#277 The fact that airplanes exist

Neil Pasricha

Wait, wait, wait.

Let me get this straight.

Giant hunks of metal weighing half a million pounds soar in the air way above the clouds over deep dark oceans to deliver people to distant lands thousands of miles away?

AWESOME!

Photo from: here

59 thoughts to “#277 The fact that airplanes exist”

  2. Flying in the sky: Awesome
    Ear pressure: not awesome

    Free soda on airplanes: awesome
    Taking away snacks on airplanes: not awesome

    Flying on an airplane with no “class”es: awesome
    Getting there at 5 am for a 9 am flight: not awesome

    Being relatively safe on an airplane: awesome
    Going through security: not awesome

    Aisle seats: awesome leg room
    People squishing over you to go to the bathroom: not awesome

    Window seats: awesome views
    Being squished into one seat, even when you need to go to the bathroom: not awesome

    Falling asleep on the airplane: awesome
    Little kids crying on the airplane: not awesome

    There are awesome and not awesome things…..but, it ends up being awesome because of those little tubes that you go through to get on the airplane and the moving sidewalks that they provide. =)

  4. oh that is absolutely awesome! what? i’m sitting in a chair in the sky?
    another awesome thing though: being up late so i can be one of the first to see the new awesome thing of the day. i feel like i’m part of some secret society, getting my own little preview :D

  7. Pushing .5 Million pounds against thin air into the sky is truly awesome

    Awesome – walking at 600 miles per hour ….

    … up the aisle of a plane at 10000 feet!! Really!!

  8. Thank goodness for the little things :] Oh, wait.. in this case it’s a half a million pounds thing…. still, awesome!

  9. I was just listening to the song “Airplanes” :D
    It is true, this way of travelling is pretty darn awesome.

    1. I know what you mean! I can’t imagine how long it took to get places that we can reach in under a day.

      Back when I used to visit home from college, on the way back I’d always travel this stretch of highway that shared its shoulder with Amish travelers riding in horse-drawn buggies. And I always thought kind of the same thing: “It might take them ALL DAY to go half as far as I’m going today! CRAZY!”

  11. Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars?…………AWESOME!!!

  12. But the most awesome is looking down at the world from the sky! (even more when its night….all the lights, cars, people…..)

  13. To be honest… these past posts of awesome have been really crappy… Like, their not even right on some regards… The quality seems to be thinning… Just my opinion though.

    1. *sigh…*
      Ok – I’m going to try a different approach today..
      *stretches… does a few jumping jacks to loosen up..*

      Hey Justin!

      From what we’ve been able to gather about Neil over these past few years, I imagine he’s someone who would definitely value your feedback! However, it was tough to figure out where exactly he should improve from your comment:

      “Dear Neil, You should suck less! Sincerely, Justin”
      (I’m paraphrasing, but let’s be honest – that’s basically what you said)

      How do you think the recent posts have been lacking? You’ve obviously stuck with the blog for a while even with the posts being “really crappy” so there must have been something that really attracted you to this blog at one point to instill this sort of loyalty. Personally, I know when I visit a blog that I think has been “really crappy” for some time, I stop spending my precious internet hours there. But you’re still here, so I assume you want to see this little blog succeed!

      What were some of your favorite posts in the past? What were the common themes that you really loved? What made them unique or special that the current “really crappy” ones lack? In particular, what bothers you about the recent posts.

      Personally, as a long-time reader myself, I really liked today’s post. I think it has a lot in common with some early classics like “Your Colon” or “Salt”. It’s taking something that we all take for granted but really makes our lives so much better.

      I mean, take jdurley’s point from above – imagine if you could take one of Columbus’s sailors and show him a modern airplane. Our current aviation technology would be indistinguishale from magic to these 15th century sailors. The world we live in is truly AMAZING!

      So, let us know some of your specific thoughts. I’m sure Neil would love to hear them!

      Freddo

      1. I completely agree. I think today’s post is the embodiment of “awesome” it its truest sense — something that causes you to feel full of awe. Even though it’s become an everyday thing for all of us, the fact that airplanes exist and function is truly miraculous if you think about it. Which, as luck would have it, is exactly what Neil has inspired us to do.

        Freddo’s right — griping < constructive criticism.

        P.S. Justin, Freddo was too polite to say anything, but I'll go there. Might wanna do a quick grammar check next time.

        1. Laura – if someone wants to have bad grammar, their entitled to there own opinion.

          Write? WRITE???

          Argh.. Homophones are the worst! (NTTAWWT)

              1. Hahaha, that is definitely the best part. One of the other 3rd grade teachers and I played this for our kids and they LOVE that part. Even though we did it way back in like, October, they’ll randomly pop outta nowhere with a “Not that kind of meeeaaat!”

                I figured Freddo would have something to say about your commenting on meat. ;)

                1. Yeah, so did I! I mean, I just LAID it out there for him! Must have been too tuckered out after that long exposition above.

                  1. Exactly.. my mind was racing with good “meat” jokes, but my fingers were just plain tuckered out.. I had nothing left..

                    I was also rather disappointed that our buddy Justin above was so “one-and-done”.. where were all his great ideas to make the blog better?? Oh well, at least we got Laura’s fantastic YouTube video out of the whole deal.. :)

            2. Oh wow. That is one special video. I’m afraid of going to sleep tonight for fear that Brian McKnight is going to appear in my dreams dressed as bacon and crooning ever so softly in my ear, which would effectively ruin bacon for me forever.

              1. Maybe it’ll be your railroad man singing like Brian McKnight about meat/meet. ;)

  15. Reeeeaaaalllllyyyyyy awesome!!

    I’ll try this awesomeness next month flying to Rome! It’s getting hard to hold myself… I wanna say out loud: This Is Awesome!!!

  17. i feel awesome when i am sitting in the aeroplane and i look out of the window and see the lights of the city , the glitter . Feel like i am viewing the sky from my window with lots of glowing worms :) funny

  20. Hmmm.. this sounds familiar. Oh yeah, it was a lot more awesome when I heard this from Louis CK……

    1. Hmmm.. this self-important snark sounds familiar. Oh yeah, it was a lot more original when I saw it in every other comment thread on the internet.

      1. How is this in the least bit self-important? In fact, it’s exactly the opposite. It’s about giving credit where credit is due.

        1. Brian – you’re right. I don’t think that was exactly the right term. I guess I just found it impolite, and I wonder what happened to people’s manners. Would you say something like this to someone in person?

          For example, I imagine that I’m over at my in-laws’ house eating dinner, for example, and my father-in-law makes some point about the economy. And let’s say that I read a very similar point being made in the editorial pages of the NY Times several weeks back. Now – I have no idea if he came up with this point on his own, or if he’s stealing the idea and passing it off as his own. I just know that the way I was raised, I certainly wouldn’t lean back in my chair and say: “Hmmm.. this sounds familiar. Oh yeah, it was a lot more awesome when I heard this from Thomas Friedman…”

          I guess I just thought it was impolite is all. And given the nature of this blog, I tend to think that civility is something worth trying to maintain.

          My great fear is that if we don’t keep a close eye on these sort of things, before long we’ll turn into the YouTube comment threads, and abandon all hope, ye who enter there.. It’d be the end of one of my favorite parts of this blog and the amazing community that has sprung up around it.

          1. Wowsers, Freddo! You are on a roll today! Your keyboard must be melting. Keep up the good fight :)

  21. This is awesome…sitting at the airport now for my 4th plane trip in 4 days and still find flying some kind of awesome miracle.

    Can you imagine travelling overseas on a boat from australia? No thank you.

    Therefore aeroplanes = awesome!

  22. Totally awesome !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Saw three landing one after the other today… I will never, not ever, be less amazed by steel birds… They are breathtaking.

  23. Airplanes are absolutely fantastic. My favourite part if the fact that they connect people all over the world in just hours. I count myself extremely luck to be learning to fly at the moment. The view from the air, especially at night (as has been previously mentioned) is truly awesome.

  24. Do you know who Louis C.K. is? He was on Conan when he still was on NBC after Leno’s Tonight Show and had this great bit about how everything is amazing and no one is happy. He talked about airplanes and flying.

    “Everyone on every plane should just constant be going ‘OH MY GOD! WOW!’. You’re flying! You’re sitting, in a chair, in the SKY!”

  26. Recently took a business trip from snowy, gloomy Calgary to rainy, gloomy Vancouver and quite enjoyed the fact that “It’s always sunny at 35,000 feet”.
    You know, unless it’s night time.

  27. I was a “thrower” for a brief transitional period of my life and still have a weak shoulder and bad memories of pointless workplace politics and long, sweaty, thankless days that I’d happily forget. But I hope I always remember never tiring of the wonder of parking right out at the end of the terminals where no one else could go and watching something that was so small in the sky be so huge as it cruises past so close to you on the ground. Quite awesome. Thanks for the reminder. Great post :)

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