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.

Internet on a Plane

I have been traveling a lot with recent trips to Alaska, Mexico, and Hawaii. This has given me the chance to test Internet conditions for a lot of different environments including on a cruise ship. I spend all day working in front of a computer and while the device is important, an Internet connection is usually required to remain effective.

So why do I need an Internet connection? I spend a lot of time communicating with my fellow employees. E-mail is good for this but I also use Microsoft Teams and the messaging included with it. I can live without those connections for only a short amount of time before people begin to worry. I also spend a lot of time working on shared documents. While I may have a local copy that I can edit on a plane, it sure is nice to have my changes seen immediately by others working on the document also.

Delta Airlines has started offering free Internet connections to all of the passengers that are members of their frequent flyer program. You don't have be any special status to use the service, just a member of the program. I gave it a try on a recent trip and discovered it works well. Unfortunately you cannot make voice or video calls but you can use it for e-mail, instant messaging, and editing shared documents. Delta claims that it is fast enough to watch a streaming movie and so I don't see why one wouldn't be able to use it for video calls other than the FAA regulation that prohibits it. I did notice the service felt choppy in some instances and I am not sure how the upload speed is so it may be a prohibiting factor.

I also had the chance to check out Alaska Airline's Internet service on my recent trip to Hawaii. While I flew out on a Sunday, I returned on a Thursday and worked on the plane as I flew home. I made sure to let my boss know I wouldn't be available for a meeting during my flight time. Unfortunately the service is not free for everyone. As a T-mobile customer, I had an hour of free Internet service which I never tried. However I did set up texting from my phone and remained in contact with people during the flight.

The overall lesson learned from using Internet on a plane is that as long as I don't have any meetings, it is a viable option to remain productive. Unfortunately for me, I generally have meetings daily and so it is probably impossible to take a day to fly somewhere and count it as a work day. That is something I will need to remember as I make plans for future travel.

It is Good to be Home

I just got back from 2 weeks of extensive travel and it is good to be home. At the end of August I headed to Los Angeles for work and while the distance is not that far from Salt Lake, I had full-day meetings which can take a lot out of you. Then I flew up to Alaska to spend the Labor Day weekend with my youngest daughter who is an ocean-kayak guide. She had to show us her fitness and ripped our arms off to beat us with them. Then I had to take a red-eye flight back to California for another set of all-day meetings. Once home I didn't have the luxury of sleeping in my own bed as I loaded up my truck and headed to Scott's Peak, which is right above Brighton Ski Area. I spent the night staying up and helping runners participating in the Wasatch 100 Ultramarathon. Needless to say, my internal body clock is just now getting back to normal.

One thing I miss while traveling is access to a second computer monitor. It is always helpful to have a primary working monitor coupled with a second one to put look-up information. For instance I may use my primary monitor for a video meeting and use the second monitor to display information I need during the meeting.

Another thing I miss while on the road is my second computer. While at home I make sure to do work on my Sony-provided laptop and personal things on my desktop computer. Not having that second computer means I am trying to do everything on my work computer. I mostly just read personal e-mail but that means I can't edit videos or write narrations for my YouTube videos. I have one that I am working on right now and wish I could have made progress on it while traveling.

Then there are all the comforts of home that I miss while away. Things like sleeping in my own bed, having access to my full wardrobe, or being able to watch movies in my theater room. Yes it is fun to travel to interesting places but it also feels good to be back home.

Follow-up from Yesterday's Post: Verizon vs. AT&T

Yesterday I talked to my adventurous daughter who is a kayak guide in Valdez, Alaska. Thinking about my post yesterday, I asked the all-important question of which mobile phone service seems to be more ubiquitous, Verizon or AT&T. I knew not to ask about T-Mobile because last year she showed up to help guide with a T-Mobile phone. Unfortunately T-Mobile doesn't have a presence in Alaska and while her phone worked for 30 days, they informed her that if she didn't get her phone back to the lower 48, or continental United States, they would stop providing service. Fortunately she had to head to Anchorage  and she switched her service to AT&T. Yes it costs significantly more but she could continue to have a wireless phone and didn't have to result in turning her phone off for the remainder of the summer.

I asked my daughter if there are any other guides in Alaska that she works with who use Verizon for their wireless plans. She said there are quite a few. Next I asked if they had service when she doesn't or vice versa. Her response indicated that the two services are fairly comparable with Verizon slightly edging out AT&T. I probed a bit more and asked what she used to compare the two. She said that when they leave Valdez to head out to the Columbia glacier, she will lose service before those with Verizon. On the way back, those with Verizon will regain service earlier.

I felt that seemed like a pretty good test even though it is only anecdotal and not statistical. She elaborated that last year before she switched from T-Mobile, she lost service even earlier. I can't think of any place more remote than parts of Alaska and this corresponds with my experience in remote places throughout the United States.

Now remember I do own stock in Verizon and my intent is not to have you switch your carrier simply because their wireless phone service is available in more places. The new technology being rolled out, specifically 5G networks has all mobile phone carriers upgrading their networks. The old CDMA technology that Verizon used for 2G and 3G will eventually be replaced. Until then, they seem to have the broader coverage. I'm not sure that will continue but could be wrong. I know the moment I switch from T-Mobile to something else, the playing field will be leveled and all services will be equal to each other. So for now I am sticking with my current mobile phone carrier. 

A Virus on my Mac Computer

My daughter just headed to Alaska for the summer to be a kayak guide. My wife and I would like to go up and visit so we started planning a trip. Unfortunately rental cars are really expensive in Alaska and so I started shopping around to some of the more inexpensive agencies. I got an e-mail from Dollar Rental Car and so I decided to check them out. Unfortunately when I tried to go to the site, it said my computer had a virus and wouldn't let me in.

Whenever I see a virus warning in my browser, I don't pay it much mind as it is very difficult for a website to scan your computer that quickly and determine you have a virus. More than likely there is a setting in your browser that it doesn't like and throws up a message indicating you could have a virus. It is better to be safe so I did a bit of checking.

The first thing I did was go to Dollar's website on another computer. I did not receive the offending message and so I knew it was not their website giving a blanket message. Next I tried another browser on my Mac. I have Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. Normally I use Firefox and so I tried Chrome. That worked fine and my guess is that I have a setting in Firefox that Dollar doesn't like.

Next I looked into finding some antivirus software for the Mac. This is where things get tricky. Doing a search can often lead you to false solutions that actually install malware or a virus on your computer. I went to a reputable source to see what the best antivirus software is. There are a number to choose from and some are better than others. I ran through several reviews and found a free one that I trust. The downside of free is that you are always being prompted to upgrade to the paid version. I'm willing to live with that for now. The free versions also don't have all of the features in the paid ones and so if you need something more than bare-bones functionality, you may need to shell out a bit of money.

I suppose it is better to be overly cautious and report potential problems instead of ignoring real ones. It has discouraged me from renting a car from Dollar because I cannot trust their website. Fortunately they are no cheaper than some of the larger brand rental car companies. Ultimately I will probably end up using Turo anyways as they have the best deals for rental cars in Alaska.

Fat Bear Week

Yesterday I received an e-mail that mentioned Fat Bear Week. With such a humorous name, I had to investigate and ended up voting in the contest that is run annually. I wish I would have heard about the contest sooner to help send traffic to the site as it is actually a great event and something everyone should know about.

My youngest daughter spent the summer in Alaska as a kayak guide near Valdez. I knew she would be spending the entire summer living in a tent and one of my concerns for her was that she might have too close of an encounter with a grizzly bear. She is now back home and had plenty of experiences meeting various bears, including one just outside her tent. Fortunately none of her bear sightings required medical attention but it exposed a fear I have about man-eating bears. I think we all want to keep our distance from them.

Fat Bear Week is a contest put on by the staff at Katmai National Park. It started in 2014 and gives viewers the chance to vote for the brown bear that has gotten the fattest during the summer from a diet of salmon. They show before and after photos of specific bears and anyone can vote on their favorites. They also have short bios for all of the bears in the contest so you get to know a little about each contestant. The reason it appealed to me is because of all the before/after photos I see for people dieting and this looked similar, only in reverse. Bears spend the summer building up fat stores so they can hibernate all winter. It is especially important for female bears who give birth mid-winter. If they do not have enough fat reserves, mothers will not give birth that year.

Yesterday I voted for my favorite bear and he ended up winning the contest: bear 747. His bio mentions that it is only fitting that his tag number is the same as that of Boeing's largest commercial jet aircraft. He also won the 2020 Fat Bear Week contest.

Fat Bear Week is a great use of the Internet because it allows everyone to view one of nature's most powerful creatures without being in danger. While I have a healthy fear of grizzly bears, it made them more personal and helped me want to protect them. I probably won't write a check to the Save-the-Grizzly-Bears foundation but I am more aware of their needs and apt to support measures relating to their habitat as opposed to falling back on my fears and the attitude of "protect the humans at all costs."

When I found out about Fat Bear Week, I let everyone in my family know. My kayak-guide daughter responded that she had been voting all week. I guess that shouldn't have surprised me as she is a fan of all things related to Alaska. Now I just need to add it to my calendar for next year so I remember to join in the fun.

Airport Delays

I am at the airport waiting to catch my last flight of the year and it is turning into a little adventure. One would think that the San Francisco airport would be able to handle a little bit of rain. Nope there is a comedy of errors that are working against it and I find myself in the middle. Normally I would have a fellow travel buddy to share the grief but this evening is a day earlier than my regular weekly flight and so I will have to share my adventure with you.

For those that don't know, Tuesday is generally the best day of the week to purchase airplane tickets. I have a regular routine where I go through my existing flights and make sure I have the best prices on existing flights and then book any additional flights so that I have travel booked 3 months out. Yesterday was that day and I had to book a number of flights on Southwest due to schedule conflicts. Then I got into the office this morning with an e-mail from Southwest letting me know that one of the flights I booked in March is now cancelled. They rebooked me on a much later flight that doesn't get me home until after 1am. What they didn't tell me is that the original flight I booked was twice as expensive as this new flight nor did they offer me a refund of the difference. No offense Southwest, but that is a bit underhanded. I cancelled the rebooked flight and got my money back. I will look at other options on other airlines as getting in after 1am is not an option.

With that as a background story, let me now move onto today's flights. After getting my Southwest flight cancelled, I got another e-mail. This time from Alaska Airlines letting me know I had been upgraded to First Class. I thought that strange as I am not scheduled to fly again for the next  several weeks. When I looked closely, the upgraded flight is for today and scheduled to leave out of San Jose instead of San Francisco. Then I got another e-mail from Alaska explaining that today's flight would now be leaving out of San Jose and I had to arrive at the San Francisco airport 2 hours early. If I did that, they would make arrangements for me to get to San Jose. There was only one problem, I had a meeting that I needed to be in and couldn't be at the San Francisco airport 2 hours early.

I had arranged a ride to the airport and managed to move my ride to 45 minutes earlier. This enabled me to be at the airport at the appropriate time for the airline to get me to San Jose. Next I headed to my meeting and explained to my visitors from Japan that I would need to cut the meeting in half so I could accommodate a change in departure airports. It worked out and we finished just as my ride showed up to bring me to the San Francisco airport.

I arrived at the airport with 15 minutes to spare and walked up to the ticket counter. The agent politely helped me check in and started to arrange an Uber ride to San Jose. Then a supervisor came up and explained that traffic would prohibit me from making my flight. "Oh crap," was the only thing I could think of as I knew I would get home but knew when would be measured by a calendar instead of a clock. The last time this happened, I got routed on a late flight to Seattle where I slept in the airport before catching a 5:30am flight to Salt Lake. Fortunately a different supervisor intervened and they put me on a Delta flight leaving out of San Francisco an hour earlier than my original flight. The only downside is that I would have to give up my First-Class seat. In my mind I am just happy to be getting home an hour earlier than I originally thought.

I ran next door to the Delta counter and got a seat assignment. I headed through security and made it to my new gate just as the plane was supposed to start boarding. Then I saw that the Delta flight was delayed to a 5:57 departure. That is about the same time as my original flight. I had no luck on the seat assignment but I did have a window seat somewhere in the middle of the plane.

So now I find myself hanging out in the San Francisco airport waiting for a delayed Delta flight to Salt Lake City. I'm sure my departure will get moved out at least once before I board but I am happy to be going home this evening. Let's hope it actually is this evening.