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Awkward Things to do on Earth Day
Happy Earth Day!
Earth Day started around 43 years ago, thanks to Denis Hayes. You can read more about it from Public Radio International.
It is that time of the year when we all remember the importance of preservation.
Its not about hippies, living la vida loca, or tying ourselves to trees. But for those of you who choose to really make a statement this Earth Day, go all out!
Here are three things you can do today to make things awkward.
- Hide in a bathroom stall and wait for someone to take the stall next to yours. When they’re done taking care of business and reach for the toilet paper… yell out HAPPY EARTH DAY!!! And dump a bag of leaves on them.
- Get a bunch of friends to make a circle somewhere outdoors, and throw dirt at each other!
- Start a “thing” by pinching people for not wearing green today. When they say that it isn’t St. Patrick’s Day and that it doesn’t work, run away yelling “Earth Day streaking!!!” and see if that other “thing” works out and people join you.
Just kidding, guys. Sheesh.
All joking aside, I believe it is important to share this day with little kids… they appreciate nature more than most adults. That is good because maybe some of the members of their generations will take a stronger stand on protecting and preserving the environment.
People make it seem like a tough subject to talk about, with the whole global warming “debate” and the “lost cause” of recycling.. but its actually not that bad. We are slowly destroying our home in exchange for things we don’t need, and some of us are trying to help.
But what ever your views are, celebrate! Go out, have an iced tea! Fly a kite. Take nature photography. Go crazy on Instagram.
Today, we celebrate our home: Earth!
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- Happy Earth Day Everyone! (ourchildrensearth.wordpress.com)
- Earth Day 2013. (dlovesdots.wordpress.com)
- Happy Earth Day!!! (lethemeatkale.com)
The Caring People
Hello,
So after a few minutes of being online today, I heard the news of the Boston Marathon explosions. Authorities are still trying to figure it all out, but so far there have been 2 dead and more than 20 people injured.
We try, and try again to not think of this world as a bad place. We like to think that people are good. We like to think that this was just an outlier in a sea of well-meaning, good people.
In my own way, I like to pay attention to the good and funny things in life. I enjoy paying attention to people, and details that we just don’t find the time to talk about. This is a blog about people. And I believe people are good.
In tough times like these, I like to remember a little story from one of my favorite people:
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers, so many caring people in this world.” -Mr. Rogers
Please don’t forget that there is more good in this world than you may realize at this moment.
Let us get together, trust in each other, and become unstoppable using only forces of good.
Thank you for reading,
Edwin
Happy Anniversary!
Dear bloggers and readers,
Thank you!
I received this notice from WordPress to renew my domain name *cough* for $18 *cough*, then I thought: if I didn’t have you guys, I would’ve looked at the bill, kindly say “screw this,” and then let it fade into the heaven of the internet. And then WordPress sent me a little reminder saying that it was our two-year anniversary today!
Aw, WordPress! You remembered!
For those of you who are recent subscribers, or have no idea about who I am because you refuse to check out my About Me page, or follow me on Twiter (@edwincov), check it out:
Awkward List started as a place to write down the posts I had been writing and submitting to Facebook back in 2010 and 2011. I was using their primitive “Notes” app on there to write notes and have them published to my own profile page. I had a few people that would read them, and eventually I started a blog with Blogger (the .blogspot.com accounts), and I felt like I was by myself at a country with an entirely different culture and language. I did get the occasional spammer stop by every once in a while, but it just wasn’t cutting it.
Then enter WordPress.
Such an awesome blogging platform that has plenty of room to create a community. I was a bit overwhelmed at first, people were so much friendlier here. And if you have been on YouTube lately, you know that people can be pretty mean sometimes.
Being the person that I am, I got used to this place and now refuse to leave. You guys have read what I say about things, and even though I may seem a bit weird sometimes.. I’m actually quite average.
Psyche!
I am a bit weird. But we’re all a little weird… right?
“We’re all a little weird. And life is weird. And when we find someone
whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into
mutually satisfying weirdness—and call it love—true love.”
-Robert Fulgham (though often said it comes from Dr. Seuss)
Wendi, from This, That, and The Other Thang, knows what I’m talking about.. I like Dr. Seuss very much. I also like:
Comfortable silence among friends, ginger ale, sketching random objects and adding faces to them, berries, silent parks, the misty fog that floats over grass fields in the mornings, warm nights, when the moon looks like a crooked smile, finding a song that I can play over and over, kite flying, reading biographies, long conversations, giving stuff away, and words that are cool to say.
Blogging is just another way to keep the conversation going.
Thank you all very much for reading,
Sincerely,
#@$%#^!@
Edwin
Celebrating Round People and Things
What the heck is Pi?
3.14159
That’s how I got to know Pi.
In early mathematics, they gave us that number to find the area of a circle, for finding circumference, and then the same idea got put into finding surface areas of cones, volume of a sphere, cylinders.. ah, so much great stuff.
Pi in Easy Terms:
The symbol Pi, which looks like a horse with really long legs that you’d find painted in some cave, is a number. That’s right, π is just some number. That number happens to be 3.1415926.. and it keeps going on forever. Without a repetition pattern of some sort (yet).
What’s So Special About Pi?
Ah.. that’s where this gets awesome. See, a long time ago, some dude named Archimedes, which may [or may not] have been know to his buddies as A-meds, was thinking about circles. He came up with a ratio, of the distance around a circle and the diameter of the circle.
Whoa there, take it easy man. You lost me.
Suppose you are in a running track that is shaped like a circle. The halfway mark is right across the track from where you’re starting, and you finish right back where you started to count as one lap.
If you were to run the whole thing fair and square (or fair and circle), how much distance would you cover? They don’t make rulers shaped like circles often, so when getting an accurate distance is important, the number Pi comes in. You can measure the distance directly toward the halfway mark (think of cutting a circle in half), and then multiply by Pi (3.14159), and MAGIC! You have the distance around it.
Uh, no dude. I don’t get it.
Alright, think of a tire from your car. We’re going to try some imagination here, people. You grab a ruler and measure how tall the tire is, and let’s say that it is one foot tall. What? You like your tires small. Anyway.. visualize the following: Suddenly, the tire turns all cartoon-status, and is now just a circle. A thin line going around to make a circle. See it? Ok, cool. Now, the circle turns into string (still in the shape of a circle). Now I grab some scissors and SNAP! I cut the circle one time and I now have a string. The height of that tire, and the length of the string we have now have something in common. And that “something” is pi. The length of that string would be 3.14159 (aka pi) feet. True story, bro.
Pi is the ratio of circumference and diameter of a circle. It is close to 22/7.. but not quite.
Other Stuff
Pi was used way before Archimedes wrote out the ratio, it just wasn’t called Pi. But we knew those distances had something in common. I mean belts go around in a circle-ish around our waist, and I’m sure they had those back then. And before then, there were strings and robes and such. Ever taken off your belt and seen noticed how long the belt really is? Pi ratios!
People hold competitions to see how many numbers they can memorize of pi, since it really does go on forever. Shigeru Kondo broke his previous record set in August 2011 and has calculated (with computer programs and such) up to more than 10 TRILLION DIGITS!!
Freaky.
Thanks for reading and hey look! You learned something new today.
Happy Pi Day, all! 🙂
Note: Pi day is true to us month-first people. We say the date as Month/Day/Year, instead of Day/Month/Year
Related articles
- Pi in our lives (malbell.com)
- National Pi Day: Math lovers celebrate illustrious ratio (Video) (wjla.com)
- 3-14: Celebrate Pi(e) Day (whptv.com)
Texting While Driving
STOP TEXTING WHILE DRIVING
For you guys not in the United States, our government censors a lot of stuff and doesn’t give us graphic images in the news and such. They say it is bad for us. So we must go to the internet!
Imagine a crowd repeating: “To the internet!” while pointing to the horizon.
Please watch the video at the end of this article from the PSA in the UK. It isn’t too bad, I was able to hold in my breakfast just fine, and you can see the computer generated graphics anyway.
Since we’re in the mood for good causes and such lately around here, we should start a dumbphone drive to collect flip phones and old used phones to give to passengers for them to chuck at drivers that are texting while driving. I mean yeah, I ride my bike as often as I can, but when I have to get behind a steering wheel I find myself honking at more people than ever before because they’re going into my lane! If you’ve ever been yelled at with a “Get off your phone!” while driving around here in the Los Angeles/Orange County area, there’s a good chance it was me.
How many times have you gotten a text from a person that is driving?
Scary stuff.
It slows people down too, when the light turns to green, the drivers are so focused on their cell phones that they get honked at and then get mad at you and flip you off while blasting Britney Spears on their stereos. We all know that Getting Honked At is awkward.
If you are one of these people, please stop. You’re not just risking YOUR life, and you shouldn’t have the right to risk anyone else’s life.
Text her later. Airplane mode it. Hands-free phone call. Have Siri text for you. Be fully focused on operating your 4,000 lb machine at 97 feet per second.
Why don’t they show these things around here? Freakin U.S.
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7 Things To Do When Things Get Awkward
What to do when confronted by an awkward moment:
You can be the most normal person in the world, but awkward moments can and will still happen to you. What you do afterwards can either make the situation better or more awkward. Let’s look at some good tips to follow when under these situations. In order to enhance your experience, please play the following song while reading this post.
Are you playing it? It’s the Benny Hill theme song. Oh yeah. Without further ado, let us begin.
Hug it out.
Handshake, high five, hug, slap? If there is any confusion about what’s gonna happen, just grab the person and embrace the crap out of them.
Mentally cuss out the person who did this to you.
Jerk.
Make the other person look like the jerk.
You’re going to give me a high five whether you like it or not!
Know when to walk away.
Sometimes there is no pocket.
Blow a kiss.
Even if she’s turning around.
Use your imagination.
Anything can happen.
Own it.
Go big or go home.
Awkward articles:
Awkward Moments of 2012
Awkward Moments of 2012
Well, the awkward year is ending and soon we will have to get used to writing “2013” when entering in a date, after getting used to the whole “2012” thing. If you search for any events that happened in 2012, you’ll likely find some bad ones. Let us set those aside for a minute as we look for the good, funny, and weird stuff of this year. What were some of the awkward moments of 2012?
Around the Internet
The SOPA Protests
People LOVE their internet. How much? Well upon being threatened by possible internet laws that would ruin this whole free-for-all, “wild west,” thing we have going with the internet today, even though they claimed it was just against internet piracy, the big internet tech companies said NO THANK YOU and protested on the internet. The laws would require a ton of money and add a bunch of restrictions to the creation of things. You guys have blogs, right? You know what I mean. So, they created an internet blackout. Wikipedia, Reddit, the Lolcats and many others raised awareness by letting us see what life would be without them. The lawmakers, upon not being able to get their daily dose of icanhazcheezburger, said “Ok! We get it!” and went back to their drawing boards to come up with a way to approach us again without pissing us off this time.
Facebook’s “Read” Feature
Yup, so this happened. Facebook made things awkward by letting us see if the person we just messaged is ignoring us. C’mon, you know you’ve done it. “That guy” you’ve been talking to sends you a message and you don’t want to appear desperate so you ignore the message for a few hours or days before getting back to him. Well now he knows. Oh and thought you could get away with ignoring a post by one of the members of a Facebook group? Yeah… that’s gone. Facebook now shows who read it. Some may say that Facebook has too much power, but do they really? I mean, they only have your birthday information, cell phone number, address, knows your work place, a list of everyone you talk to, records of chats, can detect your face in photographs, sells general information, knows your likes and dislikes, tries to make you friends with your ex again, asks for your credit card information, knows where you are, and what you eat. That’s it. That’s all they know! No biggie.
YouTube’s Viral Videos
We all saw history being made with Gangnam Style with about 1.05 billion views! Psy, a South-Korean pop singer with the dance that looks like he’s riding a horse. My favorite part includes that one guy with the hat in the elevator. Mashable has created a list of the Top 10 Most Viral Videos of 2012 which is also worth a visit if you’re into the whole video thing.
The KONY 2012 Thing Backfired
What was it? It was a campaign and movement to raise awareness about Joseph Kony and his abductions for his army in Uganda in order to get people and the government to do something that had been going on for three-decades. So they did raise awareness, and the campaign didn’t really backfire.. but some people around the internet like to think so. Such a nice cause was tainted when Jason Russell (the guy behind the whole thing) flipped out. He was walking around San Diego intoxicated and well, had some psychological issues. He was just walking around naked letting it all hang out. That was awkward, dude. Then a bunch of people started talking about the video and coming up with their own reasons why the video was wrong, or how it was narrow minded and was even considered a bit racist among all these other things. People were saying that the video made the problem seem too simple to fix and that wasn’t really the case. Since then, the KONY 2012 campaign from Invisible Children has released more information and explanations about the whole thing.
On The News
NBC Delaying the 2012 Olympics
People were pissed! In order to find out who had won some of the events, we had to go online and watch them live on there. Hello, NBC.. we have something called The Internet and we do not want to be the last ones to find out the score on the most important sports event in THE WORLD. In the network’s defense, they are allowed to do so in order to improve their ratings. Not many people are going to be up late at night watching pole vaulting. They are also allowed to edit the opening ceremonies. Also to edit anything want before the show the public. Britain was all all like HELL NO when they found that NBC edited out the tribute during the opening ceremony for the victims of the bombing in 2005. You can read more about it here.
Celebrities
In short, here are the things buzzing around the celeb world that got awkward: Miley Cyrus’ haircut, Taylor Swift dating more guys and getting heartbroken (yay, more songs!), Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez breaking up and making up then breaking up again. In other news, Prince Harry and Kate Middleton’s naked pictures (not at the same time) came out. Paparazzis caught her in a private place she was staying, and they found Prince Harry’s photos of him partying somewhere in Las Vegas? I’m not too sure on this.. I don’t keep up with the celeb world. I will not post those pictures up here, but I’m sure they’re out there somewhere. That stuff is always awkward.
The Mayan Prophecy –We’re not dead.
That was awkward. 12/21/2012 was supposed to be the day where some planet was gonna hit the Earth, or zombies were going to come out of the ground, or God would come and take his people. Maybe something else was supposed to happen? People all over the place were freaking out and legitimately believing that the world was going to end. They posted pictures of themselves eating their last meals, and holding hands with their loved ones, oh man.. I feel kind of bad talking about this now. Anywho, the world didn’t end, and we woke up the next day wondering if we were dead. Wait, was it just me? It would’ve sucked if it ended though.
A long time ago, the Mayans were hanging around the Earth looking up at the stars. I’m pretty sure we would all do the same thing if electrification had never happened. Those were good times, man. They were amazing record-keepers and found out many things about the stars.. and 12/21/2012 is supposed to be the start of a new era. So Happy New Era everybody!
Politics
The U.S. Presidential Election
It was sad and funny and awkward all at the same time. People were picking on Mitt Romney for bringing up his binders full of women, for his app having “Amercia” instead of America, for his big bird reference, and for his 5-point tax plan:
- Slide to the right
- Slide to left
- Left foot let’s stomp
- Take it back now y’all
- Cha cha real smooth
I’m not proud guys. We pretty much bullied a presidential candidate here in the U.S. I guess that goes along with the world’s stereotypes about Americans. It was definitely an awkward experience for all of us. We all watched the presidential debates, and the vice-presidential debates.. sweaty people, awkward moments, and new jokes and memes for us all!
Fast Food Takes a Stand on Politics
Only in the United States, friends, only in the United States.. Do you guys remember the post on Chick Fil-A? Here’s how it went: Chick Fil-A was donating money for campaigns trying to stop same-sex marriage, and people found out. So again, people were angry and got together to boycott Chick Fil-A and organized a kiss-in. Gay people would show up, take a picture kissing and submit it to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. Read about it from the New York Times!
Did we forget that Chick Fil-A is a fast food chain? They sell chicken sandwiches. They stand their ground with their views of “the biblical idea” of marriage. They.. ugh! It doesn’t matter, people. They sell fast food!
Only in America would a fast food chain have a huge voice on controversial topics like these.
It HAS Been One Awkward Year
Can you believe it has been another year already? Einstein was right on this whole, “time moves at different speeds” thing. Think of all the things you have accomplished and all of the things that good people around the world have been doing for others. The world isn’t so bad.
Thank you guys for keeping up with me and this blog, lots of things have changed around here in just one year.. and from what I read, lots has changed with you as well. I will see you all next year!
Oh and I almost forgot, for all of you who like looking at the search terms people use to reach your blog, check out what people have googled this year on Google’s Zeitgeist Video:
Chick-Fil-A and the Gay Cow
113. When it was you who left the bathroom stinky
So you just took care of business, you flush, and you begin to wash your hands. You look around instinctively for something, but can’t find it. You try not to panic.
I’m sure its around here somewhere..
You look around some more, behind the toilet, around it, in the drawers, the cabinet, THEFLOORTHEBATHTUBTHESINK THEWINDOWTHETOWELRACK THATTHINGYWHEREYOU
PUTTHETOILETBRUSH
AHHH!!!
WHERE’S THE AIR FRESHENER?!
Sometimes, you eat something that just happens to be a little more stinky on its way out… eggs, huge steaks, and chili are some of them. Stinking up the bathroom is a daily thing, we’re hardly pay attention to it, we only seem to care about it under certain situations.
Stinkin’ it up at the office- Sometimes you just know when toxic gas levels will reach a maximum, a slight temperature difference back there will give you a sign, as well as the pre-releases of smelly gases. But when you’re at one of those offices with a Single Rider restroom (also boringly known as a ‘one toilet’ restrooms), there is very little you can do to avoid getting one of these, I’d suggest bringing your own air freshener:
At someone else’s house- Pooping at a friend’s house is awkward, because you might leave a stink, there’s pooping noises, etc (click on the link above), but imagine using someone’s bathroom while at a house party. You open the door and whoosh.. a wave of stink comes out and invades the air in a silent but deadly way.
While at a public restroom– You know how grocery stores always have some creepy, hidden-way-the-heck-in-the-back, restroom that you finally reach after going through some type of maze? Those are usually single rider restrooms and since there is only one male and one female restroom, there is usually a line.
If you take a while because it won’t come out, you’ll make people angry. If you use up all the toilet paper, you’ll make people angry, if poop doesn’t quite leave the bowl, you’ll make people angry (hey, it isn’t entirely your fault!). Pshh.. who do they think they are? You just can’t win. Well.. actually I think you can make them pay for it for rushing you..
..By leaving it stinky.
Take that.
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