An appropriate time for a Shoe bomb?

Today was my massive traveling day. I left the hotel in Los Angeles at 5:45am, then I arrived home in Indiana at 9:00pm. This was obviously a pretty intense day. However, through all of the madness of running through airports and boarding planes, I couldn't help but chortle at the silly, almost outrageous, things that people do.

My first observation is the size of peoples' "carry-ons." I brought my bookbag with my homework in it and my laptop on board as my carry-ons. In my view, carry-ons should consists of a bag of items you wish to use as entertainment on the plane ride, and a bag of items that you believe may get damaged if sent off on the luggage transporter. This, however, is apparently a false view. Most of the travelers brought huge suitcases onto the flight; they were waaayyyy over the size limit. It took them thirty-five minutes, after everyone had boarded, to cram every last suitcase into the over-head compartments. This baffled my mind. If you can afford plane tickets, then why not simply pay the twenty-five dollar fine to transport your luggage?

Another instance is when the flight from Los Angeles was about to land in Chicago: the gentleman sitting next to me decided that it was appropriate to mess around with his shoe. ... as if there were a bomb in it...

Additionally, always, without fail, there is someone who will turn on their cell phone during flight. Are people truly that addicted that they can't last a few hours without their cell phone?

These are not rants of anger, but more amazement at the quirky behavior that occurs on airplanes.