Unexpected

What a year it has been. It has been a year full of travelling and hackathons. It started with the AT&T Dev Summit and hackathon in Las Vegas.

Is it already the end of 2013? As everyone always says, “boy, this year went by quickly.” And another saying, “time flies when you’re having fun.” This year was full of space and NASA activities.

In January, I had a opportunity to visit Space Shuttle Endeavour at the California Science Center. She was elevated off the ground in her temporary new home.

Back in San Francisco this morning at PARISOMA, I continued hacking on my project for this weekend. They had an assortment of breakfast food and more orange juice than one could drink in a month.

Getting to see Space Shuttle Atlantis in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on one of the last tours was by chance. I had arrived a day early for the official rollover last November, so I visited Kennedy Space Center and took the regular tour that was included in the regular admission.

Over the last several years as the Space Shuttle Program was winding down, I had the opportunity to take the tour. Each time I took the tour, it was different from the last, often missing a stop from the previous tour.

JetBlue did customer service right twice today. I called in to ask for a clarification on boarding logistics. The agent responded in such a positive way, commending me for such a great question, and answering it so concisely, that it led to a positive tweet from me.

Today I was going down a list of NASA Social participants for tomorrow’s SpaceX launch event. I was looking for people I’ve met before in person or have interacted with/followed on Twitter. Some people are more active or provide higher quality content that stand out and become a staple in the community.

Thanksgiving shouldn’t be the only day you think about what you’re thankful for. But if that’s the day that prompts you, at least you do take the time to reflect. Here are my 10 things I’m thankful for, which is heavily space related this year!

NASA Social

If you haven’t heard of a NASA Tweetup, or nowadays, a NASA Social, head over to the NASA website and sign up for great opportunities to join other social media followers and get some awesome behind the scenes access of what NASA and other space partners are doing. Getting to see the Mars Curiosity Rover launch, seeing huge satellite dishes at Goldstone, and sharing the last shuttle rollover with fellow tweeps, these events are really great opportunities to connect with people with similar interests.

Today was the first day airlines and travel agents had to include government taxes and fees into the advertised price of air travel.  There is a mixed reaction about this change, from customers to actual airlines.

Before this change, airlines would display the base price and you wouldn’t really get to see the final price until you were ready to buy.  For a multi-segment flight, trying to figure out what these taxes really were was a bit of a challenge.  International travel would result in a pretty hefty cost being tacked on!  Now the consumer can, without much effort, truly pick the lowest price, with taxes and fees included.  A lazy consumer’s delight!

Sure, some people are against the taxes being hidden in the pricing.  Just like gasoline, some will pick the lowest price and just pay it.  They won’t take the time to understand who takes what part of the price they pay.  This may allow taxes to increase silently and airlines incorrectly blamed for charging more when they aren’t.  Does that really matter?  Not really.  There is an added cost to a lot of things we buy.  Airline tickets, gasoline, and electronics (waste disposal fees) are just a few.  Sometimes these are broken down for the consumer, and sometimes they aren’t.

Today I went to my mailbox like any other mail delivery day. Usually there are bills, ads, and more ads. Did I mention ads? Except, today was a little different. There was this envelope. Thinking it was another offer for a credit card from Southwest Airlines, it was put at the bottom of the pile.