Day 402

I had a new business meeting today. I think everything went well, but I won't really know for sure until I show them a prototype website design sometime next week. All my website clients are different, but they all share one thing in common. Whenever I ask them to show me an example of a website they like and admire, they inevitably take me to some wildly extravagant corporate site that probably took two years to build and had a budget in excess of $100,000. Everyone seems to think that I should be able to duplicate these high-end sites for a few hundred dollars and have everything up and running in less than a week. Today, the example sites I was shown were for Audi and for a major university. Budgets may have declined for retail storefront websites, but expectations are as high as they ever were.

I've been trying to put one of those little favicon icons on my business website today. No matter how much I monkey around with the code, the icon just won't display properly in my browser. For some reason, someone else's favicon shows up, even though my icon file is sitting right where it should be on the web server. It's kind of embarrassing. I've put these things on other people's sites, but I can't seem to get one working on my own. This is why I can never seem to get caught up on everything these days. Trivial little projects like this can eat up hours and hours of time. I'll figure it out though. By this time next week, there will be a favicon on my site. Hopefully it won't be the same strange little cartoon duck I saw up there today.

It was still dark when I took the trash out to the street for pickup this morning. Sometimes I wish I was more of a morning person. The sky was absolutely beautiful. Venus was exceptionally bright and I could see Saturn as well. Did I go get a telescope and do a little predawn observing? Nope. I was cold. I went back inside and got a cup of coffee instead. I've missed a ton of fabulous sunrise pictures over the years because I was still under the covers. That's just the way it is though. I never was a morning person and never will be.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 401

The colder the weather, the geekier I become. Anything to stay inside where it's warm, I guess. Today I looked for lost e-mail. Now that I've got half a dozen devices that can access the Internet, something as simple as checking my e-mail is turning into a real mess. I still use an old fashioned POP mail server and I'm beginning to realize why a lot of people are saying that the newer IMAP protocol is a much more practical solution for the way we live today. Every time I check my mail, it is downloaded to a different device and by the end of the day my messages are as hard to find as the reading glasses I'm constantly losing. Is the message I'm looking for on the iPhone, the iPad, the new computer, or the old computer? Who knows. It sure isn't on the server any more, since the messages are erased as soon as they are downloaded. Maybe I need to ask my ISP if I can switch over to IMAP mail.

Did I mention it was cold today? I put the dogs warmest coats on for their walks, but they still didn't want to go outside. The problem wasn't really the temperature, it was the wind. When you combine freezing temperatures with a thirty mile an hour wind, even your warmest clothes start to feel like an old T-shirt. When I went up to sweep last night's rain off the roof, I discovered I was too late. The standing water had already turned to ice. It will make a nice little ice rink for the possums and squirrels who wander around on the roof at night.

I have my first new business meeting of the year tomorrow. I really need to have a new business meeting every single week this year. Things are so expensive now that I'm really starting to feel poor. My health insurance premiums have gone up over 20% seemingly overnight. Gas is back up over three dollars a gallon. Worst of all, my new Snow Leopard operating system is forcing me to buy my business software all over again. None of my existing software seems to run on Snow Leopard. It's almost as bad as converting a record collection from vinyl to CD and then realizing you still have to turn the whole mess into MP3 files.

I think the dogs have the right idea. While I fret about technology, they just curl up under warm blankets and sleep until it's time to eat again.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 400

It doesn't seem like a year since I got my last safety inspection sticker. It's that time again though. Getting a safety inspection for your car ought to be a piece of cake, but somehow it never ends up that way for me. Half the time when I take my car to a garage, they say they aren't able to inspect it at all because it is a full-time four wheel drive vehicle. The rest of the time the garage says the Defender isn't a full-time four wheel drive vehicle and they try to put it on the dynamometer. This was what happened today. I had to race back into the no customers allowed area and tell the mechanic to stop before he ruined either the car or his garage. It was hard to explain to this mechanic that you simply can't put a full-time four wheel drive vehicle into two wheel drive for the test. I was about to tell the guy to forget the whole thing so I could go somewherer else when the owner of the garage came back and straightened things out.

I got a check in the mail for $100 today and paid a bill for $4000. This pretty much sums up my life lately. It's hard to get ahead this way. Hey, Dash had a good day though. He won another ribbon at obedience class tonight. It was only third place this time, but I'm not complaining. Maybe Dash is back on top of his game again. He's won a total of eight ribbons now. We'll forget the fact that the last one was six or eight months ago.

I hope I'm better organized tomorrow than I was today. I've still got a huge amount of website work to complete before the weekend. Again, I'm not complaining. It's nice to have the work.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 399

The sun finally came out today. I had a couple of meetings out of the office and you could tell that the sunshine had a positive effect on everybody. I don't know how Northerners deal with month after month of dreary weather. All it takes is a week down here and everybody is in a grumpy mood.

I don't know if it was the sunshine or just good luck, but I managed to get a lot accomplished before the sun went down. This morning, there was a successful initial planning meeting for a new website I'm going to be designing for a cat only veterinary hospital. This afternoon, I added a final group of pictures to a website I've been working on for months and I'm just about ready to call the whole thing completed. I even got a request to bid on a brand new project directly as a result of Facebook. Social media continues to amaze me. I had my business website up for several years before I could attribute any work whatsoever to having a persence on the Internet. I've only been on Facebook for a month and it's already having an impact on my business. Things have definitely changed. I think attention spans are shorter these days, but if you can learn to operate in that little window called "now," there are some real opportunities.

When I took the dogs on their evening walk, I was surprised to discover that most of the leaves in the park were gone. I could have sworn that there were tons of leaves on the ground yesterday, but today some of the meadows we walk through looked like a golf course. The whole thing is a bit of a mystery to me. I know there wasn't a big storm last night that blew the leaves away. The only thing I can think of is that the city used some of their stimulus money to buy a giant leaf vacuum for the parks department. If that's what happened, I sure wish they'd come over to my house and suck all the leaves off my lawn. As it stands now, I've got a lot of raking to do before Spring.

I didn't have time to take pictures of the three new Dalmatians today. Maybe tomorrow.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 398 - MLK Day

Today seemed like a good time to catch up on things. I got the promotional poster designed and printed for our upcoming Valentine's Day photo event. I finally got pictures of the new building added to one of my client's websites. I balanced my checkbook. I even sorted through the growing stack of junk mail, looking for misplaced bills.

I didn't find any bills, but I did find a jury duty summons. I must have gone downtown and sat in the jury pool room a dozen times, but I've never been put on a panel. Occasionally, I get as far as voir dire, but mostly I just sit and read magazines in the big jury pool room until I'm dismissed around 2 PM. I've often wondered why the lawyers don't seem to want me on their juries. I suspect that it's because I always list my occupation as writer. I've known a couple of journalists who seldom get empaneled on juries either. Probably if I listed my occupation as blogger, I would never get on a jury. I bet the last thing the lawyers want on their juries is a blabbermouth blogger.

The dogs have been tracking mud in the house for the past week, but the ground is getting so wet now that I'm starting to track mud in the house myself. When I took the trash out this morning, the ground felt mushy with the the consistency of peanut butter. What a mess. I wish the house had one of those "mud rooms" you see in newer homes. As it stands now, the whole house is kind of a mud room.

I had to resist the temptation to buy a bunch of software on the new app store. This thing could be dangerous. Especially on rainy days like today. The app store is just sitting there in my dock, inviting me to buy something everytime I turn on the computer. It shouldn't be so easy to buy things. At least if you have to get in the car and drive to a crowded shopping mall, it makes you think twice about whether you really need anything that bad. This app store is kind of like seeing a piece of cake every time you open the refrigerator. It's going to be hard to resist.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 397

I've finally gotten enough things installed correctly on the new computer that I'm starting to tell people "I love my new computer" instead of "I hate my new computer." I've successfully transfered just about all of my image files, so I can start doing design work again. Dreamweaver can communicate with all my clients websites. My accounting system is functional. I'm just about ready to put the old computer back in the box and haul it off to the storage warehouse. Most of the things my friends told me about Snow Leopard are true. It definitely loads faster and appears to be relatively trouble free. I love the new built-in app store. I've grown so fond of the iPhone app store that it seems like a fabulous idea to have the same thing available for my computer. I may never buy software in a shrink wrap box again.

We've got three new Dalmatians entering the rescue program this week. One is coming from Longview, one from Waco, and the third is here in town. All three new dogs are females, which is a good thing, since currently we only have males available. I need to get these new dogs photographed early next week so we can get them up on the website and find them homes. We haven't had this few dogs available to adopt for a long time. That's actually a good thing too, since it means we did a pretty good job of finding them homes last year.

This is the third or fourth day in a row that I've woken up to the sound of rain on the roof. The rain eventually stopped, but it was cold and dreary all day. The dogs knew it was the day they usually go to the dog park, but of course the park was closed again due to bad weather. They were completely disgusted by all the house cleaning going on and kept standing by the front door, waiting to go somewhere in the car. As soon as the floors were clean, we took them on a walk, so they could track mud in the house again.

I joined an association of local pet business owners this week. I never really think of my company as a pet related business, but I guess it is. I design websites for veterinarians. I photograph dogs and cats. I sit on the boards of rescue organizations. I'll probably fit right in with the groomers, dog biscuit bakers and day care providers who are the other members of this group. I still do some writing for the oil and gas industry too. Just enough so I can join their organizations as well.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 396

I came up with a ridiculously easy solution to my image transfer woes. I simply went to Fry's and bought a brand new external hard drive and backed up all my files again. It wasn't that my files were too huge to transfer, it was that my hard drives were too old to play nice with my new computer. I didn't realize just how unfriendly this new computer was to anything made before the days of Snow Leopard, but that was the problem. When I plugged the new external drive into the computer, all my image and movie files transferred flawlessly in just a few hours. It would have taken me months to transfer these files using the old hard drives.

I guess this means that my "state-of-the-art" disk arrays are ready to join the SyQuest drives, Zip drives, SCSI drives, and other forgotten technology that has been consigned to a dusty shelf in my storage warehouse. It's a shame all this stuff becomes obsolete so quickly. You barely have time to get it all paid for before it's time to move on too something newer and better.

I've got to make an effort to stay currant though. I've got no choice. My client's expectations keep rising. It's just my luck that just when the designers and graphic artists are finally starting to turn sour on Flash, veterinarians are beginning to discover it. I've noticed that my veterinary clients are increasingly starting to ask for those flashy, animated web things that you can only do with Flash. I may even have to take a couple of Flash development classes this year or risk losing business.

I did remember to fast this morning before my cholesterol screening. I thought there were going to be a ton of senior citizens ahead of me in line when I went to the health food store, but there wasn't a line at all. I guess the cold weather kept them all indoors. After I got my blood work done, I stopped by my veterinarian to drop off a few things. When I left the vet a few minutes later, I noticed a huge wreck with several ambulances at a nearby stoplight when my car had been just a few minutes before. If the blood tests had taken a few minutes longer, it would have been my car that got demolished by the idiot who ran the red light at fifty miles an hour. I was lucky today. I hope my luck continues.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 395

Ever since I decided to embrace social media, I've noticed that I have a a lot more messages to answer. I guess that's the nature of social media. It's social. People want to have lunch. They ask me to join things. There are questions that need to be answered. These are all good things, but they do take time. Today, I didn't even finish answering my e-mail until after lunch. By the time I got caught up with my regular daily website updates, it was almost time for supper.

At least it isn't as cold as it was last week. The dogs didn't need their coats when I walked them this morning and I was able to get my work done without spending the day wearing a big bulky sweater. The days are starting to get longer again too. As the sun set on our evening walk, I started to wonder about all the things I've been hearing on the news about astrological signs being out of date. Jeez, my whole identity is based on being a Gemini. I don't know if I could live with being a Taurus, but that's apparently what some people think I am now.

The dogs don't dwell on such things. I think all Dash has been thinking about lately is how to snatch my breakfast again. Ever since he ate my entire breakfast a few days ago while I was outside talking with the guy from the power company, he's been hovering around the table every morning, looking for an opportune moment to grab everything again.

The local health food store called today and said they were doing cholestrol screenings again this weekend. I think I'll go. I've had so much blood work done recently that I probably don't need any more tests, but I'm hooked on the health food store's low prices. I still don't see how they can offer tests for $25 that Labcorp charges my doctor $400 for. Somewhere hidden in the difference between these two prices is the solution to the whole health care mess.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 394

Today was full of good intentions. I called clients that I haven't talked to in a while. I continued my marathon effort to get all my photo files moved over to the new computer. I thought I was going to get some other stuff done as well, but I found out late in the day that we needed to get the Dalmatian Rescue Valentine's Day poster finished right away. D Magazine is apparently going to feature the photo event on their website and we need to get them a picture ASAP. I initially thought that photographing Dot wearing heart shaped glasses would look sweet, but the glasses we found were too big for her head and the picture just didn't look right. Plan B involved a goofy little headband that had two hearts on springs standing up like antennas. The picture is cute, but I still wish the heart shaped glasses would have worked.

I finally figured out how to get my company linked to my employment history on my Facebook page. For several months now, whenever you clicked on Sealander & Company on my profile it would take you to a weird, totally blank community page that I couldn't edit or delete. I had written Facebook about this several times but they never answered. I finally found some user forum on the Internet where other small business owners were having the same problem. Apparently none of these people had gotten an answer from Facebook either. Luckily, there was an answer, although it wasn't the one I expected. To fix the profile, you needed to download a third party add-on application for Firefox that let you view the code for the link that Facebook had established and then you could edit the link so it would point to the proper location. Seems like it would be a lot easier if Facebook just had a few customer service representatives like everybody else.

I'm beginning to understand why it has been such a problems to transfer all my image files. It took me ten years to get all these pictures into the computer. I guess it is a bit unreasonable to expect that I could get them back out again in just a day or two.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 393

We opened a new bag of food for the dogs this morning and were amazed to discover that it was full of worms and little black bugs. It was all fairly disgusting, so Janet cooked Dot and Dash some eggs instead and I took the bag back to the pet store. The pet store people initially seemed a bit sceptical that their premium, all natural dog food could be full of worms, but while I was talking to them, a worm crawled out of the bag and started slithering across the counter. The girl at the register screamed and the manager immediately offered to give me a new bag.

Now, I don't know what to do. It's so hard to find a diet for your pet that you can really trust. There are just about as many opinions about what dogs should eat as there are dogs. This particular brand was helping Dash's coat return to normal. It seemed nutritious without a lot of excess calories, but I really don't like the idea of opening a bag and having worms and bugs crawl out. Some of my friends say a raw diet is the answer, but I'm not sure about that either.

I had lunch with a friend for the second day in a row. For a solitary person like me, this constitutes a full social calendar. I'll probably eat lunch with the dogs for the rest of the month, but it was nice to catch up on things. The last time my friend Alan and I got together, he predicted that within a year I would have a Facebook page and a cell phone out of simple necessity. I didn't believe him then, but he was right. Alan was a little surprised that I had adapted to life in the fast lane so quickly, but what choice did I have? There's just no point in doing something new unless you are going to do it well.

FedEx finally delivered the software I need to complete the migration of my business over to the new computer. I'm ready to go now, although I still can't decide the best way to move all my video and image files. The files transfers seem to be the most painless and trouble-free when I burn the images to a DVD and transfer them that way. The only problem is that if I moved all the files this way, I would have to burn a hundred and fifty 4.7 GB DVD's. Maybe I don't need all these files anymore.

It didn't get above freezing today. I put two coats on each of the dogs when I walked them this morning, but they still didn't want to go outside. I wasn't that wild about going outside either.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 392

Although the day ended well, it certainly didn't get off to an auspicious start. I woke up with a clever new plan to transfer my huge image files over to my new computer. I'll spare you the geeky details, but I'd just started the file transfer process and was fixing breakfast when a guy from the power company unexpectedly shut off the power to the house. Of course, the computer, the external disc array with all the pictures, and everything else that was turned on in the house immediately died.

When I ran outside to find out what was going on, Dash immediately took advantage of the situation and ate my breakfast. I should have put the food on top of the refrigerator or in the microwave oven like I usually do, but I was in a hurry to catch the electric company guy before he disappeared. It turns out they were installing new electric meters with built-in WiFi so they wouldn't need meter readers anymore. The new meter automatically transmits how much electricity you are using back to the electric company in real time. This is exactly why the whole jobs situation isn't going to be resolved any time soon. It doesn't matter who controls the house or the senate. The reality of the situation is that companies not only don't want to hire new employees, they're actually bending over backwards to get rid of the ones they already have. These days just about everybody would much rather have a machine do the job than a person who expects health care and a 401K.

After the dogs quit barking and the house returned to normal, I went to have lunch with my friend Harry. Harry is the only person I know who has had a book on the New York Times best seller list. It's still a bit of a mystery to me how my friend made the transition from advertising copywriter to best selling parenting author, but I'm definitely impressed with his success. Harry now has eleven books in print. We used to talk about local advertising gossip when we got together. It's probably a sign of the times that today we traded iPhone apps and speculated about how to use Twitter to promote our businesses. A few years ago neither of us even knew what social media was. Now it's pretty clear that's it's going to shape our future.

My luddite historian sister thinks that things like e-mail and Facebook are tools of the devil and still expects me to send her hand-written letters. I think she's out of touch. Like it or not, Facebook has become the new neighborhood. I know lots of people who haven't even bothered to get to know their flesh and blood neighbors, but they couldn't imagine not checking their Facebook status every morning. It's a brave new world out there. I guess you either embrace it or get left behind.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 391

It was really cold outside today. Whenever it is really cold outside, it is also really cold inside. The large expanses of floor-to-ceiling single glazed windows in the house let heat excape almost as fast as the furnace can pump it out. I don't know what they were thinking in 1955 when the house was built, but it is clear that energy efficiency wasn't a big issue. I think that natural gas was so cheap back then that they just cranked the furnace up to 80 on cold days and let it run continuously. The original furnace was still in place when I first bought the house and I remember the air coming out of the vents was a lot hotter than it is today. Growing up, I remember really hot air coming out of my parent's furnace vents too. My modern, energy-efficient furnace is a wimp compared to those old furnaces.

Luckily, I have plenty of sweaters. I spent the day bundled in sweaters while the dogs napped on the bed under their own blankets. It certainly wasn't a day of giant accomplishments, but I did get my January invoices in the mail and got a couple of webcams back online for one of my clients. I'm trying to figure out the best way to transfer my photo files over to the new computer. Clearly, using the office WiFi network isn't a good solution. I tried to copy a single photo folder over the network to see how long the process was going to take and was astonished to see a little dialog box appear when the transfer started saying that all the files would be copied in approximately 48 hours. This is just one folder too. There are probably about three dozen folders of digital images to copy. Maybe I did pick the worst case scenario though. This particular folder was labeled "Dalmatians."

I already miss the short holiday workweeks we've been having. Somehow a four day week is always much nicer than the regular Monday thru Friday grind. I'd better get used to it though. None of my clients are going to be shutting down their offices again for a long, long time.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 390

It snowed today in Dallas. At least I could have sworn it snowed. When I was eating lunch I distinctly remember seeing big flakes falling and watching the backyard get covered with the white stuff. I went back to the office to update some websites after lunch and by the time I was finished and was getting ready to take the dogs on their evening walk, all the snow was gone. I can't believe it all melted so quickly, because it's still pretty cold outside. That's the way it is with snow in Dallas though. You've got to be pretty quick to catch it. There were lots of pictures of snow on Dallas Facebook pages today, but I don't think any of that snow is still around. It's just wet right now.

I had to get the standing water off the roof before it froze into a big sheet of ice this afternoon. While I was up on the roof, I noticed that rats or squirrels had managed to pry the heavy wire mesh off the tops of the standpipes. I sure hope that doesn't mean that animals have gotten into the plumbing pipes again. This had happened before and I hope it doesn't happen again. When it gets below freezing, mice and rats are attracted by the warm steam coming out of the standpipes and either crawl or fall into the plumbing system. Once you've seen a wet rat jump out of your toilet bowl, you get real nervous about using the toilet in cold weather. I thought I'd attached the heavy wire mesh covering the top of the standpipes securely enough so a Gorilla couldn't pry it off, but it's hard to defeat a determined rat. Hopefully, I got the protective covers back on in time.

Janet ditched her old flip phone and got an iPhone today. One by one, practally everyone I know has switched to using an iPhone. When we were at the wedding reception last night, there were iPhones everywhere. Young people had them. Old people had them. Everyone had them. Admittedly, I was late to the party myself, but I've already become a true believer. These phones are fabulous. It's incredibly useful to be able to carry your whole world around with you in your pocket. It kind of changes everything. No regrets about buying Apple stock when it was 88 dollars a share either.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 389

We went to a friend's wedding today. I used to go to a lot of weddings. Then a lot of people got divorced. Then some of these people got remarried again and had much simpler weddings. Now the weddings are mostly for people I originally remember as small children. It's amazing how quickly someone can go from having a birthday party at Chuckie Cheese to walking down the aisle.

These first weddings are the best. Everyone is young and full of dreams. You can tell by the look in their eyes that they still believe anything is possible. I wish this young couple the very best. Maybe they will be smarter and wiser than most of us. I don't know how much it will count in the grand scheme of things, but they certainly knew how to plan a reception. The reception was held at the Dallas Women's Museum. For years and years this building was a dusty, empty warehouse that was used to store equipment for the State Fair of Texas. Then it was transformed into one of the most dramatic interior spaces in the country. I've always thought this building was absolutely beautiful.

The building looked almost as radiant as the bride tonight. Instead of the traditional "This is your life" slideshow, the couple had their pictures displayed on the museum's giant video wall. Instead of a wedding cake there was a big pyramid of individual pastries that was shaped like a cake. It was all very edgy in a nice sort of way. I think Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum would have approved. Some things never change though. People still danced to songs like Louie Louie and Twist and Shout. I noticed that nobody was actually doing the Twist while Twist and Shout was playing however. Most of the people on the dance floor weren't even born when the song first appeared.

While we were driving home from the reception, we heard on the radio that it is supposed to snow tomorrow. That's hard to believe. It was 65 degrees outside today.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 388

Unlikely Animal Friends had its season premier tonight and my segment with the friendly goat, the Great Dane and the three legged dog finally aired. I'll have to admit that the goat story wasn't nearly as dramatic as the segment about the couple who had a hippopotamus living in their house with them, but I think it held it's own pretty well with the other stories on tonight's show. I was really pleased with how nicely everything turned out. I even got a screen credit at the end of the show. If you blinked, you wouldn't have seen it, because my name was only on a second or two, but it definitely was there. I'll watch this show again. It was really entertaining and Stevi, the producer, did a fabulous job of putting everything together.

I also went and talked with the recruiter who wants me to take the contract video production assignment. Nothing was decided, but we had a very nice initial meeting. We talked about money. We talked about working arrangements. I filled out a bunch of paperwork. Now that I know I'll be able to keep running my own company while I work on the assignment, this extended project seems more appealing. It would certainly help to even out my wildly fluxuating monthly cash flow. There'll probably have to be several more meetings before anything is decided, but this first step was encouraging. The best thing was that the recruiters really liked my work. Even if this production assignment doesn't work out, I think they might like to act as my agent. I've been looking for a new agent or rep anyway, so this definitely seems like a win-win situation at this point.

I wish the city hadn't moved trash pickup to just before sunrise on Friday mornings. I've almost missed getting my trash out to the street for two weeks in a row. Today, I wasn't even out of bed yet when I heard the truck. I quickly pulled on some pants and raced out after the truck. They didn't stop, of course, but as the truck disappeared in the distance, I heard one of the men standing on the back yell back at me "No worry man, this is just the recycling." I guess they saw that the container I was pushing ahead of me like a baby buggy wasn't one of the blue ones. I placed my container by the curb and a few minutes later the regular trash truck drove by.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 387

I got a call from a headhuter today asking if I'd be interested in a contract video production assignment for a major corporation in Dallas. When I get these types of calls, I initially get real excited. A contract job is often a lot longer than an individual project and could potentially be a great help in leveling out my fluxuating monthly cash flow. I agreed to meet with the recruiter tomorrow and talk further. "Oh, before you come in, could you go to our website and fill out a few forms," says the recruiter. No problem. So, I go to the website and discover that maybe there is a problem. Provide references from your last three employers says the website form. I started my company in 1990, so I haven't had an employer in a very long time. I don't think the last three ad agencies I worked for even exist anymore. I suspect some of my former supervisors are dead by now. I try to skip this section and move on, but I keep getting one of those "this field required" error message that wouldn't let me proceed unless I provided the three employer references.

Suddenly, the contract job isn't looking so good. It sounds like this company is looking for a new employee instead of a place to outsource their video production. I like my little company and it would take a really fat salary to pry me away from it. In today's tight job market, I don't think this employer with the contract job is going to try very hard to lure me over to their side. There are probably hundreds of out of work ad agency folks who would love to have this job. On the other hand, I've gotten jobs before by simply not caring whether I got an offer or not. Sometimes when you're facing a sea of desparate people, someone who simply doesn't care can stand out as the most confident candidate. We'll see what happens tomorrow. I'm not very interested in getting a W-2 form again and driving to work in the mornings. I would like to do some production work for these folks though. Maybe the iPad will work it's magic again.

I'm slowly but surely getting everything transfered over to the new computer. Apple certainly doesn't make this process easy, even for a person like me who has owned Apple computers since the floppy disc dark ages. The problem is that even though I have a recent version of OS 10.5.8 on my old computer, virtually none of my current software will run on the new computer. All the software on the new computer must be Intel compatible. Damn! I can't just transfer my applications over the network to the new computer. I've got to buy all new Intel versions instead. Maybe later this Spring this big upgrade effort will seem worthwhile. Right now it's all starting to feel like I've inadvertently opened Pandora's box.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 386

Today was a quiet day of preparation for the year ahead. I installed new software. I backed up old files. I got all the printers running again. I even finished a couple of retouching projects that I've been avoiding for weeks because they were so tedious I didn't want to do them at all. National Geographic finally found the missing forms I needed to sign in order to get paid. If you read these forms out loud, it would take longer than the entire length of the show I worked on. I sign a lot of these kind of forms. They all basically say the same thing. I agree to relinquish all rights to whatever I was working on until the end of time. It used to bother me to sign over the rights to my creative work, but I've come to realize that it's never wise to bite the hand that feeds you. Work is work. Anyway, nothing is stopping me from doing whatever I want on my own time.

I was looking through my closet today for a suit that was still in style. Now that business casual is de rigueur in offices large and small, about the only ocassion you get to wear a suit anymore are weddings and funerals. We're going to a friend's wedding this weekend, so I need to find a suitable suit. I must have really liked double-breasted suits at one point, because I found plenty of those. These suits were really popular from the early 1980's to the mid 1990's, but you seldom see anyone wearing one today. Too bad. I always liked the look of a double-breasted suit. I finally found a nice looking single-breasted Valentino suit that met Janet's approval. She always afraid I'll pull something out of my closet that looks like a Saturday Night Fever flashback. Not to worry. I don't think those clothes fit anymore.

Dash did great in training class tonight. Tom, our teacher, mentioned twice that he was really showing improvement. This almost never happens. Dash must have been been in a good mood. Or maybe he's been making his own New Year's resolutions. It would certainly be nice if Dash happened to make a resolution not to bark so much this year.

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Day 385

I'm trying to simplify. Today, when I was setting up categories for my new accounting program, I decided that groceries would suffice as a category for all my grocery shopping. In my old accounting program, there were a multitude of sub-categories for paper towels, laundry detergent, juice, vegetables and lord knows what. It took me forever to reconcile things because by the time my credit card bill arrived a month after I bought the groceries, I'd totally forgotten what I'd bought. For years I just made up things to put in these categories. The totals were correct, but who knows if I really bought paper towels or not. I don't know why I felt compelled to fill out all the sub-category boxes, because my accountant told me several times that he wasn't interested in how much I spent on juice or multi-vitamins. Well, all that's in the past now. From now on, when I got to the grocery store all my purchases are just going to get lumped together as groceries.

I overcomplicate my life in so many odd little ways. I save the boxes for most things I purchase and put them in the storage warehouse. I always thought that if we moved to another part of the country someday, it would be good to have the original boxes to pack things in. Over the years, I've put some things back in their boxes as I've retired them. The problem I'm having now is that I can't remember which boxes are full and which are empty. I need to throw away some boxes to make room for more stuff, but I'd hate to throw away a full box. Especially if it contains a vintage camera or something. I'm having to open and look through all the boxes, just to see if they are empty or not.

As part of my simplification campaign, I'm going to switch to Final Cut Pro for editing video projects. I probably should have done this several years ago. I've edited using Adobe Premier, Avid Media Composer and Media 100. For some reason I grew fond of Media 100 and kept using it long after it fell out of favor in the editing community. Nobody uses Media 100 anymore. Come to think of it, nobody even uses video tape anymore. It's been several years since anyone asked me to finish a project on video tape. All they want is a DVD now. Maybe I'll be able to retire the tape machines soon. That would certainly free up some additional space in the office.

I took Dash to get his antigen shot again today. His coat is looking great and he only needs the shot once every two weeks now. I hope he stays healthy. My vet has gone on maternity leave again. She won't be back until March.

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Day 384

I hope my accountant is reading this. He'll be very happy to know that I'm finally retiring my ancient accounting software. I'm probably the only person on the planet who is atill using MacMoney to run their business. This software is so old that when I begain using the application in 1988, I had to install it from a floppy disk. Ever since then, this simple, but reliable program has been keeping track of the good years and the bad. For 23 years MacMoney never crashed or lost any data. It's kind of a shame I finally have to ditch this old workhorse, but it only runs on OS 9 and I'll never be able to get rid of my old computer until I say good bye to the even older software that resides on it.

I went to the Apple Store this afternoon and bought the latest version of QuickBooks. If you're going to change accounting systems, it's best to do it in early January so you don't have to manually enter mountains of information. If you're thinking "why doesn't he just import all his old information," you've got to remember where the information is coming from. Absolutely nothing can import data from MacMoney.

It didn't really feel like a work day today, but it did feel like the holidays are over. We took the Christmas tree down and put the stockings away for another year. When I went to the Apple Store, the mall seemed empty compared to the crowds that packed the place last week. It's sad the Christmas season is over so quickly. Back to work! I did get a few requests for website changes today, but a lot of people are still on vacation. Things probably won't get busy again until next week.

Janet and I went out for burgers tonight. It's been ages since I've had a cheeseburger. A bacon cheeseburger, no less! It all felt kind of decadent. I certainly couldn't eat this way everyday, but it's nice to forget about calories and cholestrol every once in a while. Tomorrow, it's back to reality.

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Day 383

Around this time of year I'm always trying to think of new ways to make money that are actually enjoyable. There are plenty of ways to make money and there are plenty of things I enjoy. The difficulty had always been in combining the two. I've always had this fantasy of making my living as a songwriter. Seemed like it might work at certain points in my life. Hey, I'd written tons of advertising jingles. I knew people in Nashville. There was only one problem. I can't sing. This is kind of how it goes with my dream jobs. I always forget one critical element. I started a little greeting card company once. I designed some beautiful cards and had them printed. They were all square. I didn't realize at the time that the post office doesn't like non-standard sizes and was going to charge me double to mail my square greeting cards. I didn't sell many of these cards because it cost almost a dollar each to mail one.

Now I'm at it again. I keep thinking I ought to start a specialty advertising agency just for veterinarians. On some levels this makes a lot of sense. Half my current clients are veterinarians anyway. I love dogs and know a lot about veterinary medicine. What could go wrong? This might be a great idea if it weren't for the fact that I haven't met a veterinarian yet who actually believed in advertising. Most of them hate to advertise their business and some even think it is unprofessional. I still might give this a shot though. I do know a lot of vets and I guess you've got to play with the cards you're dealt.

I'm also curious to see whether I could produce professional videos using a DSLR still camera. A lot of the newer high-end digital still cameras can take fabulous looking HD video using an almost unlimited selection of lenses. The only problem is that these cameras don't capture sound very well. What if I went back to shooting double system sound like I did in the days when I was making movies with a 16mm film camera and a Nagra tape recorder? There are plenty of small timecode audio recorders available these days. I wonder if I could sync one to a DSLR camera? I might even be able to use my iPad as a timecode slate. Lord knows how many hours I'll waste this year fiddling with this idea. A smart person would find out if there was a market for this sort of thing before spending a lot of time perfecting the process. What fun would that be though?

We drove the dogs all the way up to Wagging Tail Dog Park this afternoon, only to discover that it was closed due to standing water. When Dot and Dash saw us turn around and head home without letting them out to play, they both started barking and whining. We had to look for an alternate dog park to keep our sanity. The dogs were happy enough when we stopped at a much shabbier looking dog park on the way home, but Janet and I both ended up with dog poop on our shoes.

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Day 382 - New Years Day

What do Dalmatian owners do on New Years Day? They go visit other Dalmatians, of course. We were invited to share New Years Day dinner with friends, and Dot and Dash got to go along to see their pals Willow and Jasper. All four dogs are Dalmatian Rescue alumni, but you would never guess that any of them had lived part of their lives on the streets. These are dogs who expect to be covered with a blanket when they go to sleep at night. Spoiled? Well, maybe. I just think they are normal, well adjusted house pets with their minds focused on getting a piece of the baked ham we were having for lunch.

Dot and Dash love exploring new places. They discovered new places to pee in our friend's back yard and tested the hospitality of their canine hosts by playing with Jasper and Willow's squeeky toys. It was surprising how quickly the dogs adapted to a new situation. Within a matter of minutes, they were all acting like they'd been together for years. I'll admit that bacon-wrapped scallops did help break the ice, but after that, all four were the best of friends. They spent the afternoon begging for table scraps and sniffing butts like any other normal dog.

While the dogs were being dogs, the people tried their hand at a game of Taboo. You'd think after all the years I've spent as a writer, I'd be great at word games. I'm terrible. I never remember the rules and end up doing things that lose my team a turn over and over again. I certainly didn't do my team any favors today as I was constantly blurting out clues that were already on the forbidden list. If you want me on your team for a word game, it is best to pick a game like scrabble where I don't have to talk. I don't do so well at games like Pictionary or Taboo that require you to describe something while the clock is ticking. The clock almost always runs out before I finish my thought.

I was real proud of the dogs today. It wasn't all that long ago that we thought we'd have to sedate Dash to take him anywhere more than a few blocks away from home. He made the trip to Flower Mound and back without anything traumatic happening though. He's really improving. There's still hope that we'll be able to take him to the beach someday. Dot and Willow are little divas who get along with anyone. Dash and Jasper both have "issues." It was very encouraging to see all four dogs get along so well. I think the year is off to a good start. Dinner was delicious. Everybody laughed. And nobody got bitten.

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Day 381

I don't know about you, but I'm actually looking forward to 2011. Blogging has re-energized me in an odd sort of way. The glass doesn't look half empty anymore. Maybe I'm just looking at it from a funny angle, but it's actually starting to look half full again. For the first time in quite a few years I feel like anything could happen in the year ahead.

This year was certainly full of surprises. I never thought I get an opportrunity to do cinematography for National Geographic. I never thought I'd be featured in a major ad campaign either. I lost my biggest client this year, but the business didn't go under. I got three brand new clients instead and life goes on. I saw a lot of doctors this year, but I don't have diabetes and I don't have cancer. I'm actually healthier than I thought I was. Dalmatian Rescue did such a good job of finding our dogs homes this year that we hardly have any Dalmatians left. That's a good thing.

At this point in time, I don't see any reason why next year can't be even better. We don't need another huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and we don't need another financial meltdown. We don't need anything big to happen at all. I'd just like a year where the dogs who need a home actually find one. I'd like a year where my roof didn't leak. I'd like to learn something new without forgetting something old. There aren't going to be any formal resolutions this year. Life throws you too many curves for resolutions. I'll definitely give 2011 my best shot though. I'll try not to be overly lazy and I'll do my best to keep the dogs safe and healthy. What more can you ask?

There's a bottle of champagne chilling in the refrigerator right now and I'm going to share a glass or two with Janet later this the evening. Tomorrow, I'll go right back to drinking bottled water, but I survived 2010 and that's definitely worth celebrating. I wish all of you a happy and prosperous New Year. See you next year.

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