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.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

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.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

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.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

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.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

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.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

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.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 380

There must be a 12-step program somewhere for people like me who have trouble throwing things away. It's painfully obvious that I need to start tossing some things in the office, but it's not nearly as easy as it should be. Today I needed to find a place for the new computer. You'd think I could just set it down somewhere, but every square inch of available real estate was already covered with something. There was literally no room for the computer in the entire office. I finally decided that since I hadn't recorded any songs in almost five years, some of the recording gear could go to the storage warehouse. This carved out enough desk space to set the computer down, but it also made me a little sad. Why haven't I written any new songs lately? Songwriting used to be one of my favorite things. I think there's a part of my brain that just like my storage room. I store away old interests in hopes that they will be rekindled sometay. You never know. I might have a song or two left in me.

It was unbelievably warm today for the end of December. When I walked the dogs this afternoon, I didn't even need a jacket. I don't know long this T-shirt weather is going to last, but I'm certainly enjoying it. The park is really pretty in an austere kind of way in December. All the native prairie grass has turned dry and golden. It almost looks like wheat waiting to be harvested. The leaves on the ground still have their Fall color and the dogs love to run through big piles of them. In another month or so, everything will start looking soggy and bedraggled, but right now there's a picture waiting to be taken around every corner.

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve. I used to always buy something for the company at the end of the year to take advantage of Section 179 expensing, but I think that's how the office got so cluttered. I don't think I'll buy anything tomorrow. Lowering your tax liability isn't quite as big of an issue when you aren't making any money.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 379

I have a confession to make. For almost a week there has been a large box sitting in the hallway containing a new computer. I've been very reluctant to open this box, because a box containing a new computer is just about as close to the proverbial Pandora's Box as you're going to get in this world. As soon as you open the box you can expect an avalanche of problems you never expected. All that being said, today I opened the box. Now, setting up a Macintosh is so easy my dogs could do it. The hard part is getting the terabyte of information from the old computer moved over to the new one. That's a little more difficult. I made the mistake of opening the Apple Migration Assistant and hitting go before giving serious thought to how big a terabyte actually is. Both the old and new computers seemed to totally freeze. I watched things for a couple of hours and absolutely nothing seemed to be happening. Then I did a Google search on my iPad and started reading horror stories about other people who had spent three days transferring their files, only to discover that the transfer didn't work. Unfortunately, the Migration Assistant doesn't have a cancel button once the transfer has started. To avoid having things tied up for three days or more, I had to unplug the computer right in the middle of the transfer, clean the mess I'd made off the hard drive and reinstall the system. As you might expect, I'm still writing the blog on the old computer.

Dog class didn't go very smoothly tonight either. Dot and Dash both started jumping the gun and coming to us before we called them during the recall excercises. Dash wanted to play with the other dogs and wouldn't listen to anything I said. It didn't rain this evening, but the ground was still very wet. At the end of the evening, everyone was muddy.

You may notice a new ad for a product called Twhistler over on the left hand column. I'm running this ad because I actually like the Twhistler. What it does is automate the entire process of using Twitter to drive traffic to your blog. You just create the messages you want to send and decide where they should link back to on your blog. Then the application takes care of the rest. Twhistler monitors your Tweets to determine which messages are the most popular and then tracks everything over time to determine the best time of day to send them. I've been experimenting with this to see if I can drive traffic to my business website and was amazed to see that within a week, visitors to some pages almost doubled. Pretty cool. Especially for someone who never really understood what to do with Twitter anyway.

The Dalmatians got another Paypal donation too. That's twice in two days. Thanks Richie!

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 378

It was a cold rainy day, so I did cold, rainy day things today. Mostly this involved cleaning mud off the dogs. When I let them outside, they would spend ten seconds racing to the back fence to bark at something only they could see on the other side. Then they would immediately come inside again where I would spend ten minutes cleaning the mud off their paws. This scenario would repeat every few hours.

I lingered over breakfast to make the day seem shorter, but that didn't work very well. It was still raining when I finished. Since work projects are more or less wrapped up for the year, I was forced to do things I try to avoid. I attacked a pile of receipts gathering dust on the side of my desk and balanced my checkbook. I folded dog blankets and finally got them to fit inside the dog blanket cabinet. I did a load of laundry. Real exciting stuff.

I noticed yesterday that someone finally donated to help the Dalmatians using the Paypal donation tool on the blog. A big thank you to Kimberly wherever you are! Some people told me this would never work on a blog, but I think a lot of things just take time. On a different note, people are also finally starting to purchase my photos on iStockphoto. These small rays of hope make me wonder if it might be time to try publishing the blog on Kindle. I know some bloggers are already doing this. Others think the idea is ridiculous. Personally, I can't imagine making any money publishing the blog on Kindle. Especially since Amazon take 70% of anything you might make. I might do it anyway though. It would be so cool to be sitting in an airport waiting for a plane someday and notice that someone was reading my blog on their Kindle.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 377

I'm not big on New Year's resolutions, but I really need to think more about establishing priorities next year. Somehow, everything I do is equally weighted. The little, trivial things get just as much attention as the big things. I'm not even sure I could recognize a big thing anymore. Today, I wasted an inordinate amount of time going to the grocery store just to buy a bottle of maple syrup after realizing all the syrup in the house was gone after I finished cooking my morning pancakes. I guess I could have just poured honey or molasses over the pancakes, but no...I had to have maple syrup.

Did I think about new ways to make money or identify any new customers to contact today? Not really. I did spend a lot of time wondering why my garbage can was the only can on the entire street waiting to be picked up when I took it out Friday morning. I always take the garbage out on Friday morning. Do the other neighbors know something I don't? When the city only picks up garbage up once a week, you really can't afford to miss garbage day. Now, I've got to keep an eye on the street in the mornings again to see when everybody else is putting their cans out. Why does the city have to keep changing garbage day?

I guess I did do something productive today. I finally got the new E-5 camera configured and running. This is a great camera and has some features that I can actually put to good use. With any luck at all I'll be able to pay for the thing with photography revenues before it becomes obsolete and needs to be replaced with an E-8 or a E-11 or whatever Olympus comes up with next.

If you guys want to find out who you ought to be friends with but probably aren't, just add the mayor of your community to your Facebook friend list. The mayor will always accept your friend request because...well, because the mayor is a politician. I tried this recently and noticed that all the movers and shakers in Dallas immediatelly started showing up on my "people you might know" list. Do I actually know any of these people? Nope. Will I ever meet any of these people? Not very likely. It is interesting to see how low on the food chain I actually am however.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 376

I woke up feeling sick this morning and still haven't returned to normal. I don't know whether I came down with a case of stomach flu or got food poisioning or what. Whatever intestinal bug that set up residence in my stomach overnight certainly has put a crimp in my plans for the weekend. I haven't felt like I could hold down food all day and only ate a small piece of toast for dinner.

Luckily, I don't get sick very often, but when I do, it is almost always around the holiday season. So much of my time is spent alone with Dot and Dash instead of with other people that I think I've lost some of my resistance to normal holiday germs. Maybe I picked up a cold doing gift wrapping on Christmas Eve, or maybe the butcher sneezed on the Crown Roast. Who knows. I just hope this passes quickly, because I'm going to be real hungry tomorrow if I still can't hold down food.

Janet and Ann took care of the Dalmatians up at K-9 University today while I went back to sleep under one of Dash's new Christmas blankets. The dogs are good little nurses. They both curled up next to me and kept me warm for most of the day. I did go up to Wagging Tail Dog Park later this afternoon with Janet and the dogs. I was getting tired of sitting under a blanket all day and thought some outdoor air would do me some good.

Hopefully, I'll feel a lot better tomorrow because it's back to work for me. I've got a lot of little projects that I need to get finished before the end of the year. I guess it wouldn't really hurt anything if I deleyed some of these projects until January, but it's just easier to get them done now. They're all on this year's budget's anyway, so I doubt that anyone wants to pay all over again next year.

It seems like it's been almost a month since I got my new Olympus E-5. I still haven't even taken it out of the box. Maybe that would be a good thing to start with tomorrow.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 375 - Christmas

It seemed like today was a non-stop eating extravaganza. After eating a big breakfast ourselves, we took the Dalmatian Rescue dogs up at K-9 University their Christmas dinner. Each of the dogs gets a fresh chicken breast on holidays after their walk. The dogs love this special Christmas treat, but they certainly don't linger over their meal. This year Alvin won the fastest eater award. It seemed like he finished his entire bowl of chicken before I could count to ten. We played with the dogs for a while after feeding and walking them and then went home to fix our own Christmas dinner.

Janet cooked a Crown Roast of Pork this year and the house smelled delicious while it was in the oven. We enjoyed our meal with a sweet potato casserole, green beans and cornbread stuffing. It really seemed more like Sunday today than Saturday. I think will be strange not to go back to work tomorrow, because it definitely feels like Sunday evening to me right now.

It was a lot colder today than I expected. I don't think the temperature got above 35 degrees all day. Dot and Dash wore their Winter coats on their evening walk and we all got a big surprise when we rounded a corner in the trail and saw a disheveled looking man sitting on a green folding chair up in a tree ahead of us. The man was talking on his cell phone as if it was the most natural thing in the world to be sitting high in a tree on Christmas Day in a green folding chair. On a cold day like this I would have thought that all the nuts would be home talking to their television sets, but clearly this guy had other ideas. I'm still not sure if the guy was a bird watcher or a serial killer. Dot certainly didn't like him though. As soon as she saw the guy in the tree, she started the high pitched, frantic barking she usually reserves for the garbage truck.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 374

For the past four or five years we've spent Christmas Eve afternoons doing gift wrapping at a Barnes & Noble store. The bookstore lets various charities do gift wrapping in their stores during the holiday season for donations. This has been a good fundraiser for Dalmatian Rescue. Chrismas Eve is usually the best day of the season for us, because the stores are filled with forlorn looking guys who have waited until the last possible minute to do their Christmas Shopping. Most of these guys would do anything to avoid wrapping their last minute gifts themselves and they often donate generously when they learn we'll do their wrapping for them. Sometimes, these guys will even ask if we would pick out their gifts for them as well. Today, we thought we could attract a little more attention to our gift wrapping station if we had some real Dalmatians with us. Dot & Dash were our ambassadors for the breed today and they did quite well working the crowd. Whenever Dash made his trademark squeaking noises, people would go "Aww..." and throw five dollars into our donation pot. Everyone thought Dot and Dash were cute, and the odd little noises Dash made were much more effective for soliciting donations than those brass bells the Salvation Army guys always ring.

Last Christmas Eve, we had a major snowstorm in Dallas. This year it only rained. It's definitely the kind of weather where you want to stay inside where it's warm. With the weather so bad in other parts of the country, I really wouldn't want to be flying anywhere today. I'm content to spend the holidays at home doing as little as possible. The dogs must feel the same way. They're both already asleep. Dot and Dash didn't really do all that much today, but you'd never know it by looking at them now. You'd think they'd both climbed Pike's Peak instead of standing around letting little kids pet them in a Barnes & Noble store.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 373

I did some last minute shopping at Northpark today and was amazed at the crowds. I've never seen the mall this packed with people before. The place was total gridlock. I was stuck in parking lot traffic for so long on the way home that it reminded me of the Dr. Who re-run I watched during breakfast this morning. This was the episode where the doctor encounters a group of people trapped on a motorway in New Earth. It often took the people on this motorway six years to reach the nearest exit. The Northpark parking lot was pretty much like this today. Either the recession hasn't hit Dallas yet, or people just don't care. Every time I've ventured out of the house this week, I've immediately become immersed in a beehive of buying activity. Some stores are so picked over that they look half empty.

As Christmas approaches I get fewer and fewer work-related calls. Some clients are on vacation and the rest are in the process of wrapping things up for the year. I'd be amazed if I get any new projects for the rest of the year. I should use these slow periods to do something fun, but I seldom do. Slow periods like this make me nervous. What if things don't pick up again after the first of the year? What if it stays slow like this forever? Business almost always does pick up again after New Year's Day, but I'm in a very unpredictable profession. You never really know.

Being nervous isn't entirely bad. It forces me to think about how to improve what I do. One thing I've already decided is that I'm going to do is upgrade my office computers and software. I didn't really think that getting a cell phone and an iPad this year would make any difference at all, but surprisingly it did. It just makes sense that I should take the next step. If I bring everything in the office up-to-date, maybe I'll see even more dramatic improvements in the year ahead. I hate to spend the small profit I made this year just buying new equipment, but as they always say: nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 372

I had another meeting with my financial advisor today. We agreed to buy some things and sell some things, but I still don't feel very comfortable. Five years ago, I felt like like I could retire whenever I felt like it. Then along came the financial meltdown of 2008. I lost so much between October of 2008 and the March lows off 2009 that I still haven't fully recovered. I'm left with a feeling somewhere between irritation and dispair. Let's just say I don't think about retirement much anymore. Sure, the market has gone up in recent months and I've even benefited from the current bullish sendiment. It's all pretty fragile though. One day of bad news can easily erase an entire month's worth of market gains. I still hope to get back to even one of these days, but I've got a long way to go. One or two of my friends have already gotten back to even. They were the ones smart enough to buy gold at the end of 2008.

The dogs were jumpy at training class tonight. There was one aggressive dog that went after some of the other dogs and this incident put the rest of the dogs in class on edge. Dash seemed scared the entire evening. I think most of you already know that Dot an Dash were rescued. We don't know much about their life prior to adopting them, but I'm convinced that Dash was abused at some point. On evenings like tonight when there is a lot of commotion and people start yelling at their dogs, Dash doesn't do very well. We made it through the evening though and now both dogs are happily asleep on their beds.

I've got to go back to the doctor tomorrow for a follow up visit to eveluate my recent surgery. I'm feeling pretty good this week, so I don't anticipate any surprises. I'd just as soon finish out the rest of the year without any more surprises at all. Dalmatian Rescue does gift wrapping at Barnes & Noble stores during the holidays to raise money for the dogs. Janet & I usually take the Christmas Eve shift, because we seldom have anything better to do. This year they want us to bring Dot and Dash to the store with us. That might be an afternoon full of surprises right there.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 371

Yay! Not only did I happen to see one of my Paypal ads on the Internet today, I also found out that Dalmatian Rescue was selected as one of the winning charities in the Paypal FundRazr contest. We got off to a slow start, so I didn't think we actually had a chance of winning. Everyone worked really hard to share the application though, and in the end our efforts paid off. The whole idea of a viral fundraising tool that you use on Facebook is pretty new to most charities, but I think it could be a game changer for many. Once you try it, you realize that there are whole new ways of reaching out to people. Hey, if you've got a charity or a cause that you care about, you ought to go take a look at the FundRazr application yourself. If this tool can raise money to help save Dalmatians. it could certainly help your church or charity as well.

With the year drawing to a close, it's time to start thinking about what I'm going to do in 2011. About this time last year, I decided that it was time for me to quit being such a Luddite and try my hand at social networking. I started this blog. I got myself a cell phone. I even joined Facebook. I don't think the verdict is in yet, but can certainly see the potential in this brave new world. Social networking tools are a super easy and efficient way to stay connected with friends and colleagues. I've already re-established a few business connections that might actually bring me some work in the year ahead. On the other hand, all this social networking can be incredibly time consuming. Once you've got a blog, you've got to keep feeding it with new content. It's very much like putting out your own little daily newspaper. Once you've got a bunch of Facebook friends, you can't just ignore them either. After all the blogging, the messaging and the posting to forums is done, there really isn't much time for anything else.

At any rate, we'll see how it goes. I do know that the house is a bit messier since I started blogging. Things on a time line, like client website updates and getting this post published before midnight always seem to take priority over things that can wait until tomorrow. Even keeping the large printer unclogged seems to have taken priority over basics like vacuuming the carpets and watering the plants. Maybe next year's goal should be to strike some sort of a balance. This is easier said than done, since I'm not a very balanced person. I usually either get obsessed by something or completely ignore it. We'll give it a shot though. Balance is good.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 370

I love an eclipse. I've actually seen quite a few of these events. I've seen one total eclipse of the sun, half a dozen partial eclipses of the sun and countless eclipses of the moon. I haven't seen anything like the eclipse that starts a little later this evening though, mostly because there hasn't been one quite like this for 372 years. Tonight a solstice and a total lunar eclipse coincide for the first time in a very long time. We watched the full moon rise on our evening walk and later tonight I'll go outside again and watch the eclipse itself as it starts around midnight.

For the first time in three months I finally remembered that bulky and brushy trash pickup is tomorrow morning and hauled the large pile of dead tree limbs that have been an eyesore in our backyard out to the street to be collected. It's hard for me to remember "big trash" day, because the city won't let you bring your trash out to the street while it's on your mind. You've got to wait for one specific day each month and if you forget, you wait again until the same day next month. I'm not good at this sort of thing, although I guess it would be easier if I just marked "Big Trash Day" on my appointment calendar, like everything else I tend to forget. At any rate, all the unsightly limbs are finally gone. Now, I just need to replace the unsightly dirt with some new grass.

I tried using my iPhone camera on my walk with Dot and Dash tonight for the first time. This is much easier than trying to take pictures with a heavy DSLR camera around my neck while the dogs are tugging and pulling me around the next bend in the road. I actually managed to get a few halfway decent pictures while the dogs were busy smelling critters in the bushes. I think I'll try this again. I've missed a huge number of great photos on our daily walks over the years, simply because I didn't have a camera with me. I'm really impressed with this little camera. Too bad I have no control over the shutter speed or aperture though. Maybe there's an app for that.

Little Lexi, the new Dalmatian I met last Sunday at K-9 University already has a home. Sometimes a dog just gets lucky. I can't remember a dog in our rescue program finding a home so quickly for quite a while. She still gets to be "Dalmatian of the Day" though and today seems like a good day.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 369

It's hard to believe that it was snowing in much of the country today. It was another pleasant Fall day in Dallas. The sky was clear and the temperature was seventy-five degrees. The trees in our backyard are finally starting to acquire the beautiful red and gold colors that people further North experienced several months ago. I know there are people in town who are wishing for snow right now, but I'm not one of them. I enjoy these mild Indian Summer days we've been having lately. Last year we did get some snow around this time of year and it was a huge mess. We tend to get ice storms here instead of snow and the roads become a demolition derby. It's bad enough driving in the rain here in Texas, but when the roads ice over, all bets are off. I remember returning from an evening Dalmatian Rescue event last Christmas during an ice storm and I thought I'd never make it home. I"ll leave the snow and ice to my Northern friends. Days like today are much more enjoyable.

There was a new Dalmatian up at K-9 University when we went to walk the dogs today. Her name is Lexi and she's cute as a button. I think this girl is already adopted and is just here temporarily until she goes to the vet and gets all her shots. When we get a small female in the rescue program, they tend to find a home almost immediately. The larger males aren't always so lucky. When you get to know these dogs, you start to wonder why some dogs get picked and others don't. Sometimes extremely nice, well behaved dogs get totally ignored. Other times dogs with serious behavior problems get picked right away. I guess the dog world isn't that different from the people world. Life isn't always fair.

It's hard to believe that Christmas is next week. The year will be over soon. It's always interesting to listen to the politicians and the TV commentators make their predictions about what 's going to happen in the year ahead. I don't think any of them even have a clue. Nobody can predict the future. I don't even know what's going to happen tomorrow.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day