Note to self: Try to not schedule a bunch of stuff on the next Friday the 13th

Let’s see, today I had:

  1. A major dog and pony show for the OVSD stakeholders
  2. The second day of GOSCON
  3. A flight down to SFO to participate in the Google Summer of Code Mentor Summit

#1 of course had plenty of Murphy’s Law moments - meeting room laptop didn’t have the right software and the staff didn’t have admin access to allow us to install anything, video projector misbehavior … you know, the typical, “Hi, my name is Bubba and I be a taychnologee gooroo. Now where is that durned rodent-thing so I can show you what we done through dem Internets tubes?” kind of moments. We survived. No angry mob of teachers with torches and pitchforks chased me out of Salem, so I’ll count that as a “near miss.”

#2 …. well, stuff like that sometimes takes a while to develop. You know, say the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time in the hall between sessions. That whole squishy carbon-based networking thing. I don’t think I fubared anything so I’m calling it a definite “miss” until proven wrong.

#3, however. Oh, my. Part of it I brought on myself, so I can’t blame the curse for it all (as you’ll see). But it’s damn sure … enhanced … it. Walk into the airport - flight delayed. Then Corey and I both walk up to the self-check in kiosk. He strolls right on through no problem. I, however, am told I need to see an agent. Umm … oooookaaaay … same travel agent, same flight, same everything, but I get the “special” treatment. Corey says, “I bet it’s the hyphen.” Bingo. After a lengthy and entertaining monologue involving his third wife and the phrase, “I used to be a software engineer … they dropped all those symbols to save money” from the ticket agent, we learn that yes, indeed, the system barfed because it didn’t like the hyphen in my last name. Sheesh. Off to security. Ummm … remember that Leatherman I thought I lost months ago? Found it! (yay!) In my carry-on. (boo!) Points to the PDX TSA security staff for being so friendly and patient. Individually, nothing worth thinking about. But collectively … oh yes. A palpable “hit”, Mr. Murphey.

To be fair, I did get on an airplane and, even though it was a bit late, it went up in the air, flew a few hundred miles, and came down just exactly as it was supposed to do, so I shouldn’t be complaining. Nope. No complaints here. Just a bit of chagrin and a touch of self-mockery. :-)

P.S. - After watching Wenzel play Burnout over at the Mozilla offices tonight … perhaps I shouldn’t be so sad he’s headed back to driving on German roads instead of somewhere around here. ;-)