Found this video today, and totally reminded me why I love Marfa:

[via Swiss Miss]

Hey, it’s John here -

I’m traveling on vacation and will return on Thursday, November 18th.

http://meetwith.me/johnengler < --- That's my schedule

All email I receive between now and 11/18 will be ignored until I return, so if you have an emergency, please contact one of the following people accordingly:

Jessie
Traffic Issues
jessie@YYYYYYYYY.com
(Contact Jessie for ....)

Jack
General Business Development Issues
jack@YYYYYYYYY.com
(Jack can triage pretty much any situation and get you in touch with the right people inside the company if it's not traffic related)

Shannon
Accounting Issues
accounting@YYYYYYYYYY.com
(if you have an AR or AP issues, email Shannon, and she'll take care of you)

My goal is to make sure I'm not totally overwhelmed playing "catch-up" when I return, and I can hit the ground running and give you the immediate attention you deserve when I get back.

Please note that I won't be answering the phone while I'm out either. I appreciate your courtesy in advance and look forward to our paths crossing again after November 18th.

Best wishes,
John

Hoping that template will work for everyone that emails me!

I also used this auto-responder for my more personal email addresses:

Hey, it’s John here -

I’m traveling on vacation and will return on Thursday, November 18th.

http://meetwith.me/johnengler < --- That's my schedule

All email I receive between now and 11/18 will be ignored until I return, so please resend your email after 11/18, if it's important.

My goal is to make sure I'm not totally overwhelmed playing "catch-up" when I return, and I can hit the ground running and give you the immediate attention you deserve when I get back.

I appreciate your courtesy in advance and look forward to our paths crossing again after November 18th.

Thanks,
John

I have a trip planned for Las Vegas from January 11 – 13, so I clicked the link. Read that their fare sale starts on January 13th, so I knew I wouldn’t get their fare sale prices, so I just searched their site for pricing on regular tickets (Southwest has always had great prices, so I figured I’d check them out).

Their search engine showed me that my round trip would cost me $700 or so… which is pretty rediculous for a flight a) to Las Vegas from Austin, Texas, and b) for any flight on Southwest anywhere…

So, I went to AA.com, and check American Airlines‘ prices for a flight on the same day. The result: $150 round trip.

Sold. Flight booked.

See you in Vegas at Affiliate Summit West 2009, if you’re going (and if you’re not, you should think about it – it’s one of the best performance marketing shows out there, and it’s run by the two best people in trade shows today: Shawn Collins and Missy Ward).

http://adtech-sf08.sched.org/johnengler

I’ll also be working our booth on the trade show floor. Look for me, if you’re there.

I just happen to have a business trip to San Francisco to meet with a few potential clients on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the only flights we could get that weren’t ridiculously expensive was the 6 a.m. Nerd Bird from Austin to San Jose on Tuesday morning, and our first meeting isn’t until 3:00 (the prospect moved it back from 1:00) so… I now have a few hours to kill. What better way to do that than to stroll through the Moscone after the keynote?

(Oh, and I’m going to purposefully leave my personal credit cards at home for this trip).

I haven’t worked for MacNN since 2001, so it’s been at least 6 or 7 years since I’ve been to a MacWorld… looking forward to it, and not having to work it this time

And maybe, just maybe, one of my old contacts will hook me up with an invite to a party or two. Jason? Misha? Monish? anyone got an extra invite to the fun stuff on Tuesday night?

That means I stay at lots of hotels. And rent cars. And take lots of flights…

And I really hate getting customer service satisfaction surveys from these companies. You know why? Because I don’t get anything out of taking the survey. Ever.

Here’s an example:

From: invite_doubletree@medallia.com
Subject: Your recent stay at Doubletree
Date: May 22, 2007 3:10:29 AM CDT
To: John Engler

Dear John Engler,

We were delighted to serve you during your recent stay at Doubletree. We realize that you have a choice in hotel properties, and we appreciate your business.

As a valued HHonors member, your feedback is important to us. We invite you to take a few minutes to complete a survey about your stay at Doubletree Washington, where you checked out on May 18, 2007.

To view the survey, please click on the web address below. If that does not work, please copy and paste the entire web address into the address field of your browser.

http://doubletree.medallia.com/H.pl?b=1&ID=12345678&lopt=eng

Your comments are very valuable to us, and we look forward to hearing about your stay with us.

Sincerely,

Dave Horton
Senior Vice President
Doubletree

Gee, thanks Dave. Note very valuable to us. Emphasis is mine above. How valuable are they Dave?

I ask, because your stupid survey will take me 7-10 minutes to complete, according to your survey intro page:

Seven to ten minutes ?!?!?! Give me a break!

Do you know how busy I am? Can you compensate me for my time to take this survey? Give me some extra airline miles, or hotel points, or car rental credits? Maybe upgrade me to the next level of your loyalty program for my next stay at your hotel, or give me an upgrade if you’re an airline, or a car rental company?

I’m asking for this compensation because I’ve a) already paid you a lot for the hotel room that I stayed in from midnight (late flight) until 7 a.m. You already charged me $6 for the bottle of water I drank, and $4 for the snickers bar I ate (because there wasn’t a restaurant in the hotel), and b) 10 minutes of my time is worth a lot to me.

Make it worth it to me to fill out this survey and I’ll do it. Otherwise, if I had a problem at the hotel, I already dealt with it with the hotel manager on duty… and he probably got yelled at in the lobby in front of all your other guests.

If you really want my feedback, make it worth it for me to give it to you.

(And yes, I got this same survey form from Avis for this most recent trip, and the same comments apply to them too, and to every other hotel that’s ever asked me for my comments).

If you really want my feedback, compensate me for my time somehow.

You know, some enterprising entreprenuer should offer deodorant and hair product and makeup inside the security zone of airports. Call the store: “the stuff you want but can’t hav” or “Contraband”. I bet they’d make a killing.

I LOVE ROCKETBOOM!

Yes. I do.

I started watching Rocketboom very infrequently about a year ago, then I bought an iPod Video (after losing my iPod nano) and that made it easy to watch videos when I was on the road traveling.

Right now, I’ve got a good 30 episodes of Rocketboom in iTunes that hadn’t been watched as of this morning… but I’ve watched 10 or so of them on my flights… love it, love it, love it. (I really only watch Rocketboom, or listen to podcasts in general for that matter, when I’m on a flight or in the car for longer than 5 minutes – no I don’t drive and watch Rocketboom on my iPod at the same time)

Thanks Amanda and Peter. Keep it up!

Oh, and I loved the TRM advertisements you made… very cool and fun. Think they’d sell me one? Who do I call? I need an ATM for the kitchen… I’ll put it right next to the microwave.

Love it when you use the word “verily” makes me think of Emily Bronte.

• I need a new laptop for the powerbook. Seriously. 50 minutes from charge to dead is unacceptable.
• I should carry a small firewire drive with me all the time. The 30 GB iPod doesn’t count (it’s full of shit anyways)
• I need a faster set of CF cards for my Canon D60.
• I need a better batter charger for the laptop and accessories.
• Bring a power strip with you on a cruise. You’ll need it. Your room will probably only have one 3-prong 110 volt outlet.
• Next time, take a cell phone with internet access that can talk to my powerbook via bluetooth … wireless is expensive on board

More later. We’re having fun. Should be home by Sunday.

Because I had to much fun there this year, I bought the domain ExpoloreGuanajuato.com, fully intending to build it out into a full-service information site about GTO… but I haven’t had the time, so, I’m finally adding some spares information as I find it.

In case you’re wondering, Guanajuato, Mexico is a great place to visit… a little rough in parts (unlike Cancun or Cabo) but still very romantic at times and lots of fun. It’s the state capital of the state of Guanajuato, full of Catholic cathedrals, and a fun place to spend a week, if you’re into the “off the beaten path” trips.

Look for more information from ExploreGuanajuato.com in the future.

If you go there now, you’ll find a quick guide to GTO, and some great photos we took while there…

I got to my hotel around 4:00 p.m. Pacific, checked in, changed, and headed to the casino floor. After walking around a bit, and eating at Caesar’s Palace, I headed back to the Flamingo. (I’ve been sick recently, as has the 10 month old, so I was tired). I pulled out $20, sat down at a roulette wheel, and proceeded to order a scotch on the rocks. I then lost my $20 in the time it took for the waitress to bring me a drink.

I took my $20 scotch to the bar, and decided to buy my drinks outright for the rest of the night… it was cheaper: only $4.50 a drink.

Anyways, I turned in relatively early, got up this morning, went to my appointment (which went well) and headed back to the casino to make a conference call with some folks on the east coast. At this point, I realized that my cell phone was almost dead.

So, I looked in my little iGo bag, to find the cell phone charger part of it, and realized I’d left it at home.

I fretted… I was going to have to drop out of the conference call (not good when you’re discussing legal terms with a client). Then I thought about asking some of the folks working the front desk, in case one of them had a Nokia cell phone… Angel, the girl that helped me check-in the day before said “yes, we have lots of chargers” and she then produced a box full of cell phone chargers and computer cables and chargers…

Duh.

I didn’t think about their lost and found. They had about 200 odd chargers in that lost and found box. The first one we pulled out fit my phone, and I made my conference call… it lasted one hour and twenty minutes…

So, if you forget your cell phone charger, check with the lost and found at the nearest hotel’s front desk… I bet they’ll have one that’ll work with your phone. At least they will in Vegas.

I downloaded a vCalendar file from the Hilton website onto my Powerbook, after booking a hotel room.

I then emailed the vCal file to my WindowsXP machine. I saved the file to my desktop, then doubleclicked it to open it in Outlook and save it. I got this error message:

Here’s the transcript of the discussion I had with my WindowsXP box:

self: Hmmm…
self: So, I can’t import the file. Okay.
WindowsXP: “… recurring Lunar appointment …”
self: What is that?
WindowsXP: “To avoid this error, set the appointment option to Gregorian instead of Lunar.”
self: Ok, I’ll do that (why am I wasting my time with this crap?) Let’s click the “More information…” link to see if we can find a way to do that in Windows.

So, I click the link.

And after about 2 minutes, I get this error:

WTF?

Why can’t a Windows error message contain a link that works?

So, I go to Hilton.com, check my reservation and download the vCalendar file again straight into Outlook from there. I don’t have time to troubleshoot this crap.

That’s the anti-thesis of the Macintosh “It just works” mantra.

Birraporetti’s used to be a place my dad took my kid brother and I when we were really young to have Shirley Temple and Roy Roger’s drinks… it was always a treat, and lots of fun.

I’ve rediscovered Birraporetti’s again in the past 6 months, and I have to tell you that I still love it… it still reminds me of those old days, and serves great food and drinks.

If you’re in Houston looking for a good place to eat in downtown Houston, stop by Birraporetti’s .

I didn’t leave the house until 5:45. I got to the airport and parked at 6:03. I got inside to the ticket counter and told the clerk that I needed to get on my 6:30 flight. She didn’t look happy.

She said “I don’t think I can get you on the flight” and then picked up her little walkie-talkie to ask the guy at the gate if I could still board. He didn’t answer her… not good.

So, I asked her to just give me a ticket for the plane, and I’d run all the way there. She said she’d try.

Ticket in hand, I rushed to the security check-point. Bad news: There were at least 30 people in front of me. It was 6:21. I decided to get to the front of the line quickly, so I started asking each person in line if I could cut, so I could catch my 6:30 flight. Thankfully, each person let me cut, so that I was at the front of the line within a minute.

I started unpacking my laptop and the entire flight crew for another United plane started cutting in front of me. I let two of them by, then I told the third one (there were 6 total) that I needed to catch a plane, and that I’d appreciate it if they didn’t cut in front of me. She aquiesced, and I got to go through security pretty quickly.

I then ran to the last gate in the terminal (United has crappy gates in Austin). Huffing and puffing, I was berated by the gate attendant, and I took the beating quite humbly. The gate attendant told me that I was only getting on the plane because the 1st Officer decided to get a cup of coffee. I smiled and asked him if I could by the 1st Officer his coffee. He told me to take it up with him… which was funny, because the 1st Officer was just walking up. I took out $2 and gave it to the 1st Officer. He got a kick out of that, and we boarded the plane.

I took my seat after cramming my bag into the overhead bin, and we got underway. I have never been so thankful to get on a plane as I was this morning.

Ding! is Southwest Airlines latest push into the consumer’s life. It’s a desktop application that alerts you to Southwest’s latests travel deals, and it’s wonderful marketing.

This is user invited desktop travel advertising at it’s best folks. I trust Southwest because I’ve never had a bad experience with them. Ever. I downloaded the application because I trust Southwest. I bought 2 tickets on Southwest based on today’s “Ding! deal” that I probably wouldn’t have bought other-wise (we’d have driven) within 20 minutes of downloading the application.

Do not download it, if you like to travel, but don’t like to spend money.

Great job Southwest.

Ding!

” • Instead of sitting and eating in an airport, like the rest of the population, you walk around until you can spot a power socket.”

Last night at Chicago Midway while waiting 2 hours for my flight, I walked around the terminal looking for a power outlet. There were two in the vicinty of the four gates I was close to. Two power outlets in the whole damned place… why? And they were on the wall, no chairs in sight. So, I stole a chair from behind an unoccupied gate desk, and proceeded to juice up my laptop while checking email.

Yes, I’m a geek.

Are you a geek? If you meet one of the criterian on the rest of her “You know you’re a geek when…” list, then you are.

Yesterday, I booked an appointment with a client in Moline, Iowa. I did so yesterday because the airplane tickets were anywhere from $600 – $700 to a direct flight to and from Austin to Chicago, and I can drive to Moline easily. I booked the appointment yesterday and didn’t think about booking the plane tickets until today when I confirmed the appointment (who buys refundable tickets today anyways).

Well, this morning I logged onto AA.com and low and behold, the tickets were $1,200… more than double what they were yeterday. So, I logged onto Orbitz: same thing. Expedia: same thing. United.com didn’t have any better prices and Southwest Airlines doesn’t get to Chicago early enough for my appointment. Rather than check all of the other airline’s websites I called my friendly local travel agent.

The travel agent took the time to listen to what I needed, understood I was willing to spend up to around $700 for the tickets if she could get that for me, and understood when I needed to get there and when I wanted to get home.

She called me back in 30 minutes with a few options in the $700 range, and we finally booked an itinerary that’ll work. Now here’s where the “Airlines are Stupid” part comes in:

Preface: Realize that the airfare-only part is now ‘valued’ at $1,200 from the airlines at this point (according to their websites).

So, my itinerary now looks like this:

1. Last Minute Travel Deal: Austin to Chicago
   a. Departing Austin on 10/28 at 6:00, arriving in Chicago at 8:30 (when I need to be there).
   b. Departing Chicago on 10/31 at who cares what time…
   c. Includes a rental car (that I won’t be using)
   d. Price: $350 or so

2. ATA flight from Chicago to DFW (no ATA’s bankruptcy filing doesn’t scare me for a flight I’m taking in a couple of days)
   a. One way ticket on the day I need to fly back, when I need to fly back
   b. Price: $150 or so

3. Southwest flight from Love Field to Austin
   a. One way ticket on 10/29 back home at 7:00 in the morning… won’t miss any work
   b. Price: $150 or so.

So, by not using over half of this stupid last minute deal (see item #1 above) I can get the early direct flight that I need from Austin to Chicago, and then combine it with an over-night layover in Dallas (which works because I have family there that I’d love to see) and I’m happy paying $700 for the trip. Now, realize that they have to pay the rental car company for that rental car I’m getting in 1.c. above. This is why the airlines are stupid. I was happy to give them $600 or $700 all for them, but no, by making the price of the trip $1200, they forced me to find a way around their pricing.

And I did.

And in the process, they lost money.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll point out that if I could guarantee I could make it back to the airport in Chicago by 5:00 or so, I could have flown home direct on Thursday, instead of spending the night in Dallas, but since I have family there, and I’d rather spend the night there than miss the flight out of Chicago, I’m more than happy to make that accomodation.

Airlines are stupid.

TO: iGoCustServ@pfsweb.com
FROM: johnengler@gmail.com
SUBJECT: Juice Problems
DATE: October 21, 2004

I bought a Juice product through Amazon.com about a year and a half ago, and lately I’ve noticed that it hasn’t been charging my laptop very reliably… then, today I plugged in my cellphone to it, and noticed that it wasn’t charging the cell phone, but that the cell phone was getting charged for a few seconds, then not, then was, then not, ad infinutum. So, I looked at the connections and the power brick piece, and the blue LED that indicates that the power brick is plugged in was blinking.

What should I do? Is the power brick busted? Can I buy a new one, or fix the old one?

I’m not looking for a total freebie here, though I didn’t expect a $120 power solution to break in a year, but I am looking for some guidance.

Thanks,
John

I’ll post an update when I hear back from them, but if you own a Juice power adapter, or buy an iGo, treat it gingerly… mine’s busted after a year and a half or so…

Funny thing is, I was just telling a buddy of mine at work how cool they are, and how useful they are for travel purposes… Just my luck it dies after I started evangelizing it.

• Dallas to Freeport, Bahamas: $219
• Houston to Freeport, Bahamas: $219
• Houston to Grand Cayman Island, Cayman Islands: $261
• Houston to Kingston, Jamaica: $292
• Houston to Montego Bay, Jamaica: $292
• San Antonio to Cancun, Mexico: $269
• San Antonio to Cozumel, Mexico: $304

Some of the flights out of Miami, Tampa, D.C., Newark, and New York are really cheap too.

Make sure you check the restrictions on these flights, if you’re booking one:

• Fares are round-trip for Economy Class travel and are nonrefundable.
• Tickets must be purchased at least 7 days prior to departure or 1 day after reservation is made, which ever comes first, but no later than 11:59 pm (CT), March 24, 2004.
• Fares are valid for departure April 1 through June 12, 2004. (Other travel dates may be available at different fares.)
• Off-peak fares shown are valid for travel outbound Monday through Thursday and return Tuesday through Friday except for Central America.
• A 3 day minimum stay is required.
• For all travel, up to $18 USD per round-trip in local airport charges may be collected in addition to the advertised price.
• Fares do not include a federal excise tax of up to $3.10 USD per each U.S. domestic flight segment of your itinerary. A flight segment is defined as one takeoff and landing.
• Fares do not include September 11th Security Fee of $2.50 for each enplanement that originates at a U.S. airport, up to a maximum of $5 per one way or $10 per round trip.
• Government taxes and fees of up to $125 USD, varying by destination, are not included, and may vary slightly depending on currency exchange rates at the time of purchase.

Thanks to Megnut for pointing this airfare sale out.

We’re planning this trip for two reasons: 1) We need a vacation and 2) We’re seriously thinking of moving to Mexico in the coming years. I’ll not go into too much detail about reason #2, but will say only this: The ‘rat-race’ is getting tiring, and in Mexico they may be poor, but they’re generally happy.

We’re looking at Guanajuato as a place to get away to at the least because it’s a great old college town in the central part of Mexico. I’ve heard it referred to as one of those ‘un-discovered gems’.

Some of this pages I’ve found on the net are useful, but others are horrible at actually telling me anything about the town/region. And finding a page about the hotels in the city is just about impossible with Google… I ended up using Frommer’s to find most of the hotel information I could find, but even Frommer’s is horrible at giving more than cursory information. Heck, maybe I’ll start an internet tourism site just for Guanajuato some-day…

Anyways, here’s a few pieces I’d recommend people read if they’re looking to visit Guanajuato. Feel free to add your links in the comments:

Hotel Posada Santa Fe
Guanajuato Real Estate – useful in case reason #2 becomes a reality.
Official Government site
Photos from McNolo
Weather Underground Guanajuato Forcast
A good page on geocities about Guanajuato.
Google Guanajuato State Directory page
Map of Guanajuato from Frommers

A few more links:

VisitMexico.com (great informational site run by the Mexican Tourism Board)

The Cultured Traveler: Guanajuato: One of Mexico’s Colonial Gems
FoodandWine.com: Mexico’s Heartland | Guanajuato

Mexico Connect
TourbyMexico.com