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
Having your pet waitting patiently for you behind the front door after a long day of work.
Then your best friend looks above right into your eyes with the tail wiggling fast (dog version) or your cat walking around your legs asking for some cuddle time.
Doens’t matter how boring or stressing your day was, everything seems better and simple at that moment.
When the subway doors stop right in front of you.
Heading down the stairwell to the dark, hot, stinky subway platform, you never know what you’ll find. It might seem like a mass exodus from the city or it might be deserted. You hang tight, stand firm, and stake your place. And as the tunnel fills with light, the first cars blow past you, and a lone door screeches to stop right in front of you, you know it’s your lucky day!
Yes! This is so true!
When you have your first glass of chocolate milk in a long time and blow bubbles in it, trying to get them as high as you can without overflowing it, like you did when you were younger. It’s awesome when you remember these random happy events you used to have do in your childhood.
The Smell of Koolaid being made
ahhh…you’re sitting in the living room and then that sweet powdery smell comes wafting into your nostrils. Yes, then you know pretty soon you can be saying, “Oh Yeah” just like the koolaid man.
Fretting over a test and then your teacher announces that its and open note open book test.
This happened to me last week and it really was awesome! I got a 104% :)
When the weather man was wrong about the rain and its sunny all day long
The great feeling after you just had your hair cut
And the ends are so precise! It’s such a great feeling!
Finishing an essay on the exact amount of space.
Example it has to be three pages long and you finish what you need to say in exactly three pages.
Seeing the rainbow after the rain
Finishing things way before the deadline you have to meet
Knowing random facts that aren’t important to what you’re supposed to be learning
Yes! That’s so fun!
Randomly picking the right piece of chocolate in an assorted box of chocolates
Yeah! That’s the best! Especially if everything else is really gross… haha
(you kids are probably too young for this
reference, but..)
Crunchy Frog!
When you finally finish an application that you have been working on for hours or sometimes days!!
AWESOME
Finding the perfect pen.
It writes better than any other pen you have. It glides across the paper. Its the perfect color. The perfect shape.
And it never gets lost!
http://1000awesomethings.com/2009/03/18/807-that-one-really-good-pen-that-never-gets-lost/
Thinking you’re our of gas then when you get in your car you realize you still have a full tank
When a new album comes out from a group you love. First there is the pre-release single, which gives you a taste of the awesomeness to come. Then the album is released (which you preodered and got an great deal on), and you love every single track. How often does that happen? And when it does, it’s awesome. It feels like every song was written for you and there’s one to suit your every mood. Music is truly the soundtrack of our lives!
Ooops, I meant “pre-ordered” in the above.
Or how about this? When you discover a “new” music artist whose music you LOVE and then find out they’ve been around for a while and already have 4 or 5 albums out!
Peeling a sunburn.
Yeah, some may think it’s icky, but is there anything more satisfying than unveiling that new, pure, soft skin underneath? haha. Well *I* like it anyway…
Awesome!
LOL…….me too!!
Finally seeing all the movies that your favorite actor or actress is in.
Finishing each others sentences….
Knowing what your friend is saying before they even finish a sentence….
“Hey, do you remember that one time when…”
“Yeah, yes I do.”
Pouring the best crumbs from the bottom of a bag or cereal box directly into your mouth! It’s worth it even if you get a crumbly face.
Naming inanimate objects. Specifically cars! My first car was Jade the Jeep.
Having the same birthday as a friend or stranger!
Doing something right the FIRST TIME!!!
Awesome!
Or EPIC!
stumbling across a great website that you just have to click on everyday!!! (like this one)
When a new song comes out that perfectly describes what you are going through and how you are feeling at that very moment.
When your kids learn a new word that you didn’t even know. My daughter came up to me and said, “I know what the ends of shoe strings are called.” I played along and said, “What are they called?” and she told me. I still can’t remember what she said, but I remember grabbing a dictionary and looking it up and sure enough, she was right.
Aglet! They’re called aglets!
I remember my brother came bouncing into my room, and shyly asked
“D’you know what the little plastic bits at the end of your shoe laces are?”
I hadn’t ever thought of it. But now I know…
Inside jokes. Me and my bff have soooooo many!!
When you are at a restaurant and they have those ‘refill your own cup’ fountains and you put a little bit of each soda in your cup. My brothers call it ‘around the world’ drink.
Anticipation for something great to come.
You wait and you wait and its all you can think about. The clock ticks away and yet all you can do is wait. You get jittery and a little anxious. Excitement fills your evey bone.
Finally….its time!!
This goes for anything….the end of a class, the start of the weekend, the waiting time right before prom, a new movie you have been dying to see, a book to come out, time to get off work, that one phone call that you just can’t wait to get, anything and everything.
French Silk ice cream with honey =D
Drinking your favorite beverage at your favorite coffee shop, studying (or pretending to study) and people watching.
AWESOME! :)
When you get an email/letter/postcard/phone call from someone you haven’t spoken to in ages.
Getting back in touch is way awesome!!
Aww darn, I missed the 5pm cut-off!
Regardless, I still feel like sharing my own little piece of awesome:
“Listening to music from a different country, and still get that feeling like that song was made for you”
I recently heard a song from a Swedish rapper, and while I don’t particularly like rap, or understand the Swedish language, while listening to the song, I realized something;
No clue what the guy was rapping about, but it was something heavy. And when you wake up and you think to yourself… oh god, it’s gonna be one of THOSE days. You listen to that one song and makes it seem like, somewhere in Sweden, someone completely and absolutely understands you.
And it didn’t even hafta be in English, but I felt like a weird… bond with this artist.
It’s a good feeling, the few who have felt it ;)
Buying a new CD and finding out that the album sleeve has all the lyrics printed inside! This always makes me smile!
When a Friend or family member makes a surprise visit that’s awesome!
My awesome thing:
Walking through your hometown, while telling a person that has not lived there where your old schoolfriends used to live.
It´s kind of sad when you study or work in another town and you got no time to visit your hometown so often. And if you bring a new friend (from your new live) into your old “hood” it is a strange feeling to make a walk with him an tell him things like: “Oh Jamie Ginsterburg used to live over there, he used to steal my breakfast. … I had a bycicle-crash on that street there.
It´s like you are traveling to time, and I think most of us would do a lot to live one more day in our childhood, to walk ways we used to walk every day…. Melancolic, as you like…
When you make it to the bus stop JUST as your bus is pulling in. No waiting in the cold, no staring at the sun, just perfect timing.
Reading a good book over, and over, and over.
The day when your nose is finally unstuffed after being sick for a long time!
The feeling of a freshly cleaned room. Reminds me, I have to go do mine now!
A large CD/Record Collection.
In this day and age when everyones downloading and sharing files a large CD collection is rare.
Appreciating the physical quality to music, the art work the album cover…AWESOME.
Getting compliments on your growing collection, always having a CD when someone asks, and admiring the 100’s of records on your shelf.
its all just…AWESOME.
Waking up on the morning you’re leaving for vacation.
finishing a magazine right when the nurse calls your name. don’t you hate it when you want to either finish the magazine or have nothing else to read??
awesome!
Laughter.
Upon thinking it through, one thing that I cherish most out of life is laughter. There is nothing like that moment when you say something that has the power to make someone smile, or better yet, when that smile bursts out into delightfully surprised laughter. Nothing gives you a better boost than a good laugh or making someone else laugh.
Whether it’s the throw back your head and shout laughter, a uncontrolable giggle, or the kind thats so long and so loud that you’re holding your stomach because you can hardly breathe…your mouth even hurts when its over. Or the best, the laughter thats so hard, you cry, and you don’t remember when it was that you thought something was so funny.
Everywhere you go, everyone you meet, loves to laugh. People love to be entertained and they love funny people. Everyone tries to surround themselves with funny people, everyone remembers the class clown and best of all….everyone NEEDS laughter in their life.
Ever seen Patch Adams? Laughter is the best medicine for a healthy life. It keeps you invigorated, on the edge of your seat, it keeps you engaged and interested in the things around you. There is nothing bad about it….at the end of the day laughter is simply
AWESOME.
and that’s the end of the story.
Everytime I go watch a movie at the theater, I have to get a giant bucket of Coke and some popcorn , which is awesome in itself. BUT! I always end up having to pee really bad when the movie is almost over and I convince myself that I can hold it, that it’s almost over…then it just goes on for like 30 minutes more and then FINALLY I get run to the bathroom and pee after having to go really bad for like 45 minutes. Yeah…THAT’S AWESOME.
It could be that you don’t even like dogs, but when the little girl across the street comes over with the 6 week old puppy that she’s fostering for the Humane Society and plops it into your arms, the soft pink belly and the vibrating tail are almost, but not quite, as wonderful as puppy breath! Fresh and sweet, with the slightest overtone of Puppy Chow…if someone could stick puppy breath into an air freshener, it’d be an instant best seller.
Awesome!
Anything that foams! soap, mousse, bubble baths, whip cream.
Candid Pictures. Especially when they’re photos of people laughing and just being genuinely happy. It’s just uplifting to see
Bursting into an unplanned song with a group of friends! :)
We all know that it’ll sound bad, include a lot of mumbling over words that we don’t know and will probably be in public, but when someone mumbles the first line under their breathe, the others can’t help but follow. AWESOME!
Waking up early in the weekend and realizing it’s not a working day and that you are aloud to sleep as long as you like in your warm bed