Day 590

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

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

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

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 589

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

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

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

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

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 588

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

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

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

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

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 587

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

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

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

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

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 586

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

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

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

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

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 585

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

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

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

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

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 584

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

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

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

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

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 583

The water bill is going to be horrendous this month. I turn on the sprinklers and then I keep forgetting to turn them off again. Maybe it's because so many things turn themselves off automatically these days. The washing machine turns itself off when its done. The coffee maker turns itself off. Even the new television turns itself off when we go to sleep. Maybe I should get some more of those battery powered timers that attach to the faucet. I've bought them before and they all seem to last about two weeks. It really shouldn't be that hard to remember to turn the sprinklers off after a couple of hours.

I feel like I've doubled the size of one of the veterinary websites I manage today. When I started working for these folks, they had eight employees. Now they have over thirty. Since they like to feature employee bios on the site, I need to bring things up to date periodically. This isn't even the largest vet I work for either. Another veterinarian I work with has over fifty employees. If you are young and still considering a career path, you definitely ought to look into veterinary medicine. I'm sure there are unsuccessful vets somewhere, but I sure don't know any. If you don't think you've got what it takes to make it through vet school, just open a doggie day care center. These businesses are becoming increasingly popular too.

I couldn't figure out why my foursquare score kept going up and down. Then, someone told me today that the points are reset every week. I suddenly lost interest in the game. If the points aren't cumulative, I'll never get anywhere. I don't even leave the house all that much.

Trash day again. I just got back from hauling this week's accumulation of trash out to the street for pickup early tomorrow morning. Yeah, I know it's Friday tomorrow, but when the trash can is empty, I consider the week officially over.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 582

I took a big new batch of employee pictures at one of my clients offices today. I was really pleased that they are starting to take this a little more seriously. The staff actually put on makeup, did their hair and everything. Everyone looked terrific and I think for once, they will actually like their pictures. The employee photos came out nice, but I'm going to show you a picture I took looking through the fish tank into the lobby instead. The water was so clear that the fish look like they are flying through the air.

One of the animal rescue websites I manage wants to start replacing all the pictures of adoptable animals with videos. This is actually a very good idea, but all I can think of at the moment is that it's going to take me even longer than it used to to keep the site up to date. I'm running out of time. I tell all my clients that they can't afford to ignore social media, but I often wish I could ignore it myself. With over 4000 Twitter followers now, I find that there are @john_sealander messages to answer everyday. Certain clients are starting to send me messages on Facebook, instead of using e-mail, so I have to check that regularly too. And then there's Google+. Folks are already asking me to explain Google+ to them and I'm still asking other people to explain it to me.

After I wrote my watch article for the day, I finally got around to making the bed. I still haven't unpacked the camera gear from this morning's photo shoot, but that can wait until tomorrow. I'm hoping that I won't have to go anywhere at all for the rest of the week. I still have several major website updates to finish and I promised that I'd have everything online before the weekend.

If you guys see a +1 next to my name on the Internet, do me a favor and click on it. I don't know why yet, but it certainly couldn't hurt.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 581

I spent quite a while on the phone this morning explaining what a browser cache was to a client who kept insisting that I hadn't done the updates they had requested. I tried to explain that the updates were already there, but that they were looking at an old cached version of the site on their computers. Why do so many people, especially in office environments, never bother to clear their browser cache? I've had people looking at old cached versions of websites that were at least six months out of date, totally perplexed at why there was nothing new on their site. I wasn't very successful at explaining the concept of the browser caching this morning, but I did finally convince my client to click on the reload button at the top of the menu, so they could see what I added several days ago.

When I was visiting with my financial adviser yesterday, I remember asking if we should buy something and pick up some bargains, since the market was having such a bad day. He said it would probably go even lower tomorrow. Hmmm. The last time I looked, the market was up over 200 points today. Go figure.

Dogs don't have to worry about the market. All they have to worry about is going to the vet. Dash had a vet appointment this afternoon for his bi-weekly antigen shot. His skin bronzing condition is getting better again after we changed his medication. Several months ago, the bronzing returned right after we started on a new bottle of antigen medication. I kept telling my vet that this had to be a bad batch of antigen, since nothing else had changed in the dog's diet or environment. The vet kept defending the pharmaceutical folks however and said that something else was causing the bronzing to return. After another round of tests proved nothing, I asked if they would switch to a new bottle of antigen just to humor me. Within a week, Dash's condition began improving again. It was a bad batch of antigen.

I think I'm going to go through this whole scenario again when I visit my own doctor next week. My blood sugar levels became elevated after he had me start taking Simcor, which has a known history of raising blood sugar levels. I've drastically cut back on eating sweets, but I think it is the Simcor that is causing the problem. Unfortunately, the Doc really likes Simcor. He thinks it's great for increasing "good" cholesterol levels. I'm not wild about taking pills in general. The side effects of taking too many pills to control various ailments eventually killed my Mom. In her case, the cure was worse than the disease. I guess that is the question. If a pill can keep you from getting a heart attack, but ends up ruining your liver, have you really gained anything?

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 580

I did my regular quarterly re-balancing with my financial adviser today. This is a lot harder than it used to be. I've come to realize than in good markets, it's easy to feel like a financial genius. As they say, a rising tide raises all boats. In uncertain markets, it's equally easy to feel like the entire system is rigged against you. You've got to stay invested though and keep making decisions, because it's impossible to tell exactly when the tide is going to turn again.

Once, when I was in Las Vegas, I played the same nickel slot machine almost all day. Somehow, this gave me a better sense of probability and the random nature of events than almost anything I've done. I learned that if you keep doing anything long enough, you will eventually wind up as a winner. Good fortune is almost inevitably followed by misfortune however. Time passes, and then you win again. This cycle goes on and on until you run out of money. If you have enough money to keep the cycle going, you will probably get more. If you run short before the next big payout, the game is over. This is, in essence, why the rich get richer. They just have a higher chance of ending the game on a high note. It's not how long you play that's important. It's when you choose to quit. As soon as you hit the jackpot, you really should get out of the game.

What does this have to do with investing? Everything, actually. During the dot.com boom I noticed that I was doing a whole lot better in the market than I usually did. The normal ups and downs I was used to didn't seem to apply anymore. I wasn't smart enough to realize that this was a jackpot though, and I didn't get out. I lost a lot, but eventually made most of it back. Just before the 2008 crash, I once again started thinking that I was doing a lot better than the law of averages said I should be. The crash caught me by surprise, but it shouldn't have. The signs were everywhere. Hopefully, I've learned my lesson. I'm slowly and methodically building my base again. The next time something unexpectedly good happens, I'm not going to "follow the tape" or let my winnings ride. The next time I meet my target, I'm not going to get greedy. I'm just going to get up and walk away from the table.

It wasn't all about the market today. I made a bunch of website changes with a client who rarely changes anything. It's a good thing these folks don't change things very often. When they do, they like to tell me the changes they want over the phone while I'm making them simultaneously in Dreamweaver. I can't think of a better way to make typos and spelling errors if I tried. It's hard enough getting all the syntax right when I'm just sitting here sipping my morning cup of coffee. Having a conversation while I'm coding isn't something I'm very good at. I always try to please however, even though I suspect that there are still spelling errors in what I did this morning.

You guys who are still wondering what Google+ is all about ought to give it a try. I like it. Google+ is especially useful if you happen to have a Blogger blog. One of the first things I discovered when I set up my account was an editable folder containing every single picture that I had ever posted on my blog. That alone made the whole sign-up process worthwhile.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 579

Dot and Dash got a bath today, I got a few more people added to my Google+ circles, and we all made our regular pilgrimage to the Wagging Tail dog park. When we were getting in the car to go to the dog park, I noticed that there was water dripping from the underside of the carport roof again. Janet said it had rained last night, which kind of amazed me. The skies were clear and blue this morning and the dogs didn't even wake me up during the night, like they usually do when it rains. If it wasn't for the standing water on the roof, there was no proof that it rained at all.

Since it was kind of a slow day, I went ahead and wrote my monthly article for my writer's group, instead of waiting until the last day of the month like I usually do. The assignment this month was to write something about the subject of celebrations. I wrote about kids birthday parties. I'm amazed at how elaborate children's parties have become. It is not uncommon for kids in Dallas to have bounce houses and petting zoos at their birthday parties. When I was a kid, I was lucky if I got a slice of birthday cake.

I have a meeting with my financial adviser tomorrow. I'm sure that the discussion will center around whether an agreement will be reached on the debt ceiling before the August 2 deadline. It's such a crap shoot. Everyone says that the congress has to raise the debt ceiling, but I can easily imagine them digging in their heals and doing nothing. How do you plan for things like this? If you start shorting things in anticipation of a meltdown, it almost guarantees that everything will work out fine and the market will go up. I'm still long, but I hate the market these days. I watched this interview with legendary gambler Billy Walters tonight on 60 Minutes. Billy told Lara Logan that he was convinced Las Vegas is a much safer bet than Wall Street. I think he's right.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 578

I'm going to have to apologize for ignoring all those Farmville and Mafia Wars requests. Lately, I've been finding myself checking in compulsively on foursquare and will have to admit that this is just another online game, like CityVille and all the rest. Does it really matter if I'm mayor of the dog park? Probably not. Will I keep checking in? Probably so. Hey, a little mindless entertainment never hurt anyone.

I had to pick up some stuff at Sam's Club today and of course I couldn't find it. Why does this store keep moving things around all the time? Just as soon as I learn where a particular item is, they move it to another part of the store. This must be part of some diabolical plan to get people to buy more groceries by forcing them to push their buggy up and down every single aisle in search of peanut butter or paper towels. Maybe it's good marketing, but I find it irritating. Walmart and Sam's Club aren't places where I particularly want to linger. Do me a favor guys and just leave the strawberries where they were last week.

I've put together a little harness so Dot can wear the GoPro camera and help me make a movie from a dog's perspective. We'll wait till it's a bit cooler outside to try everything out though. It just wouldn't be right to have her wear this contraption while it's 105 outside. She's miserable enough in the heat as it is. You might wonder why Dash isn't going to wear the camera. There's an easy answer to that one. The camera would be destroyed in about five minutes.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 577

I finally bit the bullet and got my Google+ profile set up today. Jeez, just what I need...one more chunk of social media real estate to watch over. My friend Larry Brauner convinced me that Google+ was important for bloggers though, and Becky Kopprasch had a neat tutorial on her blog showing how to conveniently move all your Facebook friends over to Google+ without a whole lot of pain. Two hours later I was good to go. The whole process was a bit more difficult than I expected. Before you can even sign up for Google+ you have to be invited. Then, you have to figure out how to attract friends. This is probably the hard part, because the last thing most people need is a second Facebook. Before I got my account properly configured, I found myself setting set a Yahoo account and a G-mail account as well. Somewhere along the line, I added Klout and Spotify accounts too. Maybe it's worth the effort though, because Google+ is totally integrated with Google search and participation will probably increase your Google ranking. Basically I've got a Google+ account now for exactly the same reason that my blog is hosted on Blogger: Google owns the Internet and I'm just along for the ride.

The rest of the day was pretty normal. I answered client's questions. I wrote some articles. I made a few website updates. I finished up the day by going to the bank and picking up something for dinner at Central Market. This is what I do every Friday. I'm supposed to write something on the topic of celebration for my writers group this month. My mind is a blank. I think the whole concept of celebration has become a bit fuzzy to me. Life isn't bad, but I'm certainly not giddy with excitement.

Maybe I should just quit watching television. Is anyone else sick of listening to politicians argue about the debt ceiling? That's all that seems to be on television these days. I'm tired of all the posturing on both sides. Jeez guys, just shake hands, make some sort of deal and move on. That's what most of us want you to do. I've had to make plenty of compromises in my life. I expect the people I've elected to do the same thing.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 576

Busy day! As soon as the dogs and I got back from our morning walk, I drove over to the doctor's office to have my blood work done. Whenever I get my blood drawn, I think about that urban legend where Keith Richards gets his blood entirely replaced in Switzerland. It wasn't true, of course, but it would be nice if it were this easy to cure all your problems: just change out your blood like an oil change on a car and you're good to go.

On the way home, I stopped by Another Broken Egg to have breakfast like I often do after an early doctor's appointment. Over the long haul, I'm very good about eating exactly what I'm supposed to eat. Occasionally however, I like to do something symbolic to prove to myself that the doctors haven't completely taken over my life. Today, I had biscuits and gravy and a Belgian waffle. Very tasty.

The heat wave continues. The thermometer on the side of the house said 105 this afternoon and it certainly felt like it was that hot. It's almost a relief to sit in a dimly lit room in front of a computer on days like this. I divided my time between paying bills, writing watch articles and revising websites. I usually only pay bills twice a month, but lately I've been revising websites every day. Either people are looking at their sites a lot more often than they used to, or all my clients decided to make changes at the same time.

I got 2000 additional AAdvantage miles from American Airlines today, just by agreeing to let them send me more e-mail spam. It seemed like a good deal to me. I get so much junk e-mail already that I'll never even notice a little more.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 575

Jeez, it's hot! I was sipping a glass of lemonade on the porch while the dogs were sunning themselves and I saw a worm crawl out of the ground and immediately fry itself on a hot rock. The dogs and I proved that we were smarter than worms by going back inside where it was air conditioned.

At least there was a breeze at dog class tonight. Granted, it was a hot breeze, but it was definitely better than no breeze at all. Everyone brings water for their dogs now. Some people even bring spray bottles and spray their dogs down between excercises. You can tell the days are starting to get shorter now, because the shadows are getting long by the time class is finished. Shorter days don't necessarily mean cooler days though. It's probably going to be hot like this until the middle of September. Dash did real good on the long down exercise tonight. He likes this one because he can just lie down and do nothing for five minutes.

After I ordered a bunch of GoPro accessories over the Internet, I discovered that the Best Buy store just down the street carries all this stuff right here in town. I can never decide whether I like online shopping better than just going to a store. It used to be that things were almost universally cheaper online, but now more and more online retailers are charging sales tax, just like their brick and mortar counterparts. I guess online shopping is still easier, but if your job involves staring at a large computer screen all day, it nice to just get out of the house for a while and do some old fashioned shopping.

I scheduled my blood work for tomorrow morning. No breakfast for me. Well, no breakfast right away anyway. I think I'll go get the blood work done early and then go out for breakfast on the way home.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 574

I wrote a letter this morning to one of my relatives who still refuses to enter the electronic age. I think it's been several years since I actually wrote a letter on paper and took it to the post office. I wonder if non-bloggers understand how difficult it is to write a personal letter when you've already said everything you have to say. I used to write distant friends frequently, but I just don't see the point anymore. I wish everyone would just read the blog. That's really all there is anyway. If you blog for a long enough period of time, you come to realize that every thought you've ever had in your life will eventually wind up as a post. I keep telling people that everything they need to know is here, but there are still some folks who seem to think a vague, hand scrawled note in illegible handwriting is more personal.

I was going to learn how to use the GoPro camera today, but every time I picked up the instruction manual, I got a call from a client with a problem that needed to be fixed immediately. I did figure out how to put the battery in the camera and set the internal clock, but that was about it. The rest of the day was spent changing prices on websites, adding missing links, and printing promotional posters. Maybe tomorrow I'll try out the camera. It is amazingly small and light. I could probably even attach it to Dash's collar.

It's time for new blood work again. I stopped by my doctor just to make sure, and just like I expected, this was something I should have done last month. I doubt that much has changed from June to July, but I'll go ahead and make an appointment so I won't end up being three months late. I need to be fasting before these tests, so I need to pick a day when I'm not particularly hungry. You probably know by now that I hate to miss breakfast.

I got the electric bill today. It was twice as much as I paid in May. I really can't complain though. This is Texas in July. As long as the air conditioner keeps pumping out cool air, I'll be a happy camper.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 573

My little GoPro camera arrived today. This was one of those "signature required" deliveries that I always hate. No matter what I do, I always seem to miss the FedEx and UPS trucks. I rearranged my entire schedule today, so I would be sure to be here when the UPS guy arrived and I still managed to miss the delivery. By 6 PM, I was still waiting and the dogs were definitely tired of waiting. I finally gave up and leashed the dogs up for their evening walk. As we were walking by the neighbors house, one of the neighbor boys came out and said he had a package for me. I had been home all day, and still UPS decided to deliver the package to my neighbor instead. Oh, well. At least I got the package.

I stayed busy working on the design for the Dalmatian Rescue Casino Party poster and writing another watch article. While I was writing, I also burned a bunch of CD's for all the kids in the picture I shot last week. I think I burned a CD for everybody except the snake. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that all the kids had a computer and wanted a CD of their own. Just about everybody has a computer and a cell phone these days. It probably won't be long before you'll be issued these sorts of things at birth.

I got a call from one of the networking breakfast guys this afternoon who said he had a lead for me. Wow. I'm not even a member of the group yet. It would certainly be nice if this whole networking idea actually works. I think I'm going to need to be able to provide leads for the other guys too. Not a problem. Hey, if you need a veterinarian, a watch repairman, or someone to get rid of bees, I've got plenty of leads.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 572

It was so hot today that Dot was worn out before she even learned about her new photo assignment. She's a trooper though and dutifully posed as a roulette dealer for a new Dalmatian Rescue poster promoting the next Casino Party.

Earlier in the day, both dogs were eager to go to the dog park. They've both learned that this is what we do on Sunday now. Once we arrived at the park, they raced around for about thirty seconds and then proceeded to look for a shady patch of dirt where they could take a nap. It would have been easy enough to find a shady patch of dirt in our own back yard, but they seem to enjoy doing new things.

There weren't many new things on the agenda for me today. It was time to mow the grass again and the plants definitely needed watering. The heat makes everything seem more difficult than it actually is. I really didn't do all that much today, but by the end of the day it felt like I'd put in a full days work. I was so tired by the time I finished photographing Dot, that when I went to look at the pictures, I mistakenly stuck the camera's memory card into the computer's CD slot. Yikes! Don't ever do this! I thought I'd ruined the computer for a while, but I was finally able to coax the SDHD memory card out of the CD slot with a very thin pair of watch repair tweezers.

Next week looks busy. I guess busy is good. It's always nice to have enough money to pay the bills. I'm starting to think it might be nice to have a vacation too. This heat is really starting to get to me.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 571

When I arrived for my photo shoot today, I was greeted by six snakes, a rather large iguana, a dog, a cat, a rabbit, a pig, five children and a duck. There were obviously plenty of animals to go around, but some got eliminated almost immediately. The pig didn't even want to be in the same room as the snakes. The cat got eliminated because one of the boys insisted on holding a snake. Four snakes got put back in their bags because six snakes on the set were way too many to deal with. The smallest girl was fearless. She wanted to hold the largest snake and started waving it around, saying "Mommy, look at me, I'm the amazing snake girl." There was a moment of alarm when the boy with the other snake announced, "Mommy, my snake bit me." The vets in the room examined the wound, pronounced it harmless and on we went. After about 100 shots, I could tell the animals were getting restless and we called it a day. Not your average childrens' portrait to say the least, but I think we got some real cute shots.

By the time I got all my equipment packed up and put away, the day was practically over. There was just enough time to run to the grocery store and take the dogs on their evening walk. I'm not as worried about the large snake I saw near the yard the other day. I tried to describe it to one of the snake wranglers at the photo shoot and he said it was probably a Texas Rat Snake. These snakes are ill tempered and will strike if you get too close, but are basically harmless. The snake guy said that if a Rat Snake bit you, it probably wouldn't even break the skin.

Maybe I'll do a little yard work tomorrow. It felt cooler today and sure enough it was. The temperature only got up to 98 degrees.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day