10 Thoughts for December 18, 2014

1. When I booked my flight, it turned out that with just two days advanced booking, I could have grabbed a flight to Hawai'i at just $220, with the return flight at $200. (For comparison's sake, most of the time the cheapest price each way would be $198, and were you to try to early book a flight for March of next year, the price would be higher than what I paid.) I was so sure that I'd have to pay well over $300 each way.
2. Words that, when broken down, can be understood: "hemodynamic compromise" = Hemo (blood) dynamic (movement) compromise (blocked). Or how an industry preserves its value through nomenclature. Why did this pop up on my radar screen? Well, because I added the New England Journal of Medicine to my RSS feeds a month ago, and the words popped up in a post this week. Geek.
3. I have an admission to make: I totally ignored Twitter while I was away in Hawai'i. I didn't have the time to keep up with what was going on, but moreso, I just don't use it to keep in touch with folks who matter most.
4. I saw a lot of single people taking selfies while I was in Hawai'i. The sight was amusing. Here I am, taking photos of the things I enjoy -- Rainbow's, Leonard's, Diamond Head, the beach -- and there I see people taking pictures of themselves with the things they enjoy, obscured in the background of their photos.
5. All because I was wearing my Seahawks shirt, I had the pleasure of teasing the 49er fan at Leonard's Bakery, while also exchanging shakas with a fellow Seahawks fan at Hoku Bakery, the day before the Seattle beat down.
6. I forgot just how naturally beautiful women in Hawai'i were, and I'm not talking the tourists walking around in bikinis. I think I stared too much at my dad's head nurse and doctors. Geez, did my eyes just pop out? Sorry about that, Nurse Alice and Dr. Lee.
7. True story: Even in the middle of Winter it was still too hot to sleep well at night in Hawai'i.
8. In two terms, President Obama has certainly shaped the future of America for years to come, but the last two years have been a barnstorm of change, with gay marriage, marijuana, immigration, Net Neutrality, Iran, Cuba and Russia all coming up on the radar. He's so far gotten everything right (in my textbook), even if partisans vociferously oppose his measures so far -- were a Republican in office to do exactly what he's done, Republicans would be surely voicing broad support for his / her actions on these issues.
9. I haven't yet read -- nor might I ever read the entirety of -- the torture report, but c'mon now, if you actually believed that the US did not engage in torture, or that the tactics resulted in actionable intelligence, then you're just not capable of dealing with cognitive dissonance. Or perhaps your name is Dick Cheney. I didn't need to know about Abu Ghraib to know that the CIA were engaged in fishy and probably illegal actions. The problem here, is that the partisan Republicans have their heads stuck up in their arses to see the light of day.
10. One last thing: The Hawaiian Air planes all had USB charging plugs (Airbus A330), which is quite awesome. I never had to worry about losing juice -- probably a bigger issue on very long haul flights.