It all starts with poster board.
Getting mom to drive to the drug store to load up on the thick flimsy is a great start to a great project. Grab a sheet of white, a sheet of neon pink, and if you’re lucky one of those thick cardboard three-folds. Come on, we both know that cardboard added some scientific integrity to your research — the seventh grade equivalent of getting your work published in The New England Journal of Awesome.
Now, it doesn’t end there. Next you’re grabbing markers, spray paint, baking soda, and Styrofoam. Once you’ve got everything together you’re rushing home and getting down to science, people. The carpeted corner of the unfinished basement becomes your lab and it’s time to spend hours putting on lab coats, staring into microscopes, and pour bubbling green liquids into beakers. Also, taping.
Come on and let’s count down some classics:
6. The solar system. Jabbing those spray-painted Styrofoam balls with a straightened out coat hanger is a truly great feeling. As is painting a splotchy brown Australia on Earth and a big eye on Jupiter. If you want to go the To Scale route, remember to leave Pluto at home.
5. Volcano. There are two types of eruptions. First, there’s the Underwhelming Fizz — where you stare deep into the mouth of the fiery beast only to witness some rock-hard hunks of baking soda floating in a pool of strong-smelling vinegar. It’s disappointing, but you can always try again and hope for a Superblow — where everyone stares with wide-eyes as red ooze bubbles and slides down your carefully painted volcano onto the GI Joe townspeople below.
4. The one the kid’s parents obviously did. Also known as robbing your child of the thrill of scientific discovery in exchange for a B+.
3. Growing something. Whether it was lima beans or patches of fresh grass, it was a a classic move to study Sunlight vs. Shadows, Music vs. No Music, or Watering Plants vs. Pouring Coke On Them.
2. Coke is bad. Speaking of Coke, did you have that kid who left a tooth or some nails sitting in it for a month? The groundbreaking research typically concluded with a harsh indictment of the entire soda industry. And maybe a business card for the kid’s dad who was a dentist.
1. The one that didn’t work. Every science fair had a few of these gems. They were sad and beautiful at the same time. Because that down-faced ten year old standing in front of a dim lightbulb was learning how to deal with lost efforts and how to get back their drive after a fall. Keep that chin up, tiger. You’ll get ’em next time.
Yes, beautiful science fair moments were always a perfect close to months of hallway passion, energetic teachers, and long lonely nights cutting construction paper letters with pinking shears. Letting kids learn, letting kids dream, letting kids try and try and try — well, there’s just so much good that comes of that.
As they bottle insects, jab battery wires into lemons, and rub magnets together, you can see the whirring gears spinning with delight. Yes, all that learning just sponges, soaks in, and sticks there forever as the next generation of curiosity seekers tease their buzzing minds forward and forward and forward…
AWESOME!
Pre-order The Book of Awesome
Photos from: here
So here’s both a shameless attempt to up my chances of winning the contest and a legit question. Is there any way the website could be improved so that you can jump from one page of comments to another without having to go through all the ones in-between? It’s immensely irritating to have to keep clicking “Newer Comments” upwards of 20 times to be able to read the most recent ones. I imagine that when you started this website, you didn’t imagine there would be any post with more than 2000 comments or that this would ever be a problem, but apparently you underestimated yourself!
Keep being awesome!
I don’t think Neil has control over that. I think it’s wordpress that does that.
Here’s a sneaky tip: on the home page, see if any of the “Five most recent comments” are for this post, and then click the shortcut to the comment. That will most likely put you on the last page of comments.
http://1000awesomethings.com/2009/08/03/709-waking-up-to-the-smell-of-sizzling-bacon/
Bacon – can’t say it enough.
Awesome
Talking about childhood memories with your siblings or childhood friends. It’s especially awesome when they remind you of something you’d forgotten and all the memories suddenly come rushing back.
Having absolutely nothing to do
Those are PJ days. No reason to change, just lounge in your pajama’s all day.
that sound when you open a bottle of soda. – when the gas escapes from a soda bottle
music to my ears.
recognizing the smell of your favorite food cooking.
– popcorn
– cookies
– pizza
– bacon
– coffee
When you wake up early on Saturday morning and for a brief moment in time freak out — thinking that it’s still the work week.
It slowly dawns on you that it’s the start of your weekend, and it awaits you. Full of time, full of relaxation, and full of joy.
AWESOME
When your car is muddy and you decide to wash it in the morning but you wake up and discover it had rained just enough last night to clean your car. Free car wash!
Knowing someone’s childhood nickname, or other fun secret.
Still being in love with that significant other, after all those many years.
Watching your kite actually fly. Mine generally love the comfort of crashing into trees, the ground, and any buildings within a five mile radius. So when they actually are up it can be pretty cool.
Watching the sun rise and set in the same day. Bonus if you actually welcome it and bid it farewell.
Wishing on a shooting star. Some of my wishes just don’t come out right. Then again, the “shooting stars” I always seem to find are blinking and not very fast.
Wearing a play crown for a whole day just to see who plays along.
Singing a song amidst strangers to see who joins in. I got two people in the grocery line tonight to join me with “Let’s Go Fly A Kite” from Mary Poppins, and I have no idea who they are.
Leaving a tip larger than the cost of the meal because the service was great, and you know how that will affect the server’s day. Not something to do everyday, but I do suggest trying it at least once.
Sending a thank you card or note to someone whom helped you professionally. Was it an insurance agent that walked you through your first accident? Was it the bill collector that didn’t talk down to you and was actually flexible? How about the person scanning your groceries? Sometimes just showing the gratitude can be uplifting. Asking to speak to a manager, and leaving positive feedback. Totally awesome!
When a stranger gives you an unexpected but genuine complement.
Double Spacing Your Document and perfectly making the length requirement of the your paper.
Pulling an all nighter, or cramming to write your paper at the last night, and praying that it’s long enough to turn in. You write it all in one big block, then when you’re all done, and your only hope for success in CTRL+2, and bam! Length requirement fufilled.
awesome.
I LOVE doing that. I can only write my papers in single space and then it’s like MAGIC when I double space them. My other (kind of ‘illegal’) secret is that I “find & replace” all my periods and change them to size 14 font. It’s amazing – it can add just that little bit that you need, but just can’t write.
When you’re supposed to be dirty.
Normally, we’re supposed to be clean.
But after a hike, a good workout or a good food fight, you’re supposed to be covered in muck. And it feels good to unleash your inner beast and relish in it for a little while.
Letting yourself stay dirty for that extra minute…
AWESOME!
Today I thought of a good one for this…the moment a t-shirt turns soft, comfortable and awesome. New t-shirts have that stiff kind of feeling but after a certain number of washings, you put it on and realize its entered a new realm of comfort. AWESOME!
When you remember something that was bugging you all day.
Like who that actor was in the movie last night or the name of the new guy at work.
When you suddenly remember it’s like the world is put back in order again.
Its that time of year again.
Yes, its that time where your grit your teeth, steel your will and head off to the doctors office. You’re in for smelly waiting rooms, where every one avoids looking you in the eye. The magazines haven’t been changed for years, and you could swear you saw that same painting on the wall in the last motel you stayed at.
After the waiting, once your name has been called by the drone of a bored nurse, you’re ushered into a small room and told to change into something a little less comfortable. You get poked, prodded, and your privacy bubble is violated in a hundred ways.
But as you leave a weight you didn’t know was there is lifted from your shoulders. Yes sir, you’ve got a clean bill of health. So go home and frame it, hang it on the wall. Its time to celebrate and bask in the glow of being 100% A-OK.
AWESOME!
Having your pet waitting patiently for you behind the front door when you arrive home after hours of work. You just can’t avoid smiling to your best friend looking right into your eyes whith the tail wiggling of happiness asking for cuddling time. Doesn’t matter how boring or stressing your day was, everything seems better and simple at that moment.
Walking back to a cheering crowd after bowling a strike
I love this…ya know since it rarely happens to me… I’m a gutter ball thrower.
Watching car headlights shine through your windows and blinds at night. Seeing the shadows from one end of the room to the other as the car passes is one of my favorite things to do at night.
When you’re waiting at a restaurant for a table. They give you one of those light up, vibrating things to let you know when its your turn. Wait, wait, and wait. Finally as soon as you forget you’re even holding that thing, it buzzes and you’re ready to eat.
two things:
Babies wearing sunglasses
brand new school supplies… its like the year (and your crispy empty notebooks, sharp sharp pencils, and perfect pink erasers) has so much promise and potential.
Having a day to catch up on some shows you have recorded on your DVR or Tivo.
I love a free giveaway!
cardboard boxes!!!! when I was little, I remember my grandma buying a new refridgerator and me and my brothers would play in the box it came in forever!! It was a spaceship, a house, a racecar…so many things for hours and hours of fun. Forget those expensive toys, give us a box and we are happy.
That’s the real reason kids love big piles of presents. Who cares what adults put in the boxes, it’s about what the kids can construct later!
The most awesome moment for me is when I’m teaching somebody something and the lightbulb goes on. All of a sudden they go from helplessly floundering in their ignorance to a brilliance that can blind you!! Now that’s AWESOME!!!
Any day you realize you do not need to put on your watch. This is awesome because it means you have no scheduled commitments and you can completely ignore the time of day, all day.
I feel naked without my watch on. I don’t really look at it anymore. Its just become part of my arm now. :-)
Driving to the gas station just as they’re lowering the numbers on the big sign.
Trust me, it happened to me yesterday. and it was AWESOME!
I used to work at a gas station and whenever we got the phone call to lower the prices, we would go out and tell everyone at the pumps to wait a minute and they will get it cheaper.
Also, when they called to tell us to raise the prices, all of us that worked there would fill up our cars before we changed the numbers.
They day you realize that you’re friends with your parents and start talking together about things you never thought you would. AWESOME.
My mom is my best friend.
When you wake up before your alarm and can just lay there soaking in the warmth of your sheets. AWESOME!
finally understanding something that your parents told you that “you’ll understand when you’re older.” This holds true for “the contest” in Seinfeld as well as for why my parents never let me watch Pretty Woman. That sudden comprehension (and subsequent blushing) is just AWESOME.
The most awesome thing for me is the sight of a child immersed in a book. It doesn’t matter if it’s a toddler looking at a board book, or a teenager drifting off into the world of a YA novel. There’s something about books taking children away to real and imaginary worlds that always puts a smile on my face!
Cleaning your room and finding old photos or something fun that makes you reminisce about the past. You find yourself unable to stop looking at the pics or whatever it is and you realize you still have a room to clean. It really doesn’t matter, though b/c you are so happy to have looked at the memories, you could walk away from the messy room and start another time.
Cleaning and finding old photos or memories that make you reminisce about the past. You stop the cleaning, but it doesn’t matter b/c you could walk away from the messy room and still be happy b/c you just relived good times.
When you fit all the pieces together perfectly in TETRIS so that all the lines dissappear.
AWESOME.
Making that one shot in the basketball game “HORSE” that no one else can make.
AWESOME.
Last time I played horse it was in front of a garage with windows. I did a really crappy lay up and shoved my elbow through the glass and it got caught there. I also twisted my left ankle with a loud pop. NO ONE was willing to try that shot after me, so I was crowned winner on the way to the hospital.
The feeling of falling in a dream… how your stomach goes up and you wake up just before you hit the ground.
AWESOME.
When you arrive at your destination but stay in the car for an extra minute or two so you can listen to the rest of the awesome song that’s playing on the radio.
How about “finding a great song on your iPod and having no idea how it got there?” I absolutely love finding little treasures in my iTunes library without even realizing I had them.
Jumping-in-the-air pictures
Whether it’s soaring high up off a trampoline, leaping off something and doing a cool ninja kick on the way down, or jumping up in the air with all your friends on the beach at sunrise, capturing that gravity-defying moment is always–need I even say it?–AWESOME.
Ooh, one more- “When someone sings the wrong song lyrics.” My husband has a tendency to mis-hear song lyrics frequently (for example, he thought it was “Oh, Vicky Watson” instead of “Roam if she wants to” by the B-52’s for YEARS until I straightened him out…) Catching him belting out completely wrong lyrics in the shower, singing to his radio loud and proud= AWESOME!
I like it when I finally learn the words to a song. Sometimes there is this one line in a song that I just can’t make sense out of and I pretend I know what it says. I have finally learned to power of googling lyrics!
All classes being canceled the day before spring break!
Making the correct turn…
You are on a long drive and kind of realized you have been lost for a while. You figure that you mine as well keep driving and hope it works out. You see a road and something sparks in your brain that, maybe, just maybe, it was on the directions. So you make that right or left turn, all based on instincts. You drive for a bit on that road and then there it is…. whatever it may be… it is the thing or place you were looking for, maybe a road that puts you back on track, maybe the actual destination. You feel that sense of accomplishment and can brag a little bit with the passengers, especially since you were reassuring them the whole time that you knew exactly were to go. Worked out this time.
Awesome.
Yes! The feeling of becoming “un-lost!” Whew!
Finding someone with the same birthday as you. I have only met one person with the same as mine. She was in my second grade class. We were birthday sisters. I moved and lost contact and have yet to find another birthday sister or brother.
Pay day…
You decided to spend a lot of money these last couple weeks, because hey, it will work out in the end. It seems like all of the bills are due tomorrow, but then it clicks… you remember, today is Pay Day! Just like in the game of Life, you get that pay day and all of the money problems work themselves out once again. You pay off those bills and start spending money once again, just looking forward to the next pay day. Living pay check to pay check, and enjoying every second of it.
Awesome.
When you get pulled over for speeding and the cop just gives you a warning! AWESOME!
Finding a website FIRST….
You search the internet looking for cool, interesting websites, so that you can find that one AMAZING or “Awesome” website that you can tell them about. You look in obscure places, hoping that one of these websites will be the winner, the one that your friends will look at daily, and you always have the credit of finding it. And then there it is, that perfect site, you found it and send the link to your whole contacts list. You are now the king/queen of the internet, at least for now.
Awesome.
Finding the perfecting hiding spot….
You are in the middle of an intense game of Hide n go Seek. You are tearing apart the neighboorhood or your home to find that perfect spot. That spot that you will spend the next 5 hours in, just sitting, waiting, hoping that no one is good enough to find you. You find it and just sit there, and know it is perfect. You know that this will be the spot you use for all of the rest of the games of Hide n go Seek you play in the future.
It can end in one of two ways… You get found and start your search for the new best place ever, or you sit there for hours past the end of the game, sneak out of the spot and glow in your glory. Everyone pretend they don’t care, but they are all jealous, and you can not wait to play again.
Awesome.
Climbing in to your parents bed because it’s so much more comfortable than your own.
As a mother of 3 teenagers, this happens at least once a week. The kids will be laying or sitting in my bed watching television, listening to music or just chatting about their day. There have also been several occasions that I found them sprawled out and sleeping.
Awesome!!!
Ha ha, probably because your bed is MADE, and theirs is a jumble of sheets, blankets, laundry, homework, snack wrappers, teddy bears….
when the sun is setting and the moon comes out and the sun and moon are both sort of suspended there in dusk. And when the sun disappears, the moon lights up your way home.
finding out something you did which you didn’t think much of at the time was greatly appreciated by someone else