Things I learnt this week:

• Meeting veteran Apache Solr committers is awesome. Stalking their online presence afterwards to find out they’re even more awesome is even better.¹
• Buying a Clipper card makes using BART (or more precisely, buying a ticket and continuing to be able to buy tickets/credit) achievable. I do not understand why I have so much trouble with the BART transit system when I don’t anywhere else in the world. But hopefully I’ve solved that now, providing I don’t lose the card.
• Whilst I don’t bring it up first, apparently I will go on an 30 minute rant of how my country has developed political vCJD and gone crazy if the subject arises.
• I always feel I need to completely avoid alcohol for a month after I visit San Francisco for some reason.
• People like bourbon gifts! (somewhat related to the previous note)
• Why, oh why did they build a city on what seems like all the hills in the world?
• Sure, it makes sense before you go that you could book a hotel out by the airport and it won’t matter. But…
• Yes, there really is a tiki bar with a pool and a boat in the basement of a hotel. My first SF tech party!
• I turned up at the wrong location on one day of the week and ended up only being 30 minutes early to where I was supposed to be instead of over an hour.
• You can’t just say “I’m Ian, from Ohio,” because saying it out loud means that people have a lot of follow-up questions. But I guess it means I still have the accent…
• Unless you make firm plans out there, it’s not going to happen (totally my fault). Next time, Drew!
• This was my first trip using compression packing cubes. I have finally tripped over into the dark side. And I’m not even a consultant anymore!
• I definitely missed not having Andy around during the days and nights (sadly, he was ill this week).
• Getting stuck in Dallas, turning the return journey into a harsh 18-hour affair was probably not the best ending. But at least I’m back!