Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Day 350

Here's how I get behind on things. I typically start my day by returning calls and e-mails, mentally crossing each call off my "to do" list as I dial the number. Mission accomplished? Well, not really. I tend to forget that very few of these calls are actually answered by a real person. They are just messages dropped into the black hole of voice mail. I haven't really accomplished anything at all because I haven't reached anyone. Weeks later, the same person will call again with the same question. Usually they've forgotten all about their earlier call and so have I. It's kind of a miracle that anything ever gets resolved at all. I do get lucky sometimes though, and someone actually answers the phone.

Today was definitely a phone tag kind of day. I didn't get through to many people and the few who did pick up the phone must have eaten too much turkey for Thanksgiving because I didn't seem to make sense to any of them. Some days are like this. There's a fair chance that by this time tomorrow everything will make sense again.

Some of you may remember my big adventure with the CAT Scan machine yesterday. Well the verdict is in. I have bladder stones. Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but it certainly could have been worse. I'll need to have minor surgery later this month so they can zap the stones with some kind of laser device. Don't even ask how they get the laser gizmo inside of me. I don't want to talk about it.

I'm overdue for a haircut again, so I made an appointment to see Betty tomorrow. I'm sure while I'm at Northpark an invisible force will suck me inside the Apple store and force me to buy even more stuff that I don't really need.

Dalmatian of the Day

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Monday, November 29, 2010

Day 349

I had to see a new doctor today. I hate to add additional doctors to the growing list of physicians I already see, because it means I have to sit in somebody's lobby for forty-five minutes filling out page-after-page of new patient paper work. It seems like most doctors still haven't entered the information age. They still keep floor-to-ceiling file folders full of paper. Wouldn't it be easier to just fill out this information once and store it in the cloud somewhere where all the doctors could use it? It makes sense to me anyway.

Part of today's exam involved getting a CAT Scan. CT Scans are much easier for me than getting an MRI done. Getting placed inside one of those MRI machines is somewhat like being placed in a coffin. They're incredibly loud too. With a CAT Scan, they just slide your body through a big ring. It's all very Sci-Fi with lots of lights and rotating gizmos. The whole experience leaves you feeling like you ought to be teleported to another planet or something when you go through the ring. I'm always kind of disappointed that I end up in the same little room where I started. These days I always ask the nurse to burn me a disc of the scans. You never know when an image of my brain or some other body part is exactly what I'm looking for to illustrate the blog.

Cyber Monday came and went without me buying anything at all. When did Cyber Monday get to be such a big deal anyway? I'm pretty sure that if I got this huge urge to buy a computer tomorrow, I could find exactly the same sort of deals that retailers were touting today. And before I forget... I knew this would happen. I haven't even been on Facebook a month yet and I've already been "unfriended." Oh well...easy come, easy go.

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Sunday, November 28, 2010

Day 348

I don't know where the holiday went. The past four days have zipped by so fast that I wish I could just rewind the entire week and play it again at a slower, more relaxed speed. I certainly didn't accomplish very much, with the possible exception of gaining some extra pounds I didn't need. The dogs had fun though. All four days were like Sunday for them. There were a lot of walks and trips to the dog park. Dash even met some new friends today.

When we went up to K-9 University this morning we met the couple who recently adopted Chase. They had driven here from Arizona to pick him up. I think the dogs know when they are going to their forever home. They always act more excited than usual and never fail to jump right into their new owner's car as if this was something they did everyday. Chase's new family was equally excited about him. They brought him a new leash and collar and plenty of dog treats. They even baked a cake for the Dalmatian Rescue volunteers. It's been a good month for rescue. Yesterday, the goat went to his new home. Today it was Chase's turn. Who knows. Maybe by Christmas, we'll get them all adopted.

I feel like buying something on Cyber Monday. Too bad Apple doesn't believe in sales. I could probably get a Dell for half price tomorrow, but I don't think I've ever gotten a discount on anything that Apple makes. I always pay full price and usually have to stand in line or put my name on a waiting list just to be able to buy anything at all. Sale or no sale, it probably is time for a new computer though. When you can download files faster on your phone than you can on your main work computer, then it might be time to consider something new.

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Saturday, November 27, 2010

Day 347

Since I didn't need to print any posters for clients this week, I decided to just make one up today and print a few to keep the printer from clogging. This is Roxy, one of my favorite Dalmatians. Her owners have taken her to just about every holiday photo shoot I've done so far and I always enjoy photographing her.

After I made sure the printer was working properly, I went over to East Lake Pet Orphanage to say good-bye to the goat. Officially, the goat and his friends left the building last week, but unofficially the famous animal trio actually went to their new home today. The media just can't get enough of this story. I thought the goat's departure today would be a quiet event since it had already been announced at a big celebration earlier this month. I was wrong. When I arrived at the building, there were two television news crews covering every bleat the goat made.

I was wrong about Facebook too. After years of telling people that I had no interest in Facebook, I am a little chagrined to admit that I've already become quite fond of it. I think I understand now why Facebook is so popular. You get this nice, fuzzy feeling of being connected to other people without ever having to do anything with them. Instead of going through the agony of rescheduling lunch week-after-week, just so you can say hello to someone you used to work with, you can just go to their Facebook page and click on a few Like buttons instead. Facebook is definitely friendship for lazy people. I'm discovering there are several kinds of Facebook users as well. There is the kind who agonizes over whether they know you well enough to let you into their circle of friends. And then there is the other kind, who routinely becomes friends with everything from traffic signs to dead cats. I probably fall into the latter category. Hey, if I can remember your name, you're a friend of mine.

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Friday, November 26, 2010

Day 346

Days like this confuse me. Was it a holiday or not? I'm still not sure. We slept in late, so the day started out like a holiday. On the other hand, Janet was away most of the day shopping the sales, so it seemed like a normal day with me and the dogs. We went up to visit the rescue dogs again which is something we normally only do on Sundays, but I still had website updates to finish, so that made it a pretty typical working Friday. The weather was equally confusing. It was quite nice outside around lunchtime, but late in the day another cold front blew through and the temperature dropped twenty degrees in just a few hours.

I didn't go anywhere near a shopping mall today. When you have to spend more time looking for a parking place than you'll actually spend in the stores, it's just not worth it. I think I'm going to do most of my shopping online this year anyway. It's so easy to just click on a few things in a browser window and wait for the FedEx truck to show up a few days later. I'm beginning to wonder why anyone even bothers to go to a brick and morter store anymore. I used to just by books at Amazon.com, but now I feel comfortable buying just about anything online. I'll admit I still have more success buying shoes in person, but I bet even that will change soon enough. Pretty soon I'm sure there'll be an app for the iPad where you just put your foot on the screen and it will automatically find you a perfect fitting shoe.

This has been a good month for the animal rescue groups I work with. Not only have Mow, the goat and his two dog friends found a home, but several dogs in the Dalmatian Rescue program found their forever homes this month as well. There are people interested in looking at our remaining dogs too. There's an outside change that all the dogs we currently have might be able to find a home by Christmas. That would be a nice Christmas present for everyone.

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Thursday, November 25, 2010

Day 345 - Thanksgiving

It was an enjoyable day. I ate too much. I spent a lot of time playing with the dogs. I'll probably go to bed early. The whole day was lazy and relaxed. Isn't that the way Thanksgiving should be? We went out for a special holiday brunch at The Mercury Grill. We'd been wanting to try this restaurant for a while now, so this was a good time. The menu was traditional Thanksgiving fare with some clever surprises. I thought the cheesy jalapeƱo grits were delicious. I've never been a huge fan of turkey, so I had the prime rib instead. The entire meal was delicious and the waiters didn't hurry us along at all, which is often the case when eating out on holidays. Some people think it is a sacrilege not to have a home cooked meal with the family on Thanksgiving, but we've enjoyed eating out on holidays for years now. It's much more relaxed.

Alvin, Duke, Ranger and Chase did get a home cooked meal however. We took each of them a boiled chicken breast for dinner this afternoon and then spent some extra time playing ball with them. The kennel is closed on holidays, so the rescue dogs don't get much attention if we don't go and visit them. They love the attention and walking dogs who have been cooped up in their kennels all day is good way to walk off the effects of eating too much. Feeding the rescue dogs their Thanksgiving dinner has become a well established tradition with us. I can't imagine this day without the Dalmatians anymore.

I'm certainly not the most appreciative person in the world, but I've got a lot to be thankful for. I'm thankful that Janet and I are still together after all these years. I don't know how she puts up with me, but I'm glad she does. I'm thankful that dogs have become such a big part of my life. Before I got a dog, I was your typical elitist art gallery snob. My living room furniture was arranged perfectly but my priorities were all out of whack. Dog have a way of putting your life back in perspective. The house is a mess now, but I smile more. I'm thankful that I'm still busy and working too. I'm no longer a young trendsetter living on the cutting edge of everything, but I still command a small amount of respect from the customers I serve. Ocassionally, I surprise myself by spitting out the kind of innovative and original ideas a twenty something would be proud of. I'll probably never be as appreciative as I should be, but on days like today, I'll be the first to admit that life is good.

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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Day 344

Not many people showed up for our dog training class this evening. It looked like half the class was already on the way to grandmother's house for Thanksgiving. Nights like these give Dash his best opportunity to win a ribbon. It wasn't our night however. Even with relatively few dogs to compete against, Dash still got eliminated early. It was certainly an enjoyable evening though. The weather was so nice that it's hard to believe that temperatures are supposed to dip below freezing tomorrow. That's Texas for you. It can be 80 degrees one day and 30 the next.

My client seemed very pleased with the elaborate retouching job I did yesterday. I've got to find some software to at least semi-automate this process though. The way I do things now is to blow the image up really huge in Photoshop and then change things a few pixels at a time using the cloning tool. I've gotten to where I can create very realistic scene substitutions, but it takes me forever.

I'm looking forward to having a four day weekend. It's been so busy this Fall that there has been very little time to relax. I'm sure we'll eat too much tomorrow. I'm equally sure we'll spend a lot of time with the rescue dogs at K-9 University. That's what we do every Thanksgiving.

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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Day 343

Today was one of those days when I found it difficult to break away from the breakfast pancakes and Dr. Who reruns to get down to the business of earning a little money. The work wasn't all that difficult today; it was just tedious. I had to strip the background out of several photos and then composite them with a new and hopefully better background. This kind of thing is easy if you're smart enough to shoot your subject on green screen in the first place. No such luck this time. I had to take out a very busy background without ruining the hair and other details in my subjects. I'm no expert at compositing, but I'm not one to turn down work either, so I gave it my best shot. This is how you learn things anyway. I"ve learned most of what I know from doing things I didn't particularly enjoy.

It dawned on me today that I haven't written a letter to anyone in a very long time. I used to write letters to friends all the time, but since I started the blog I'm finding that I don't have very much to say that I haven't already told the entire world. It seems pointless to write a letter when all I'm doing is repeating yesterday's blog post. I wonder if any other regular bloggers feel this way? I'm beginning to wish that some of my distant friends had blogs too. It's such a nice and tidy way to keep up with what someone is doing. When I did write lots of letters to friends, I would get in trouble from time-to-time for cutting and pasting pieces of one person's letter and then inserting it in another letter to save time. People seem to hate this. Especially when you forget to change the names. With a daily blog, I can write one very nice letter and then just forget about it. I wish everyone who wanted to keep in touch would just follow the blog and then I wouldn't have to feel guilty about never writing letters anymore. Who knows? Maybe nobody writes letters these days anyway. All I get in the mail are bills and catalogs.

If it gets any warmer outside, I'm going to have to turn on the air conditioner again. I can't believe that it's almost Thanksgiving and it was eighty degrees outside today. It's a mini heat wave. I'm ready for the cold, but I haven't turned on the furnace since Marty fixed it a week or so ago. I remember we had snow on Thanksgiving a few years ago. Somehow, I don't think that's going to happen this year.

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Monday, November 22, 2010

Day 342 - November 22

I always try stop by and visit Dealey Plaza on November 22. Aside from paying my respects to perhaps the last president who was ever able to unite the country on anything, it is always fascinating to see who will show up. When I first moved to Dallas, there were still quite a few eyewitnesses who would stop by and tell their side of the story. Most of the eyewitnesses have died unfortunately. In recent years, you are just as likely to talk to people who think they were abducted by aliens. Dealey Plaza has become a Mecca for every type of conspiracy theorist you can imagine.

I certainly wasn't disappointed today. I met a guy who told me he was going to faithfully recreate the famous Zapruder film using one of the last remaining Bell and Howell Zoomatic cameras in existence and a roll of the same type of 16mm Kodachrome film that Abraham Zapruder used himself. He said he had to finish his project this year because the last lab in the world that would process Kodachrome film was shutting down. His goal was to see if modern film processing techniques would reveal details that were invisible in 1963. The filmmaker seemed to have thought out his project in meticulous detail. There was only one little fly in the ointment. Kennedy wasn't there today.

I've written about Dealey Plaza before and I'm sure I'll visit the place again in years to come. This annual town hall meeting of lunatics is as close to pure Americana as I've ever been able to find. This year there was even a huge yellow banner on the Grassy Knoll, announcing to the world that the small hill behind the Texas Book Depository was indeed the infamous Grassy Knoll. As if everyone didn't know already.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. I took some pictures at a client's office. I returned phone calls and made a few doctor's appointments. I even learned something new about Facebook. While I was at Dealey Plaza, I tried out Facebook's "location" tab for the first time. I never really knew what this feature was for. When my iPhone identified Dealey Plaza as my location and I clicked "OK to Share" something surprising happened. Ten or twelve Facebook profile pictures immediately appeared on my screen. These were other people who happened to be in Dealey Plaza using Facebook on their laptop or smart phone at the same time I was. This just blew me away. It wasn't surprising that everyone had a camera with them. It was a bit surprising that dozens of people standing right next to me were beaming pictures to their own Facebook pages at the same time I was. I guess I could chat with these people by clicking on their picture. Why would I do that though? I was standing right next to them.

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Sunday, November 21, 2010

Day 341

Everything is back to normal again. All the photo equipment and unsold merchandise from the Dalmatian Rescue store is back in the storage warehouse until our next event. The house is semi-livable and the dogs are relieved to see that it's just another dog day Sunday. Ranger, the dog I picked up last week, is finished with his initial veterinary exams and is back up with the other Dalmatians at K-9 University. While we were walking the rescue dogs this morning, I took some additional pictures of him, so I could get him up on the website and find him a home.

After lunch, our own Dalmatians got their regular Sunday outing to the Wagging Tail Dog Park. Unlike last week, time the park was open this time and both dogs had a great time. Dash is finally starting to regain the confidence he was showing last year at Unleashed. He's getting better about riding in the car as well. Progress is a slow journey with Dash, but eventually he gets there.

I'm glad we're headed into a short week. I've been so busy this Fall with work and multiple rescue events that I'm looking forward to a few days of doing as little as possible. We don't entertain on Thanksgiving anymore and use the day as an excuse to discover a new restaurant instead. After going out for a tasty Thanksgiving brunch, we always drive up and give the Dalmatian Rescue dogs their holiday treat. Janet boils a chicken breast for each of the dogs and they get to eat this instead of their normal kibble. You haven't seen a happy dog until you've seen a stray with a fresh chicken breast for dinner. People ask me sometimes if I miss seeing family on holidays. Not really. The dogs have become my family.

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Saturday, November 20, 2010

Day 340

I'd hate to be a shopping mall Santa. Shooting Christmas pet pictures can make the most strenuous yard work seem like a walk in the park. I just take the pictures too. The real hard job is being Santa. Santa gets peed om, scratched and occasionally bitten. The Santa suit becomes unbearably hot after sitting on the set under quartz lights for hours on end. For me, it's just hard on my knees. One minute I'm down on the floor shooting a Chihuahua and the next minute I'm dealing with a pair of Great Danes you could ride like a pony. People are picky about their pet pictures too. The ears have to be a certain way, and nobody seems l to like their dog's tongue hanging out. All in all, I think we did pretty well today. We were busy from 9:30 AM until after 4 PM and I think Dalmatian Rescue made enough from the event to pay for knee surgery for one of our rescue dogs.

The event at Camp Bow Wow today was the first of three we have scheduled for the holidays. Sometime before Christmas we have another casino party too. I'm tired already and it isn't even Thanksgiving yet. I kind of wish all the events were back-to-back, so I wouldn't have to take all the equipment back to the storage warehouse tomorrow. With the events spaced two weeks apart however, there's really no choice other than packing things up and then unpacking everything again two weeks later.

I'm trying to decide whether to send out Christmas cards this year. Since I'm a photographer, I used to do elaborate photo cards every year. Nobody seems to send printed cards through the mail anymore. Last year we got very few. People still send holiday greetings, but mostly it's those animated e-mail cards from Smilebox. I guess I still like the printed cards better, but doing another photo card would just be adding one more thing to an already long to-do list. We'll see how much energy I have left after Thanksgiving.

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Friday, November 19, 2010

Day 339

It was already dark before I found the time to run to Central Market and pick up something for dinner. I was hungry too, because today was such a madhouse that I skipped breakfast and lunch. Even though I got off to an early start with a sunrise walk for Dot and Dash, I'm still not finished with everything I need to do. Tomorrow is the first of three Santa Paws photo shoots for Dalmatian Rescue and I've got to finish packing three large duffel bags filled with backdrops and lighting gear before I go to bed.

I did manage to get quite a bit of website work taken care of today. I had a meeting with my watchmaker client this morning and was also able to get one of Janet's watches fixed while I was there. The watchmaker's website will be the last of my new projects to launch this year and hopefully well be able to bring everything online within the next three weeks. Another client wanted me to change the look of their website Google map and I don't think I did a very good job of explaining that I have no control over what Google or Bing choose to display on these dynamic maps. Ironically, we may have to go back to an old fashioned static JPEG map to achieve what this client is wanting.

In between various website updates, I finally figured out how to publish the Facebook donation tool for Dalmatian Rescue. In theory, this shareable, viral donation application is a fabulous way to raise money for any charity. In practice, I don't think I have enough friends on Facebook to take anything viral in the near future. I'm going to give it a try though, because Palpal is giving away $500 to the first twenty charities who can figure out effective ways to use this new app before December 15. So, if any of you happen to have received the Facebook RundRazr on your wall, it's not spam. Hopefully, it will become one more way that people can help an abandoned Dalmatian find a loving permanent home.

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Thursday, November 18, 2010

Day 338

I saw a little lizard on the back porch when I was taking the trash out today. It's probably the last lizard I'll see this year. It's getting colder now. The lizards and snakes are going into hibernation and the coyotes are becoming more active. I enjoy the slow rhythm of seasonal changes. Now that I'm walking the dogs around sunset, I've noticed that the sun sets a little further to the south each day. There are a few days each year when the sun sets directly behind the city skyline on the horizon. I've always wanted to get a picture of this. Maybe this year I will.

I had another doctor's appointment today. It's weird having your doctor as a client. It's the first time I've ever had a customer of mine give me a prostate exam anyway. When I'm at the doctor, the conversation goes back and forth between the current state of my health and the doctor's marketing plans. I actually like having everyone I know as a client. Life is simpler this way. When everyone is a client, there is always a clear reason for getting together and of course it's nice getting paid for idle chit-chat. I've tried to get various repair people to become clients, but usually they just have their kids do their websites for them. I've tried to get the Land Rover dealer to become a client too, but Land Rover is too big and corporate. Veterinarians seem to be the sweet spot in the middle. All my veterinarians are clients now.

I think I've finally got this social media stuff figured out. Facebook friends are people you've had lunch with once or twice. LinkedIn connections are people you've worked in the same building with. And Twitter followers are absolute total strangers.

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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Day 337

I got up early this morning so I could walk the dogs before Marty came over from Dunrite Services to fix the furnace. Marty has been over to the house half a dozen times before, but Dot still barks at him like a TSA employee who has just spotted someone on the no-fly list. Dash didn't even bother to get off the bed, but Dot acted like the sky was falling during the entire two hour service call. Luckily, most of the repair people I use like dogs, because if they didn't, they would probably never come back again.

After the furnace was working properly again, I drove over to Garland Animal Control to pick up another stray Dalmatian. This is the second one the Garland pound has found in less than two weeks. This little guy was timid and a bit small for an adult dog, but he was very sweet. We named him Alvin. After I spent a little time with him, he warmed up considerably. By the time I took him over to Dr. Campbell's offices for his medical evaluation, we were the best of friends.'

Rescuing Alvin and getting the furnace fixed ate up a big chunk of my day, so by the time I sat down at the computer to begin my work, I was way behind on everything. I did manage to get several minor website updates finished, but the rest will have to wait until tomorrow.

Tomorrow is also a good time to start getting all the equipment ready for this Saturday's Santa Paws photo shoot. This is going to be a busy one. It already looks like we're going to have a great crowd and I think that appointments are already booked at fifteen minute intervals for most of the day.

The cold front that arrived yesterday keeps getting colder. None of the dogs did well at obedience class tonight. Some of the dogs seemed excited by the colder weather, and others like Dot and Dash, just wanted to get back inside again. Dot, always the prima donna, was the only dog to wear a coat to class tonight. Pretty soon, even the German Shepard's will be wearing their dog coats though. Winter is definitely on the way.

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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Day 336

Paypal sent me some outtakes from the ad campaign photo shoot and said I could share them. I'm still not sure what the ads are actually going to look like or when they are going to start running, but the photos look pretty good. The Dalmatian looks a lot better than I do, but what can you expect. It's a young Dalmatian.

I got an e-mail from the National Geographic producers today saying they liked the footage I sent them yesterday and that they now had enough material to finish the show. Yay! I'm finally done. I'm not sure when the show is going to run, but keep an eye out for an episode of Unlikely Animal Friends featuring a story about a goat, a Great Dane and a three legged Golden Retriever.

What was I thinking when I told the furnace repairman that I wasn't in any hurry and it was OK if he didn't come out to the house until Wednesday? I was freezing today. A cold front blew through last night and this morning the temperature inside was just about the same as it was outside. I've lived down South long enough now that I don't deal well with the cold. I bundled up in sweaters most of the day, but I still didn't feel that I was getting much done. I'm going to get the furnace fixed tomorrow, but in Texas that doesn't prove much. There might still be a few days left this year where I need to turn the air conditioner on again.

I'm starting to get the hang of Facebook. It's really just like LinkedIn with lots of pictures. I joined Networked Blogs on Facebook this afternoon, because I've seen a lot of other bloggers do this. I'm not sure if the Networked Blogs widget will bring me more visitors or just slow down my load time even more. I guess we'll see soon enough.

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Monday, November 15, 2010

Day 335

I got a call from the local newspaper in Ennis, Texas today saying they had just received a Google News Alert that I had blogged yesterday about Mow the goat coming to live in their town. They wanted to interview me and run a story about the animal friends in the paper. I'd never heard of a Google News Alert before, but evidently Google indexes every single word that is written on the Internet and newspapers and journalists can subscribe to a service that alerts them when certain word combinations appear. Believe it or now, the goat story is a big deal in Texas. Apparently, when the words Ennis and Mow the goat appeared in yesterday's blog post, Google sounded the alarm at the Ennis newspaper and got a reporter interested enough to give me a call.

It's kind of scary how much Google knows about you. Less than 24 hours after I write something, I've got reporters calling me. Google Earth is just as impressive in a George Orwell kind of way. Once I zoomed in on my house using the Google Street View application and could read the license plate on my car in the driveway. I also zoomed in on my house while I was using the iPad a while ago and noticed that GPS was accurate enough to know I was in the kitchen.

I wonder if Google knew how busy I was today. I had to go downtown this morning to get a protection master made of the video tape I shot on Sunday before sending it off to National Geographic. I don't always do this, but the producers want the camera original tape and I'm always afraid the FedEx shipment will get lost and I'll have to start over again. Although it is expensive to work this way, making a broadcast quality protection master of everything is a lot cheaper than trying to round everybody up again and re-shoot an entire segment.

With the video tapes safely on their way to Washington DC, I returned to the office to deal with getting the furnace fixed as well as trying to resolve a major e-mail hassle. Apparently, none of the e-mail I've sent for the past week to people with a yahoo.com e-mail account has gone through. Yahoo seems to have blocked my mail server for some reason. With so many people using those free Yahoo mail accounts, this is turning into a big mess for me. I wasn't even aware that the mail wasn't going through until a client called wondering why I still hadn't sent the pictures he had been asking for.

I continue to be amazed at how popular Facebook seems to be. Jeez! I wish it were as easy to find real friends as it is to find Facebook friends. I've only got a small handful of friends in real life, but somehow in just two days I seem to have accumulated almost fifty Facebook friends. I don't think I've had fifty real friends in my entire life.

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Sunday, November 14, 2010

Day 334

Good news today! Mow the goat, Judy the Great Dane and Lucky the three legged dog finally found their forever home. They will live in on a ranch in Ennis, Texas with a Llama, two horses, a Great Pyrenees, four other goats, fourteen cats and some chickens. The couple who adopted the trio truly loves animals. They have been helping animals in need for many years and have been hoping to provide a home for the goat and his canine friends ever since they saw their story on a local newscast several months ago. The couple is very familiar with having a goat as a pet and told me that one of their previous goats ate the license plate off their car. When the couple met the animals for the first time at today's Pet Fair celebration, it seemed like they were being reunited with long lost friends. I think these animals are going to have a great home.

The conclusion of this story is good news for me as well. It means that I am finally finished with the National Geographic Channel show I have been working on for most of the Summer. There were many times when I thought that National Geographic would lose interest in the story before I could finish it. Now that the animals have a home, I'm optimistic that the show will actually get on the air. I'll FedEx the final batch of video tapes off to Washington DC tomorrow and then wait to see it on TV like everyone else.

I was so busy filming the final interviews for the show today that Dot and Dash got shortchanged and didn't get the attention they thought they deserved. They looked so forlorn when I was unpacking my equipment after the shoot that we decided to take them up to Wagging Tail Dog Park anyway, even though it was late in the day. Unfortunately, when we arrived we discovered that the park was closed because of standing water from a recent rain. We made it back home just in time for a walk in the park as the sun was setting.

Next weekend will be more of the same. Dalmatian Rescue will be having the first of our three Santa Paws Christmas Photo events on Saturday. At least the still cameras are a lot lighter that the Beta-SP equipment I wrestled with today. I felt like I'd been carrying a load of bricks after having the twenty-five pound camera on my shoulder for several hours. Sore shoulders notwithstanding, it was still a good day. I'm glad the goat found a nice home

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