A Quick Update

Here's a quick update:

•  A long time ago, I created a twitter account for Pat Is Crazy, and then promptly forgot about it. The other day I looked at it, and I was surprised to find that I was "following" over 800 different accounts. These appeared to be completely random, and included many foreign language accounts, as well as a smattering of "verified" accounts. How did this happen? What was the purpose? I know basically nothing about twitter, so I don't know what effects "following" an account has, other than that you receive that accounts' tweets. Has the account been spouting spam? There doesn't appear to be any evidence of that. Anyway, I deleted the account.

• It feels wonderful to be back home and not have to deal with traveling every week. One of my last trips back from Orange County was especially soul crushing. I booked an 8:15 PM flight from Orange County to Oakland. Around 2 PM, I get a text from Southwest saying that the flight had been delayed an hour. Anybody who travels with any frequency knows that while delays are common, they usually do not post them 6 hours before the flight is scheduled to leave, so this was an ominous sign. So I get to the airport around 8 PM, and when I go up to the counter to check my bag, the lady there sees that I'm going to Oakland, and informs me that there is a problem with that flight, and that she has to switch me to a later flight, which is scheduled to leave at 9:50 PM. Instead of an actual boarding pass for this flight, I get a boarding pass-sized piece of paper that tells me to see the agent at the gate for my boarding pass. Meanwhile, my bag is labeled to be put on the 9:50 flight. As I'm going through security, I get two more texts, the first of which says that my flight is now delayed until 10:15, and the second of which says that my flight is now un-delayed to 9:10 PM. When I get to the counter at the gate, the agent explains to me that my original flight's plane tracking software is not working properly, but that it is in the air and will be landing soon, so she will switch me back to that flight. I now ask, "My bag will make it on the plane too?" She answered, "Yes." Now skip ahead to me standing at baggage claim in Oakland. My bag does not show up with my flight. Now fortunately, the flight that my bag took to Oakland landed only about 10 minutes after my own flight, so it ended up not being a big deal. It had been a long day, but I was almost home. I just needed to take the shuttle to the parking lot, and then drive home. I get on the shuttle, and it drives to the parking lot. At the first stop, it opens its doors and a couple people get off. The doors close. We don't move. The doors open and close again. Still not moving. Apparently, these shuttle buses are designed so that you cannot drive with the doors open, which is a great safety feature. Unfortunately, the sensor for telling when the doors had closed was not functioning properly, and now the shuttle was stuck at stop number 1. My car was by stop number 5. Oh, and there was traffic on the way home, at 11 PM.