My Latest YouTube Releases

One advantage of working for Sony is that we get 4-day weekends for both Memorial and Labor Day. I like it because we get the Friday off before the Monday holidays and that gives me a bit of extra time to get stuff done. One year I used the that time to go visit Alaska and do some ocean kayaking. This year I did something different: I released 2 YouTube videos.

I woke up on Friday and decided I would try and put out a video in a single day. There is a lot of work that goes into each video and I wasn't sure I could do it but wanted to give it a try. I sat down at my computer and put together a compelling script. Then I recorded the narration. The subject of the video is preparing for the 2025/26 ski season. I came close but didn't quite finish the video in a single day. I had to roll over onto Saturday but got it released that evening.

In order to put out the video quickly, I had to interrupt another video I started creating over a year ago. I liked the topic but just didn't feel the need to get the video out and so it languished on my computer in a half-done state for months. Getting a video put out early in the weekend ignited a desire to finish an update on my second most popular video on the Top 5 Sidecountry Ski Areas of North America. My wife had to do some sewing and so she gave me permission yesterday to sit in front of my computer and finish the video. I completed everything last night and immediately released it.

Of the 2 videos, the Sidecountry one is my favorite. I can't really pinpoint why I didn't finish it earlier. I know one thing that slowed me down was not having enough photo and video content for one of the ski areas. I had to go back through an old photo album and scan pictures from back in the 1980's. I have a really good scanner and once I digitized the images, the video sat uncompleted for months. Perhaps laziness kept me from working on it or I valued spending my time on other pursuits. Ultimately I got it done and in less than 24 hours it has been viewed close to 100 times.

In the past, the closest I have ever released 2 videos is 5 days. This marks the first time I have done it in 2 days. I will be interested to see how that effects the number of views. My channel has about 650 subscribers and I hope to get more. Unfortunately I have not received any new ones since the first video on Friday. Perhaps there is something else I need to do to increase my popularity. Until then, I hope everyone enjoys the videos.

First Rule of Demos: It will Crash

The first rule of doing any live demo is that it will crash regardless of how stable the product is. That is why you will often see videos of computer demos instead of an actual live demo. Today the first rule of demos reared its ugly head at the most inopportune time.

I had a meeting with my boss and he brought up the topic of needing to delete some data from our data warehouse. Not deleting the data puts us in jeopardy of being sued and so I wanted to show him all the different areas that contained the data. I made sure I had logged into our company's virtual private network (VPN) so I could get into the data warehouse. Then I tried to bring up a virtual desktop which is required to log into the database system. It immediately crashed. I tried several more times only to have the same thing happen. Ultimately I had to describe the many different places engineers had squirreled away the information.

Fortunately I didn't need to actually do a demo as I accurately described the many copies of the data. My boss explained that because the copies of data are anonymized, meaning there is no way to associate with with specific people, they do not need to be deleted, just the non-anonymized data. That came as a relief. Ultimately nobody is using the data and so there is no need to keep it around but deleting it is not an emergency.

I finished my video call with my boss and decided to troubleshoot what went wrong. As you would expect, everything worked fine. That only shows the validity of the first rule of demos. 

Importance of Blocking Time in Schedule

This morning I had a number of work-related meetings and then had to take my wife to the doctor's. She had one of those screenings where they knocked her out and she needed a driver to take her there and bring her home. Furthermore I was not allowed to leave the campus until the procedure completed and my wife awake enough to go home. Being required to stay at the doctor's office for 2 hours, I asked the admitting attendant if they had a soft-serve ice cream machine since I couldn't go anywhere. They did not but she said she would mention it to the doctors. I doubt anything will change but if US prisoners are required to be able to watch television, doctor's offices should provide soft-served ice cream when you have to wait more than an hour.

Fortunately the office did have WiFi to use for those of us waiting. I made sure to log onto the system and get some work done. Should anyone need to reach me, I made an entry in my public-work calendar that I could be reached for anything except meetings. That worked well as I had one fellow colleague reach out for clarification on some of the data I am very familiar with. I provided an answer and continued to work on other things.

Whenever I go to schedule a meeting with fellow work associates, I always check everyone's calendar to make sure I am not scheduling over their activities. My hope is that others do the same with me and they almost always do. There are some occasions when a meeting will have quite a few participants and the scheduler must pick a time that will work for the majority of the attendees. If possible, those that can move things to attend will.

After getting home from the doctor's office today, I looked at the next several weeks and scheduled my morning exercise. I am fairly flexible right now and don't need to exercise at specific times. However when I see my schedule filling up, I block time in my schedule to keep people from taking the only time slots in my day where I can exercise. While some treat daily workouts as optional, I don't; probably because of my love of soft-serve ice cream. My health is important enough to me that I do all I can to stay as healthy as possible. I also blocked off time tomorrow evening to spend time with my wife. That is the description I used: "Time with Wife." Most people wouldn't dare try to schedule anything over it and if they do, it must be really important but there is no guarantee I'll be there. My son is good about scheduling his personal time on his work calendar as well. He is a bit more cryptic in his description as he uses: "Personal time, do not schedule."

A lot of people complain about their work/life balance and with some companies there is a huge problem. For me, I try to let people know when I am tied up with personal things. Being forthright and honest provides a level of comfort and trust to management. That goes a long way towards evening out the work/life balance and helps make my employment at Sony that much more enjoyable. 

How Many Marketing E-mails Does One Person Need?

My wife and I are constantly thinking about possible vacations and I have ours planned for the next year. One of those vacations will be an Alaskan Cruise. I'm not sure if I should be sharing that as I already receive too many e-mails trying to help me plan that specific vacation. My fear is that announcing something on the Internet will only invite more e-mails.

I have been to Alaska several times in the summer and have a good idea of what to expect. For instance, I know that Alaska is a huge state and has many different experiences to offer. A week up there doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what there is to see and do. The idea of doing a cruise allows us to see some of the coastal cities all in the same trip, which is why we are planning it.

Unfortunately I made the mistake of letting one of the major cruise lines know I am interested in doing a cruise. Now I am receiving 2 e-mails every day from the company. Is there any difference between the e-mail in the morning and the one in the afternoon? The content seems different but when you click on any of the links in the message, you end up at the same spot. I'm surprised that any marketing department in the world would think it acceptable to send that much e-mail. My wife has suggested that I simply unsubscribe from the company. That is what a sane person would do but I find it just as easy to delete all of those e-mails. My justification is that when I am ready to book the cruise, I'll have the list of specials right in front of me. The funny thing is that we know the cruise we want to take and it isn't from the cruise line sending me daily information.

The reality is that there needs to be a way to tell marketing people your threshold for e-mails. Some people may be interested in multiple e-mails a day while others may only want to see something once a month. There should also be an options for daily and weekly. People may start out interested in all of the specials but it won't take long for them to sour on your messages if you send too many.

Got Caught with a Phishing Attack

Yesterday I received an e-mail from what I thought was my e-mail provider telling me I needed to change my password. It is something that happens every year or so. It really should be more frequent but I never look forward to changing passwords and am happy with the current frequency. I put off changing my e-mail password yesterday and decided to give it a try today.

First of all, the e-mail looked like it came from my service provider, which is to say it looked plain and simple. I clicked on the link and entered my current password. I immediately saw an invalid-password message. I entered my old password again with the same result. At this point I went back to the e-mail and realized someone was just looking to get my e-mail password. I felt like a fool.

Fortunately I realized within 30 seconds what was happening and immediately changed my e-mail password. I had to change it in my mail client for both incoming and outgoing messages. This caused very little disruption but I still felt bad for something I should have been able to prevent.

There is a rule we should all follow when an e-mail asks us to log into a system. That rule is to type in the URL of the site asking you to log in and not just click on the e-mail link. I didn't do that and now I can never use that password again for e-mail. I probably should never use it for anything. That is too bad because I liked it and doubt anyone would have guessed it even though I had an easy time remembering it. 

Trying to be in Two Meetings at Once

Today I found myself needed in two meetings at the same time. Both required my attention and so I had to defer one until the other completed. That didn't keep the second meeting from sending me instant messages, which kept disrupting my first meeting. I could relax a bit when my first meeting ended and I could concentrate on the second.

Contrary to popular belief, humans are horrible at multitasking. While some think they can do two things at once, they really can't. What happens is that they focus on one and ignore the other. They then switch their focus and it feels like they are multitasking. This works well for my wife sewing and watching television at the same time. It doesn't work so well when she is sewing and I try to talk with her. She has to stop sewing to participate in the conversation.

I found myself trying to focus on my first meeting this morning as it happened to be with my boss. Every time I got a message from the second meeting, I had to ignore the first meeting. That worked as long as I was not needed. I made sure to glance over at the message only when another team member talked about something unrelated to me. If the message needed a response, I would start to answer but stop at every word and listen to see if someone required my input. Then I would write the next word. Writing and listening slowed me down significantly. While I may have appeared to be multitasking, I really wasn't. Fortunately I got through the first meeting without making a fool of myself.

I immediately jumped to the second meeting and listened intently for an hour and a half, providing feedback when needed. We tried to solve a networking issue using a new technology and eventually ran out of time. The person we tried to help ran up against a time constraint. While my afternoon had just started, he works in a part of the world where it came up on midnight. I thought I had it tough with trying to juggle Europe and Japan. At least Japan understands when it gets late and won't keep me in a meeting past 9pm. We will continue the meeting tomorrow morning and my hope is we will be able to get the problem solved. Unfortunately my morning is so packed with meetings, I hope I don't have to juggle two at once again. 

Return to Office Mandates

A few years ago I spent 3 months working for a research company and made some good friends. Ultimately the company was not a good fit for me and so I headed back to Sony. Since leaving I have kept in contact with a few of those friends. I reached out to one today that left the research company the same time I did and discovered his return to office (RTO) mandate at the new company has him looking for another job. Fortunately he has until the end of September to find one.

My friend asked me if I am worried about an RTO mandate. I explained that I have an exemption from having to go into an office. I am beginning to understand what a luxury that is now. While I don't mind going to an office, it is a benefit being able to work from home. This is a reminder to me not to take the privilege for granted. This is especially true today as my wife is sick with the stomach flu and I can check on her throughout the day without having to ask for any special favors so I can be at home.

Now let's be honest, between my wife and I, she does a much better job of taking care of me than I do of her. Fortunately with the stomach flu I just need to make sure she is getting plenty of fluids and recouping some of that energy she lost last night praying to the porcelain god. When she explained that she drank a protein shake for breakfast, I reminded her she also needed some carbs to get her energy back. I asked if she wanted a cookie, which she declined. She opted for some high-quality Japanese ramen instead.

COVID 19 caused a lot of companies to re-evaluate their requirements to have employees in the office. Unfortunately the more time passes, the more companies are forgetting the lessons they learned. I know there are a handful of employees gaming the system and not working when they are supposed to but that is more of an exception than a rule. I just wished companies would send out RTO mandates only to those employees that prove they need to be in an office. That would at least keep my buddy from having to find a new job.