Mass Customization Of Email

With all the tools that spammers and mass marketers have at their disposal, you would think that they would be better focused on mass customization of their emails. I received a thank you email from Hilton after my recent stay in the UK. The email started out with:

“We’re so glad you’ve recently enjoyed the special treatment Hilton HHonors® guests receive at Hilton hotels.”

This really irks me since they had given away my room, despite my honorary Gold status. I had to take a Taxi to the next Hilton property after a grueling international trip. I ate some disgusting pizza with Tuna fish on it, since the kitchen was closed. The room was terrible and had a lumpy mattress. So if by “special treatment” you mean “being treated like a stray dog”, then yes, I did have to enjoy that. I am pretty sure I do not ever again want to be a Hilton HHonors guest!

Since Hilton has my email address, it would have been nice to receive a personal apology. At a minimum, if you are going to email your customers, you should at the very least check to make sure that there were no issues before sending out a “Thank you, please come again” message. The benefit of having all these computers is that you can analyze client data and send relevant information to improve your loyalty and customer experience. Lastly, the email did not even contain a survey link where I could give them some honest feedback about the service that I received.

Don’t Be An IT Consultant

I finally made it, safely, to Bracknell. I had a 4 hour delay from Boston due to a volcano eruption in Iceland. When I finally got to Reykjavik, the mechanics union went on strike. After 9 hours of waiting, they finally let us board. The story I heard is that the parliament stepped in to resolve the situation. I finally made it to Heathrow, where it was a zoo trying to get through immigration. Once I was through immigration, I had a great limo driver who took me to the Hilton St. Anne’s Manor. (I am a Marriott Platinum member, but I decided to try the Hilton Gold status that was conferred upon me. And besides, it is close to our office and a co-worker recommended it.) I learned my lesson though, because they bumped me for someone more important.

They put me in a cab to the other Hilton here, Hilton Bracknell. They gave me a choice of a free room upgrade or wireless, so I picked the wireless. Oh, I ordered in a pepperoni pizza, and they sent over a pepperoni, tuna, ham, olive, green and yellow pepper pizza. The diet coke I ordered turned out to be a regular coke and I’m too tired to complain.

To anyone who is considering a career in IT Consulting, I say forget it. It is better to be an I-banker. Or a hotelier. Or a CPG manager. You’ll have a better commute.

Holga Medium Format

I tried some old black and white medium format film with the Holga camera while in Europe last year. There must have been a slight problem with the loading/unloading, because I’m getting a weird triangle across all my photographs. Here are two examples:

The picture above was taken in Nice at a beach. The beaches there are very rocky and the stones are called “gallets”. It made for a beautiful picture.

I took this in a random town that we stopped in south-central France. We were on the way to Mont Ventoux to see the tour.

Also, I very quickly scanned in the first of the 35mm roll I took. I plan on using GIMP with a bunch of these images and then posting them to Darjix at some point. I think the photograph below might have been from Switzerland, but I need to double-check.

Singapore Car Parks

I am in Singapore this week for business. Because of my limited access to the Internet, I will not be able to blog consistently.

We parked in one of the many car parks in the city today, and I noticed that the parking structure had a sensor above each spot. The sensor allows the car park to know what spots are open. Open spots have green LEDs. In addition, a board announces the number of open spots on each level.

I noticed this when I was in Europe too. It strikes me as odd that I have never seen this type of system in the US. There may be a few in the US that have this system, but it it isn’t that common.

Scooter Trip

My friend Jay Gaffney is leaving on a long-distance scooter trip. He is driving a Stella (Indian-made) scooter with an external fuel tank. He will be quoting extensively from Pirsig and thinking about Allen Ginsberg for the entirety of the trip. I’m looking forward to following him on his blog.

I have no bed, little furniture, most of my clothes in big bags to be donated. Smaller, yet substantial, piles exist. These piles needs to be packed into bags for the scooter. Pile of tools and parts, pile of clothes, pile of camping stuff, pile of other stuff.

Good Luck Jay!

Teo’s Family Restaurant

Acting on a suggestion from Tracey’s friend, we decided to go check out Teos Family Restaurant in Pittsfield, MA.

As you can see from the picture, the hot dogs come covered with chili. They are about 1/2 or 3/4 sized, so you can eat a lot of them. Also, they are very reasonably priced at around a dollar a piece.

Tracey and I both had full meals, including beer, and our bill came to under 15 bucks. That’s “family-friendly”.

It looks like they might offer window service at times. This place is located in the middle of a very industrial area and the area seems pretty sketchy. However, I have to say that they were some of the best hot dogs I have had, and I’ve tried New York and Chicago hot dogs.

Retro Seiko Clock

I was at the Marriott in Pearl River, NJ for the last two weeks. For some reason I was booked in without my status, so I had to stay with the plebes on a non-concierge floor.

I didn’t mind giving up some luxury because of the clock that was in the room. I usually do not rely on hotel clocks because they are usually impossible to figure out. However, I made an exception in this case because this is minimalist and simple to understand.

The only thing I had to worry about was the battery. At any rate, seeing this clock made me think that I should ditch my 80s clock radio for something similar to this.

J-Bo’s Cheddar Bomb

I apologize in advance to any vegans looking at this page. You may not want to read any further.

I have gained a ton of weight while working in Arkansas. Ok, maybe it is not quite a ton, but definitely >10 lbs. This is probably the result of eating too many “Cheddar Bombs.” I have blogged about this before. But in case you didn’t see my earlier post, a Cheddar Bomb is a 1/3 pound of hamburger covered with 1/4 – 1/2 lb of cheese.

(11:53:59 AM) Sal Darji: How much cheese is on a cheddar bomb?
(11:54:02 AM) Sal Darji: 1/4 lb?
(11:55:07 AM) Aaron Gresko: Probably
(11:55:24 AM) Aaron Gresko: It is so nasty
(11:55:28 AM) Aaron Gresko: and delicious

I’m not sure about the total amount of cheese, but it overflows the burger and covers an entire plate. You have to cut up the cheese and stack it on top of the burger, like Ralph Schaffner has done below.

Bob Hull took this photograph with his iPhone.

Airplane Mechanics Are Crazy

I snapped a few photographs of airplane mechanics on my way to Northwest Arkansas this week. It did not really occur to me until after my flight that they were working on the engine immediately before the flight. I really hope that it was a routine repair, and not something unusual.

In the photograph above, you can see two mechanics working on something. The way they are sitting is sort of interesting. It almost looks like they are having lunch. The photo below is my favorite though, because it reminds me of Dr. Strangelove.

I should just stop worrying and love to fly.

Fort Point Channel

I find it sort of funny, in a cynical and depressing way, that the Boston Globe has a special section about the gentrification of the South Boston Waterfront. The section has the tagline “Coverage of the Fort Point Channel’s revival.” The real revival of that area occurred in the 1980s when the artists took it over.

I guess that area now is home to the ICA which I hope to go see in the coming weeks.