The tragedy of technology is that it brings and takes away, almost at the same time. I can’t really live my life and do my work without  technology, and yet, it’s hard to live with it. Today, I wrestled with two different tech challenges, both frustrating and confusing to me.

First, a number of people are quite unhappy with the new feed service that brings my blog to their inboxes every day, they find the new Specific Feed to be ugly and clunky. A number of people also wrote to say they love it, and find it easier to access.

The old feed from Feedburner has not been updated in years and is rumored to be shutting down. The new feed is from SpecificFeeds.com. There is no charge to get the blog delivered, I will pay a monthly fee to SpecificFeeds. (Feedburner was free.)

Feedburner was  failing to deliver the blog to many – a lot – of the people who signed up for it.  And I was hearing from them every day. I am grateful that they told me what was happening. Tomorrow, I’m talking to my good friends at Mannix Marketing and we’ll try to figure out the best way through this.

The Specific Feed plan was the best one we could find,, even though I have to pay for it.  I just spend thousands of dollars re-designing my beloved blog, and it now gives my photos their due, and the new feed doesn’t quite do that. Maybe they don’t need to, it does feed the whole blog, the photos are all there.

So some people hated it, and some people loved it, as is always the case. I guess it will be up to me, as it should be. I don’t want to go back to Feedburner.

I’ll keep you posted. Be patient, if you can, and thanks for caring.

I like that the new feed actually delivers the blog reliably, and it is stacked so people can see the titles. I’d be happy if there was a photo showing up in the feed. It might be possible.

This afternoon, I had my two hour radio show “Talking To Animals,” and we got two phone calls in two hours. One was from Maria, we arranged to talk about training our dog Fate. The other was at the end of the two hours and it was from Kathie Lehtonen, a very kind and thoughtful person from Pennsylvania.

Because I was talking pretty much non-stop for two hours (I had a great talk with Thomas to start the show), and because it is so cold and dry up here, my voice was starting to catch and wear out. Kathie called up – I had already answered her dog question – “to give your voice a rest.”

She heard me getting scratchy and struggling with water. I do a lot of lip smacking because my mouth does get dry. I did get through. But still, when you are getting sympathy calls, there is a problem. But thanks Kathy, you are an angel. And I was starting to squeak like Daffy Duck.

And I need to bring some tea.

Thomas told me at the end of the show that there were some technical problems with the phones, and a lot of callers could not get through. This was the first show yet with no calls, so I was glad to hear it wasn’t just me.

I don’t wish to talk to myself for two hours once a week on the radio, I get punchy and calls make the show. Fortunately I had a slew of e-mailed questions  ([email protected]) or I would have gone batty.

The whole idea of the broadcast centers around calls, I want to talk to people, listen to them, help them with their animal problems. Otherwise, I’m just pissing in the wind. I do my Sherlock Holmes thing, listening to people and learning as much as I can so I can give them useful advice. I want the show to help people, and you can’t really help people you never speak with.

I have to be honest, I think the broadcast is catching on – judging from my e-mail, there are a lot of people listening out there. I appreciate that. This was the first time this happened. Even the first show had several calls, and one was from Italy.

So this is show biz, right? There are ups and downs, and the show must go on. If you can’t handle the bumps, you never get to glory.

We’ll try again next week. The station’s equipment dates back to the Korean War, so there will be some troubles, especially with the phones. Please check out the WBTNAM Amazon Wish List, there are inexpensive gift card options as well as new equipment. Thanks.

Technology makes my life possible and challenges my patience and peace of mind. I see these issues as spiritual challenges, each ones gives me the chance to be patient and accepting.