordinarily, her hunting instincts kick into high gear whenever she's within thirty feet of a rabbit.

I've been doing an awful lot of writing lately. For the sake of variety, would be nice to mix things up with some more photography jobs. Photography jobs than had a decent budget and involved travel to exotic locations would be especially nice. I'm not knocking writing though. Writing is still more interesting than updating employees on company websites.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 615

I had a hard time getting up this morning. Dash had an upset stomach last night and woke us up several times during the night scratching on the door to go outside. The first time he goes outside in situations like these, he does nothing. The second time, he usually eats grass. Hopefully, there is a third time where he actually throws up, but as often as not, he waits until I'm in the shower the next morning and then throws up inside on the carpet. I've taken him to the vet over and over again trying to find a definitive answer to these episodes, but all the vets usually tell me is to give him a Pepsid AC.

At any rate, I could have used a couple of extra hours of sleep this morning. By the time we took our morning walk, Dash was back to normal again. His heartburn appeared to be gone, but mine was worse than ever. I don't do well if I don't get a good night's sleep. I'm still taking iPhone Instagram pictures on our morning walks and I'm starting to notice that there are never any people in the photos. It's not that I'm avoiding people. It's just that when I'm out and about, the world is empty. I kind of like it this way. I try not to go to the park until all the early morning joggers and cyclists have gone to work. It's a little harder to avoid the traffic on Dallas roads, but usually 2 to 4 in the afternoon is pretty good. I just need to remember to avoid the school zones, now that school is back in session.

There are a couple of friends who I've been meaning to have lunch with for several months now. Usually I've just finished breakfast when most people go to lunch though and I'm not hungry at noon anymore. Now that a lot of my work originates on the Internet, I'm starting to wonder just how insular my life might become. There's really no need to see anyone anymore. I keep doing a few things, like going to the bank and the post office the old fashioned way, just to get away from the keyboard for a while. These things could be done quicker and easier online as well, but after a while all this efficiency gets ridiculous.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 614

Last night's Casino Party went well. We were able to raise some money to help the Dalmatians and everybody had a good time. The most surprising thing about the evening was that the restaurant seemed to completely change character as the evening progressed. When we arrived, the place was a nice family oriented sports bar where you might go to watch a baseball game with friends. With each passing hour, the music got a notch louder, and the customers got a bit younger. By the time we were ready to leave, the restaurant had transformed itself into a dance club with a deafening sound system, bouncers at the door, police checking ID's, and tons of kids looking for a good time. I was curious about the strange popularity of this seemingly average sports bar and then I discovered that the place still allowed smoking. The kids loved to smoke.

Today was much quieter. The theme for the day was washing. We washed the bedspread to get rid of all the dog hair. Then we washed the dogs, so they wouldn't immediately get the bedspread dirty again. The dogs looked so clean and pretty that it inspired me to go and get the car washed as well. I haven't washed the Defender all Summer because it was hard to see the point of doing anything unnecessary in this heat. Janet finally convinced me to spend $15 and let the attendants at one of those drive through car wash places clean it for me. This was a good suggestion. The car looks better now than it ever did when I washed it myself. Even the muddy wheels were sparkling.

I'm ready for another week. The Dalmatian Rescue event banners and signs are back at the storage warehouse again. The house is clean. The website updates seem under control. I'm wondering if the events in Libya today will make the market go up or down tomorrow. On one hand, the end of another dictator is positive news that should make the market go up. On the other hand, uncertainty about oil might make it go down. Maybe nothing will happen. Uncertainly seems to be baked into the cake these days.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 613

Well, we got everything set up at the BlackFinn Saloon for tonight's Dalmatian Rescue Casino Party. Now, it's time to get the rest of the weekend errands finished before it's time to go back to the restaurant for the fundraiser later this evening. I've got a load of laundry in the washing machine, the grass is being watered and I'm making a grocery list. I've also got to fix one of the posters for the silent auction tonight, because some of the information was wrong. Needless to say, it's going to be a busy afternoon. We'll probably go eat dinner at the restaurant before the party starts, because the food smelled pretty good while we were setting up. I hope this turns out to be a good fundraiser for the Dalmatians. We usually do real well at these type of events, but occasionally nobody shows up. Like everything else in life, you just never know.

Every day I seem to get another open sell order from my broker in the mail. I got two more today. In this volatile market it would be silly not to have stop loss orders and downside protection, but nevertheless, it is sad to see all the panic and uncertainty obliterate a good portfolio. I've learned my lesson though. When the market is going down, you can always buy everything back again later when prices are even lower.

Someone Retweeted one of my Instagram pictures the other day. Maybe Instagram actually is a good way to communicate. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I do know that it is definitely easier to upload a picture than it is to write a thousand words. I guess I'll keep writing though. I enjoy writing. It would be nice if there were a way to seamlessly integrate all these online extensions of yourself in a single place. I have a feeling that I already do that on Facebook, but I seldom visit Facebook anymore since Google+ appeared.

I'm going to need to post today's entry earlier than usual, since I still need to go to the grocery store and give the dogs their evening walk before the Casino Party starts. Wish us luck this evening...

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 612 - Janet's Birthday

Our birthday celebrations have much gotten simpler as the years go by. We used to make reservations weeks in advance at a fancy restaurant. Now, we're pared things back to the basics: cake and alcohol. Yeah, I know that I can't drink anymore, but I cut myself some slack on birthdays and holidays. I don't think its good to be too rigid about anything. At any rate, we had a nice dinner at home with the dogs and Janet was happy with everything except being a year older.

Tomorrow evening we're having another Dalmatian Rescue Casino Party, so we need to get up early to go set up the gaming tables. For this benefit, we've teamed up with a local restaurant, and are hoping for a good turnout. The restaurant is promoting the party too, but we still don't know whether we'll have a huge crowd tomorrow or an empty room. A huge crowd would be nice.

You would think it would be getting a little cooler by now. The days are definitely getting shorter again, but the temperature was still 108 today. I got stuck in traffic while I was running errands this afternoon and I noticed that my car was starting to overheat. One more month and the worst will be over. The cooler weather couldn't come fast enough for me. I'm tired of worrying about overheating cars and air conditioner failures. In the winter, all I've got to worry about are roof leaks.

Today's writing assignment was coming up with a branding story for a new product with absolutely no history. I asked the client how they wanted me to write this story and they basically told me to just make it up. Sure. I can do that. This is actually branding in its most elemental form: total fabrication.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 611

I was out and about quite a bit today. I had meetings to go to, shopping to do, and things to retrieve from the storage warehouse. I've gotten so used to doing virtually everything online that doing things in the real world seems almost impossibly slow and antiquated. Parking is never a problem when I'm buying something on Amazon. Hot cars aren't a problem online either. I need to remember to always make a trip to the grocery store the last thing on my list, so the food won't spoil while I'm shopping somewhere else. Today, I had to make the trip to the storage warehouse the last thing on the agenda, because I was picking up some dry mounted prints and I didn't want the foam core mounting board to warp in the hot car. I had to visit the Apple Store. I'm always amazed at how crowded Apple Stores are. As I passed by the Northpark store today, it seemed like half the people in the entire mall were crowded into this one store. The two adjacent stores were virtually empty.

I wonder if anyone is looking at my Instagram pictures? There doesn't seem to be any way to label these pictures. When they arrive on Facebook or Twitter, it just says that I have uploaded a picture and then you have to click on the link to see what it is. Maybe there actually is a way to add Instagram titles. Like most of my iPhone apps, I've never bothered to read the instructions.

Yay! Project Runway is back for another season. I thought tonight's show would be the season opener, but obviously I was off by a few weeks. I'm glad I caught tonight's show anyway. Each contestant had to make an outfit for Nina Garcia to wear and Nina definitely isn't the easiest person in the world to please. One segment made me laugh when Nina told one of the contestant's that her sketch looked a bit "too Dynasty." The girl had this totally blank look on her face. She didn't have any idea what Nina was talking about and probably wasn't even born yet when Dynasty was on the air.

Just in case you're wondering, I did remember to take the trash out tonight.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 610

I think the most exciting thing I did all day was a load of laundry. Don't get me wrong. I was as busy as usual doing my website revisions and writing assignments. It just wasn't very exciting. It's ironic to me that once I get proficient enough at something for people to feel comfortable paying me, I've usually lost interest. My office cubicle friends don't have much sympathy for my situation though. They usually just mumble something like "welcome to the work world" and wander off. It would be nice if you could get paid for learning new things. I'd love a job where my job description was "test pilot of ideas" or something equally fanciful. Not very likely though. People are much more comfortable paying you when you're safe and predictable.

My Instagram picture today is Erykah-Badu's house. On hot days, this is usually where the dogs and I turn around on our walks and start heading home again. In cooler weather, we walk a bit further to a place called The Stone Tables. Today was pretty hot, so we turned around here.

Ten hours later, when it was time for obedience class, I don't think the temperature had cooled down a bit. None of the dogs seemed the least bit interested in the proceedings tonight. I wouldn't be surprised if Dash felt exactly the same way about obedience class as I often feel about website design. The recall exercises, the heeling and even the jumps have all become very predictable. I'm sure that Dash would get a lot more excited if we would take him up to this same field and just let him chase rabbits.

Tomorrow's going to be a busy day. I've got an animal rescue meeting where people are sure to tell me that I'm already late with their promotional materials. I've got to get some large prints ready to go to the frame shop that I promised last month. I'd better go do some shopping too. Janet's got a birthday coming up soon.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 609

I really like Instagram. If I can ever remember to put my phone in my pocket, I'm going to start documenting my daily routine. There's something nice about these little square photos that seems to complement the blog and foursquare and everything else. The thing I like most about these photos is that there is no option to upload from an album. You have to actually take a picture on the spot with your phone for the application to work. As a result, photographers aren't uploading carefully edited portfolios. They're just taking spontaneous pictures. Very cool!

I keep reading all these serious sounding discussions on Google+ about privacy vs public sharing. I can see both sides to this argument, but there's a hidden benefit to public posting that nobody seems to be talking about. When Alzheimer's and dementia start to set in, I can go back to my blog and foursquare and Instagram and reconstruct every place I've ever been, everything I've ever seen and every thought that's crossed my mind. Maybe memory isn't all that important if your experiences are all out in the cloud somewhere. When my parents were getting old, I noticed a lot of people going around with tape recorders making aural histories, so the past wouldn't slip away. Probably there aren't as many untold stories anymore. Increasingly, our collective stories are just a few clicks away on Google.

Dash had his biweekly antigen shot today. I was skeptical at first, but the medicine appears to be working. Dash's coat looks almost as good as Dot's these days. He'll probably have to continue taking the injections for the rest of his life, but since there are few, if any, side effects to the drug, I think his quality of life will be a lot better. As I was getting Dash ready for the ride over to the vet, I got a call about Dot. Her thyroid levels are a bit low. It is nothing serious. My vet just wanted to let us know. If my own medical care was half as good as these dogs get, I'd probably live ten years longer.

I got a message from Germany the other day asking if I'd be interested in flying to Houston to interview someone from Brazil. This is what the world has come to. I sit in my little room with the dogs, but I'm just as much of a global company as Coca Cola or McDonald's. It doesn't matter if you're making pottery or selling dog collars on eBay, if you don't currently think of yourself as global, you're probably missing the one chance you've got left to make some decent money.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 608

Do you ever feel that you're spending too much time re-learning things you already know? I do. I wanted to make a few high quality Giclée prints on my new printer this afternoon and discovered that even though the Epson 4880 looked exactly like my old Epson 4000 printer, it was a different beast entirely. The ink was different. The ICC profiles were different. Even the paper path seemed slightly different. Consequently, I wasted some expensive watercolor paper trying to duplicate something I used to be able to do in my sleep. Like it or not, I'm going to have to go back to square one and recalibrate everything. I had the same problem when I switched from Photoshop 7.0 to CS5. Even though CS5 was a big improvement, it was also a big irritation, since a lot of the techniques I had perfected over the years simply didn't work anymore. Sometimes I wish people would simply stop improving things. It's going to take me the rest of my life to master all the features of stuff I already have.

As irritating as new things can be, I still can't resist something new. Today I joined Instagram. I have no idea who actually follows you on Instagram or why, but I do like the little square images the app produces. I took a few Instagram pictures today with my iPhone and was instantly transported back to the days when I shot a lot of stuff using Hasselblad and Bronica cameras. I've always liked the 2 1/4” x 2 1/4” square image format. Somehow I find it easier to compose things inside a square frame. This is probably just one more indication of how rigid and inflexible I've become. Just to prove that I'm really an easy going, flexible guy, I cropped one of my first Instagram pictures back into a rectangle for the blog.

It's time to give Dash another antigen shot. His skin is starting to look really good again, but maybe I ought to start giving the injections myself. These injections are supposed to be given subcutaneously, but the past several times the techs have given the injection in muscle and caused a nasty welt. I wish staying healthy wasn't so complicated. Dash appears to be getting better, but I seem to be getting worse. I'm increasingly convinced that I've got a pretty bad case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. The last time I went to the doctor, I had them X-Ray my hands, since I thought that I might have sprained or broken my wrist. The X-Rays looked fine though and the only other thing I can think of that would cause this kind of pain is Carpal Tunnel. I really don't want the surgery if I can avoid it. I had a friend who had the surgery and his hands are worse now than they were before. I saw some special far infrared therapy gloves on the Internet that are supposed to help. Maybe I'll buy a pair. Gloves certainly sound easier than surgery.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 607

I wonder if there is a twelve step program for people addicted to online stats. For me, it all started innocently enough with Google Analytics. Then I discovered that Anayltics wasn't the only game in town. There were literally dozens of sites dedicated to analyzing and ranking your online efforts. There were places like Klout, Peerindex, Crowdbooster and many more. Then there was foursquare and Instagram. There was even a place called Photorank.me dedicated to measuring the quantity and quality of your online photo uploads. You just wonder where all this measurement is going to end? It's probably only a matter of time before someone comes out with a WiFi One Touch Meter and people start competing to see who has the highest blood sugar levels. Lord help us if anyone ever starts manufacturing a WiFi toilet.

I did check in on foursquare at the Waggin Tail Dog Park today, but it wasn't much of a competition. We were almost the only ones there. We got off to a late start today and by the time we arrived, most of the people who come early to avoid the heat had already left. Dash had a good time though. There were only three other dogs in the park and all of them seemed to like him. Dash is getting better in the car as well. The trip to the park has become routine enough that he no longer has panic attacks. He still whines, but that's normal.

I mowed the grass, vacuumed the house, and finished the charity website I started working on yesterday. All in all, it was a pretty productive day. Actually, I probably got a lot more done today than I will tomorrow. I can never reach anyone on Monday's. I call and they're always in a status meeting. I leave a message and they eventually call me back on Wednesday. Does everybody have Monday status meetings? It certainly appears that way. I never have status meetings. I already know my status: I'm a dog walker who just happens to write and take pictures.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 606

Janet had to make some airline reservations last night and when she printed out the receipt, she discovered that American Airlines had added a $50 surcharge for talking to a reservations agent on the phone. I couldn't believe it. I knew that airlines were pushing people to do everything online these days, but this seemed pretty extreme. These guys really didn't want you to call them on the phone. It's probably a sign of things to come. I find it harder and harder to get a real person on the phone for any situation. Automated phone systems are almost impenetrable. There is usually a secret word that will let you bypass the automated messages and talk to a real person, but nobody wants to tell you the secret. Once, when I was stuck in automated message hell for fifteen minutes with Paypal, I finally got someone to tell me that if you said the word agent very quickly three times in a row, you could bypass the robots and get a real agent. Virtual agents on websites are even worse. Why spend ten minutes typing back and forth when a short conversation would resolve everything. Somehow, we have taken a wonderful invention like the telephone and ruined it.

It finally rained today. Well, technically it rained last night, but it was still sprinkling a little early this morning. Even though I didn't get the roof patched in time, I was still happy to see the cooler weather. The temperature must have been twenty degrees lower today. It was actually quite pleasant. The only one who didn't like the rain was Dot. Dot hates rain and even this gentle shower stressed her out. She got so worked up, she threw up right after breakfast. Once the rain stopped, she was right back to normal though.

I have to design a new website this weekend. I don't have any information to put on the pages, but that's never stopped me before. I'll just insert some plausible placeholder information until the real information eventually materializes. I'm always amazed at how often the real information never appears and my placeholder text gradually becomes the real text by default.

When I was running errands today, I noticed that the left rear tire on the Defender was quite low. One good thing about off-road tires is that they'll run with almost no air in them. I continued my shopping and when I eventually got home with the groceries, I dug the air compressor out from under a pile of Dalmatian Rescue event paraphernalia and pumped all the tires up again. Seems like I did something like this three or four months ago. I must have a slow leak.

I made good progress on my website design this afternoon and with any luck at all, I'll finish things up tomorrow with plenty of time left over to vacuum the house and take the dogs to the dog park.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 605

I look at this blog as a public service. If you read it long enough, you'll come to realize that your own life is far more interesting than mine and feel better about yourself. Janet laughs at me for being Mayor of the Post Office on foursquare. "Can't you find something more interesting to be Mayor of," she says. Well, not really.

There was certainly nothing earth shattering happening today. I paid a few bills, brought some spreadsheet records up to date and finished writing a couple of ad assignments. And yes, I did go to the Post Office. It was hot again today and I had trouble getting the dogs back inside after lunch. Maybe they're suffering from light deprivation, because they love to spend time outside even on the hottest days. I've got to watch how long they're out in the sun though, since Dalmatians sunburn easily.

I never did get the Henry 209 roof patch cement at Home Depot that I promised myself I would take care of today. The writing job this afternoon took longer than I though and there were a couple of emergency web updates as well. I'd better get this chore done tomorrow, because I keep hearing that it might rain this weekend. When the mail arrived, there was another late registration notice from the city for Dot. This happens every year right after she gets her new city tags at her annual exam. Somehow, we're permanently out of sync with the city. I'll need to call them on Monday and explain that the pooch is completely legal and up to date on everything.

I got momentarily excited when UPS delivered a large mystery package addressed to me toward the end of the day. I didn't remember ordering anything. I initially though Paypal might be sending me a free logo jacket or tote bag for being an advertising spokesperson, but the package just turned out to be a spare paper tray for my printer. I must have ordered the thing, but my mind still draws a blank.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 604

We finally broke our relentless string to 100 degree days. I think it only got up to 88 degrees today. Oddly, some people in town were disappointed by the cooler weather, since we were only two days away from setting an all time record for 100 degree days. I was certainly happy enough to forgo the record for another year. It was actually pleasant to walk the dogs today. There was even a nice breeze this afternoon. Admitedly, it's not quite jacket weather yet, but it's a start.

One of my clients wanted to change the bios of all 35 employees on their website today. When I read the new bios, they all seemed virtually the same as the old bios, but the changes certainly mattered to somebody. You can tell a lot about a company by how they deal with employees on their website. Some people want to change things around every time an employee gets a new cat. Other folks don't even bother to remove employees who have died.

It's hard to figure this market out. Another big up day today, but I still don't know if it's time to start buying again. The people who bought during the huge sell-off a few days ago will make a very nice profit if they guessed right about a bottom being established. If we continue bouncing around however, they will make nothing. Personally, I don't see enough good news on the horizon to keep this ship afloat forever. I'm going to wait a while.

I am going to go out and buy some more roof patch tomorrow. I might not be able to tell when the economy will improve, but I do know that there will be water on the roof again. There were enough clouds in the sky today to make me think that it actually might rain in the foreseeable future. After all this dry weather, if it rains again before I re-seal all the cracked areas on the roof, I only have myself to blame.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

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.

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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.

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