Engage my sense of wonder regularly

The challenge today was conduct a silly science experiment. Well, I buy koolaide singles to pour into my water bottles because I hate plain water. Anyway, on the koolaide singles box it says that it is not recommended for use with carbonated drinks. I was curious why.

So, I took out the 20 ounce bottle of sprite that had been unopened in my refrigerator for over a month and a tropical punch flavored koolaide singles packet. I only had to pour about a 3rd of the packet in for the sprite to bubble up red foam to the top and just over the rim of the bottle. Had I poured the whole packet in, it probably would have bubbled over.

It reminded me of one of those classic science scenes where a person in a lab coat is holding a beaker of solution as it bubbles down the side. it was pretty cool to watch. As a good scientist, I should note that the koolaide looked darker than it does in water I think. however this could be due to the green tint of the sprite bottle.

As for the taste, it was okay. It had more of a chemical taste
(like that of diet soda) than does koolaide or regular sprite normally. In sum, this would be great for a kid’s science fair project or for special effects for a movie but, not for drinking.

i’m monkeykid81 and my other account got all messed up. I’ll delete it if I can ever log back into it. Nonetheless, back to the escape plan day 4. the challenge bring something childlike into your home or work space. I bought a velvet art poster for the challenge. It has very cartoonish drawings of an ostrich, hippo and snake. when I finish coloring it. I will hang it up on my closet door.

okay confession time: I dropped the ball on the escape plan when school started again. However,my adultitis came back and it is making my grumpy (on good days). So, this is just something I need to do for my sanity. It will just have to fit in my busy schedule

I should be on day four, but we had relatives over Monday so I got a bit sidetracked. Anyway, the challenge for day three was do something that is normally considered inappropriate for someone your age. As anyone who knows me can tell you, I do kid stuff all the time. I even have a toothbrush that plays music for two minutes while I brush my teeth. Thus, it was a little difficult to think of something that would be a few steps out of my comfort zone. Nonetheless, I thought of the perfect activity.
A few months ago I was with a friend at a certain restaurant and I thought that the kid’s cup looked very sweet. When I asked the waiter about getting one, I was quickly informed that they were only for kids under ten. I have since moved to a new city. So, I thought that I would try again for today’s challenge. I was slightly disappointed that the cup I had originally seen was no longer available but the one I got is pretty tight. You can put two different beverages in it and they will stay separated.

I am glad to say that this time the waiter didn’t seem at all phased by my request. I think sometimes we are too concerned about what others will think. Kids don’t seem to worry about that much maybe I could learn from them.

today’s challenge was to find something to celebrate and celebrate it. In other words, create a holiday! So, today was Barney Day. Last night I printed a coloring page and used it to make a card for my mom. It was a lot of fun. It had been a long time since I used construction paper and glue to make a card. As a kid I did stuff like this all the time it brought back great memories. Mom seemed very surprised and happy. :)

In the morning, I listened to kid tunes on yahoo launchcast as I got ready for church: I wore my pink collar shirt since I don’t have a purple one. Lunch consisted of a PB&J sandwich which although I did not do it on purpose fit with the theme of the day.

I came home from church to find that two of my Barney t-shirts had been made by mom. (A while ago I bought some t-shirt transfers from an online store, but I had to wait to use them because my disability prevents me from ironing safely). Tday was extremely fun. The moral of the story is that simple things can make life more interesting and enjoyable.

the first challenge was to immerse yourself in something you know nothing about. It was supposed to take ten minutes. I would have loved to go to some cultural event or something but that was just not in the cards for tonight. Instead,I spent about an hour reading about Amish people and culture on the Internet. It was fascinating to learn that they do where colored clothes and use gas powered refrigerators and lights at times.

Also, I went to a Mennonite school for a while, and I would have never made the connection between the two groups if I had not read it tonight. This was definitely worth doing. I have work, if it can be called that, to do in order to prepare for tomorrow’s challenge. So, I’m off to print coloring pages and put music on my mp3 player.

i’m doing the escape plan i will post as often as possible on my progress

I feel like I definitely do this daily now I just need to learn how to deal with the not so good stuff.

Whenever I revel in the small things that make life so cool, hy do i always get strange looks or comments?

Last night as I was leaving home in the evening, I looked up and saw these really bright vertical lights in the sky. I had never seen anything like it. I thought some swanky bash must be going on downtown and these must be some new high-tech laser searchlights to draw attention to the event. Then I noticed more of them… to my right… and to my left… all around me, 365 degrees! They were much taller than the ones in this picture. Totally breathtaking.

Everyone was talking about it, and local news stations received hundreds of calls.

I thought I was seeing the northern lights for the first time, but apparently they are called “light pillars” and they are formed by ice crystals in the air reflecting man-made light sources on the ground. The pillars were yellow and green and orange and pink, much like the northern lights are. Fascinating!

More info on the phenomenon here.

Somehow it seems like lots of my goals relate to my experience at Burning Man.