2011's Top 10 Ways to Pursue Awesomeness

    Hello everyone, in honour of the past year I have assembled this list of the 10 awesomest things I have mentioned in my blog in 2011. We laughed, we cried, we became much more awesome. Whatever awesome things you are doing out there on the Internet or, even better, in the real world, I salute you. The future looks bright (and awesome), but we should not forget where we have been, so without further ado, I present to you 2011's Top 10 Ways to Pursue Awesomeness:

10. Colouring Books

Pun to follow

    Colouring books are a "magical" adventure in creativity and wonder. (Pun intended because puns are awesome.) You probably loved colouring books when you were a child, because you were awesome as a child. Somewhere along the way you lost some of your awesomeness, but with a blank picture and a pack of crayons you can reclaim your youth until your boss comes in and reports you for misuse of company resources.

9. Sunsets

Florence, Italy

     In May I traveled through Germany, Austria and Italy. Sometimes I took pictures, and to compensate for my lack of photographic skill I took pictures of things that already looked good like historic buildings or mountains or sunsets. See above. The picture looks awesome. You almost can't tell that I'm not a professional photographer. Thank you sunsets for making me seem more awesome at stuff.

8. StumbleUpon

    I found this using StumbleUpon. Need I say more?

7. Doing Nothing

    As you may remember, the last time I tackled this topic I put in a pretty weak effort, and I never really explained why doing nothing was so awesome. But I did promise I would elaborate at some point in the future, so I guess that would be now.

    First, when I say doing nothing, I mean doing nothing. Not watching TV, not reading, not listening to music. Doing nothing. You can sit and look at the wall I guess, but that's it. Then you think. You might say, "That's not nothing! That's thinking!", but compared to what most people are usually doing, this is practically nothing. People spend so much time doing too many things that they never really have a chance to think about what they're doing or why they're doing it. So you're sitting there, and you're thinking. You can think about anything you want. And it's awesome. Some of my best ideas have come from doing nothing, like when I decided to start this blog when I was lying on my bed in a hostel in Venice. To be honest, I don't spend nearly enough time doing nothing even though I recognize it is awesome. As an added bonus, doing nothing is incredibly relaxing. So take ten minutes to ignore everything (after you've finished reading this Top 10 of course) and do nothing. It may help you figure out how you can unleash your true awesomeness.

Tip: It may be useful to write down your brilliant, life-changing ideas after doing nothing, so you can remember them and properly implement them.

6. Novelty T-Shirts

I'm wearing this right now.

    Starting conversations takes effort. Wearing clothes that start conversations for you takes much less effort. And if people know you're awesome based solely on your clothing, then it's a lot easier to convince them of how cool you are.

5. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

:O  <--- Me when I saw this ^^

    There is nothing like taking a week off work in the middle of the summer to go visit Hogwarts. Who knew they sold churros in Hogsmeade? Okay, so maybe the food wasn't that magical, but seeing Hogwarts in person after imagining it for more than 10 years was pretty awesome.

4. Long Exposure Photographs

http://tinyurl.com/7ywzwm8

    Taking long exposure photographs, like taking pictures of sunsets, makes you feel like you're an awesome photographer because even if the picture sucks, it usually looks pretty cool anyway. You could just aim your camera at lights and move it around randomly, and you'll still get something interesting. Plus, look at that picture. Sweet.

3. Bonfires

http://tinyurl.com/888zm2m

    Ever since Prometheus gave us fire, man has loved to burn things and watch other people burn things. As such, bonfires are understandably awesome. So gather your family, friends and a defenseless tree and watch the latter burn.

2. Fireflies

http://tinyurl.com/8ypgbsv

    Once upon a time, at a Ramada far, far away in the land of Lansing, Michigan I saw fireflies for the first time. At least the first time that I can remember. I ended up finding out how awesome fireflies are without even pursuing it, it just sort of happened, so I guess the lesson would be get out there and start doing anything because you never know how awesome it might be.

1. Mix Tapes

    As you probably know, I like movies, and one of the reasons movies are so awesome is because of their soundtracks. Music turns boring, non-cinematic things into the best, awesomest, most epic things you've ever seen. Walking up a hill? Cue epic music. Holy crap, you're ascending that incline like a boss! Now imagine if real life was that epic. It can be, just make a mix tape. Whether it's telling someone that you love them, getting pumped up for the big game, hosting sick parties or just for the lolz, making mix tapes can make real life seem significantly more awesome. Plus, when your life seems more awesome, often you become more awesome. Yes, mix tapes can induce next-level awesomeness, and that is why they are the Number 1 way to pursue awesomeness for 2011.

P.S. Thank you to everyone who reads this blog. There may not be that many, but that makes everyone who does even more important. Hear that? You're important! Congratulations, and keep pursuing awesomeness in 2012! Oh, and remember, becoming awesome is not a spectator sport, so get out there and start being awesome.

Colouring Books and TED

    Hello everyone, it's been so long since I posted here that the website looks different. I don't know if you can tell from your end, but the page where I'm writing this is all white now. It's weird. I don't like change. Unless that change is towards something more awesome, which I guess is probably what they intended. So, good job. Btw I'm probably going to change how my blog looks at some point in the future (knowing me, probably some time in late 2012, right before the apocalypse) because with this new-look website comes a bunch of new potential blog layouts, and some of them look cool/better than what I could do with my absence of web design skills. So look forward to that (the new-look blog, not the apocalypse, unless that's your sort of thing).

    Anyway, a brief update on my life. I'm still in school. Now that that's out of the way, let's talk colouring books. Yes, the school I previously referred to was university not preschool, but that's okay because colouring books transcend generational boundaries, granted it would be weird to walk in on your grandparents doing it (colouring), but on the other hand, your grandparents are awesome. On an entirely unrelated note I'll also be talking about TED, which is like YouTube for nerds*. TED and colouring books are two things that you might not expect to go together, but you'd be wrong because they're both awesome. And what's better than 1 awesome thing? 2 awesome things of course! You have a lot to learn, and you've come to the right place. You'll be awesomer in no time. Remember, becoming awesome is not a spectator sport, so get out there and start being awesome.

*Fun Fact: The word "nerd" was first used by Dr. Suess in If I Ran The Zoo. The more you know.

Colouring Books

Level of Awesomeness: On a scale from red to purple, it's all of them. ALL THE COLOURS!!!

What Is It: Normally books are long and have lots of words because for some reason authors think it is better or "more professional" to describe plot and other trivial book elements with words rather than childish pictures. But every once in a while an author comes along who is simply too lazy to write words and instead draws pictures. This person is sometimes known as an artist or illustrator. On even rarer occasions the author is not motivated to even colour their illustrations, and so the colouring book is born. Colouring books consist of pages and pages of usually textless, colourless images. It's like a choose your own adventure where you provide all the storylines and character descriptions. I'm pretty sure if you just ripped a bunch of pages out of a colouring book and stuck them in some order, you could write an amazing movie. Maybe you could just send Hollywood a bunch of pictures paper clipped together, they seem to be running out of movie ideas anyway. In fact, I see my story, Tragedy With A Monkey, doing well at the box office maybe sometime in 2013. It goes like this:

When I was young, I used to sleep outside in the mountains and look into space dreaming about my future.

When I was 15, my grandfather taught me how to dance in a pit of quicksand, and I fell in love with the jungle.

Years later, I developed a relationship with a monkey and we got married soon after. I loved my monkey bride.

One day, some dinosaurs somehow started living again (maybe like in Jurassic Park), and they began chasing me.

I tripped over a root and fell to the ground. A velociraptor approached. I closed my eyes to avoid seeing myself get eaten.

Luckily, my wife knew some kind of crazy monkey kung fu, and she risked her life to protect me from the dinosaurs.

Unfortunately, she was badly injured and horribly disfigured in the fight, and I had to put her down.

I got really depressed and let my hair grow out. Also, I started using hard drugs.

I even invested in a bionic face to mask my depression, but to no avail.

Eventually the pain was too much, and I threw myself off the top of an office building.

The x-rays showed that all of my ribs had disintegrated and part of my spine was missing. I died of these injuries.

My family was in shock from all the tragedy and stuff. There is no happy ending; this is the saddest movie you will ever see.

Fin

    If there are any movie producers reading this, you better not steal this story. If I see this in theatres without my consent, there will be hell to pay. Of course I would be willing to sell the story for the right price, so contact me if you're interested.

    Anyway, I sort of got off-topic there, we were talking about colouring books. Now admittedly, I did not use crayons (or an actual colouring book) to colour these pictures - which I regret because that is a fundamental aspect of colouring books - but you get the idea. So run down to your nearest colouring book store (or if you're already awesome, grab them from somewhere in your room), and start creating your own fabulous stories.

Why Is It Awesome: Because books with no pictures are boring. Nobody likes them. Books with pictures are much better, and when you're done colouring your colouring book it will be ALL pictures + they were coloured by you + you're awesome...therefore, AWESOMENESS LEVEL OVER 9000!!

TED

Level of Awesomeness: Worth spreading, or so I'm told.

What Is It: You like learning about awesome stuff, right? Of course you do, you're reading this blog right now. But school is so boring. The Internet is much more fun and exciting. See Figure 1.

Figure 1

    But just reading things on the Internet is also boring. It's almost like reading a book. That's why they invented video. If a picture is worth a thousand words and a video plays at 60 frames per second, that means those 3 minutes and 37 seconds you just spent watching a poptart-cat fly through space was the equivalent of reading 13,020,000 words. That's like reading War and Peace more than 23 times! See how much more efficient watching videos is?

    So, we have established that videos are better than reading and real life. What if they were educational too? (Not that nyan cat isn't educational) Enter TED. A wondrous world of learning in the form of videos on the Internet. TED talks feature some of the world's smartest people and best presenters and teach us about things we didn't even know were so awesome.

Like dynamic sculptures made from fishing nets,

or Earth getting hit by an asteroid (not awesome, but interesting),

or juggling (I guess we already knew it was awesome, but maybe not this awesome).

And of course, it teaches us how to be awesome (like all the best websites).

Why Is It Awesome: Because knowledge is power!

Yeah...

Picnik and Picnics

    Hello everyone, as you may know, I am back at school, and as such I have other things to do, like readings and presentations and quizzes and various other tests of knowledge and skill, that are apparently more important to finish than writing new blog posts. You may also have noticed that it has been a disturbingly long time since I wrote an actual structured post. For the most part this was because of moving to a new apartment (I still live in a basement, but now I get to walk upstairs to get my breakfast and watch reruns of How I Met Your Mother) and starting school and being lazy and procrastinating on my school work by watching YouTube rather than writing my blog. Yes I know, that's a very unproductive use of my time, but how can you resist

this,

this,

and this?

It's actually pretty easy because all of those videos are pretty boring to watch (except the last one), but that doesn't mean there aren't any good YouTube channels that are worth wasting all your time on. For example barelypolitical, vsauce and ViralVideoFilmSchool (because it's not RWJ) are all awesome, and as such are not a waste of time. So go check them out. Remember, becoming awesome is not a spectator sport, so get out there and start being awesome.

Picnik

Level of Awesomeness: So awesome it will almost make you not suck at photography.

What Is It: Picnik is a free photo editing program on the Internet. Check it out here. You can use it to make your friends think you are artistic. For example, you could turn this boring picture of goats licking a bus,

into something beautiful and artistic like this,

Go ahead. Make pretty pictures. And then put them as your profile picture on Facebook. Everyone loves overedited photos of you and your friends with lyrics and hearts on them because they're so gosh-darn cute. Tired of making yourself look fabulous? Ready for a challenge? You can put your skills to the test with Picnik too. I got this activity from the Internet at some point in the past. Basically you want to try to make an awesome looking album cover using a randomly generated title, artist and image.

Step 1: Find your artist name. Search for a "Random article" on Wikipedia and take the name of that article as your artist's name for your album cover.

Example:

Step 2: Find your album title. Go to Wikiquote and search for a "Random page" take the last few words of the page (whatever makes the most sense as an album title).

Example:

Step 3: Go to Flickr. Explore "Last 7 Days Interesting" and use the third picture. Or if you're like me and you don't want to risk getting sued over copyright infringement use a creative commons image that allows derivative works*.

Example:

Open up Picnik (or any other editing program, but this is about Picnik... so yeah), and make your album cover. Eventually, you'll end up with something like this,

Monkey Shines, The Citizen, Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aurimasr/

Maybe yours will look even better because I suck at art due to the fact that I stopped doing anything remotely artistic after elementary school. So that's the challenge, good luck.

Why Is It Awesome: Because who doesn't love the sense of accomplishment you get when you finish a project and it actually looks good? Picnik lets you make your photos look cool without the hassle of knowing what you're doing and without the need to sell your first child in order to be able to afford Photoshop or some such.

*Much less fun, but much more legal.

Picnics

Level of Awesomeness: Scrumptious (as long as the ants and bears don't steal your sandwiches or picinic basket)

What Is It: You like eating, right? And you like going outside sometimes? Now you can combine your love of food with your love of sometimes leaving your house into one magical experience called a picnic. A picnic is essentially when you take your food outside to eat. In a more traditional sense a picnic is when you pack your food into a picnic basket (it's called that because it's used for picnics), and go to a park or somewhere moderately free of bears to consume said food. If you can afford a blanket to lay on the ground you should invest in one; this will prevent your trousers from becoming too heavily soiled. Ideally, your blanket will have a red and white plaid pattern of some sort because that's what I like to think of when I envision picnics.

Note: Bring enough food, you don't want to have to forage for food because you probably know nothing about foraging and the consequences could be tragic.

Can you eat this? I have no idea. It might be tasty, or it might burn your insides with poison.

Is it safe to drink a half-empty bottle of vodka you found in a public garden? Who knows?

Is this a real carrot or a statue? Without Bear Grylls you'll never know.

So to be on the safe side, it's probably best to avoid foraging altogether and just bring enough food in the first place.

Why Is It Awesome: Some say it's "because you can dress up in old English costumes and sit on a blanket outside, and people will think it's adorable and not weird", but it's so much more than that. Picnics are awesome on so many levels. The rich love picnics because it gives them a public venue to flaunt their success by eating gold-leafed lobsters wrapped in filet mignon stuffed with caviar with a side of truffles and $10, 000 bottles of champagne. On the other hand picnics are awesome for the poor because a blanket is way cheaper than a table. Why splurge on an expensive kitchen table and chairs when there's plenty of ground outside to sit on? Everyone benefits from the magic of the picnic (except picnicphobic people), and that's why picnics are so awesome. Also that thing about wearing old-timey costumes.

"Stop Being Sad and Start Being Awesome"

    Hello everyone, this is a mix tape (or I guess a playlist) that I made on 8tracks (I mentioned it before in my post about mix tapes). It's for those times when you feel not awesome. It will make you awesome again. So check it out, and let me know what you think about these random posts that don't follow the structure of my regular posts. And if you end up making a playlist, or you already have, feel free to leave a link in the comments, so we can check it out. Remember, becoming awesome is not a spectator sport, so get out there and start being awesome.

5 Movies You Should Watch

    After writing my last post I decided I should at least make a few suggestions for movies to watch. Of course, feel free to pick your own movies, I just know how lazy people on the Internet are (since I am a person on the Internet), so if you don't want to make the trip over to IMDB or research movies you might be interested in I will give you 5 that I like (No promises that you will like them). I'll try to keep them somewhat non-mainstream because that would be boring; you already know about those movies. My descriptions will be minimal; this is not a movie review blog, but hopefully it gives you enough information to peak your interest. So without further ado, "5 Movies You Should Watch" in no particular order:

1. Fantastic Mr. Fox

When Fantastic Mr. Fox first came out, I wasn't in a rush to see it and I sort of forgot about it, but last week I was told to watch it by a friend and I loved it. And it's not your usual kid's movie. It's cutting-edge clever and the artistic direction is some of the best I've ever seen, making it a pleasure to watch. It will make you wonder why the cuss you didn't watch it before.

2. Life in a Day

Part collage, part documentary, Life in a Day is where home video meets Hollywood direction. This movie was created by sending an open invitation to everyone in the world via YouTube to submit videos chronicling a singe day: July 24th, 2010. The 4,500 hours of resulting footage were distilled down to only an hour and a half to create this thought-provoking film. Exploring life, death, love, hate, hope and fear, basically everything that makes Earth what it is, Life in a Day is a beautiful of example of what film-making could be.

3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

This is a mainstay as one of the top movies on IMDB, yet I'm always surprised by how few people have actually seen it (or even heard about it), since it's also on TV a lot these days. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind will make you think and may make you yell at your TV. At times nonsensical, but tied together well at the end, so be prepared to be temporarily confused.

4. The Great Debaters

This movie tackles the struggle for equality in the 1930's American South through the medium of debate. We've seen these types of stories in a sports context before, but in my opinion they haven't been quite so inspirational. Perhaps because in the sports movies there's only that one inspirational speech right before the big game, but in this film every debate - and there are several - provides it's own inspirational moments, not to mention the captivating storyline. And it's based on a true story.

5. Airplane!

I like jokes, so it would have been a shame to not mention a comedy. This is probably a fairly well-known film, but it's from 1980, so maybe some of you haven't seen it. If you haven't, I highly recommend it. Airplane! is a parody of the stereotypical disaster movie. The last time I saw it was many years ago, so I can't describe it in too much detail. I know Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was in it. I also know it is the source of many well-known (and hilarious) movie quotes. Surely you will enjoy this film.

Watching Movies Alone and Storage Wars

    Hello everyone, today it is cloudy and raining and my brother and all my friends have left for University (I'm going back this weekend), so I kind of just want to lie on the floor, but instead I decided to write this blog post that will hopefully start a trend of me posting somewhat more frequently. Also, I thought you deserved some more awesomeness in your lives/life (I'm pretty sure this blog doesn't receive that much traffic, so there might only be one person reading this) since it is kind of a depressing time of year what with all the change and starting school (mostly the work part of school). So now that I have no friends I have decided to watch some movies because movies are awesome. I can't write about the awesomeness of just watching movies though because that is way too broad and is frankly a terrible idea. Instead, I will pursue the much awesomer topic of watching movies alone. That's basically the same thing you say? I say... something that convinces you that watching movies alone is different and more awesome. I rest my case. Also, Storage Wars is awesome. You can find it on TV if you have one. If not, you should get one. It's much more entertaining than watching squirrels chase each other around the back yard or whatever you do with your time. Remember, becoming awesome is not a spectator sport, so get out there and start being awesome.

Watching Movies Alone

Level of Awesomeness: It's like if in Home Alone Macaulay Culkin just sat and watched movies instead of setting traps for the worst criminals of all time. Actually, that movie would suck, but trust me, this is awesome.

What Is It:

Not this. This is sad and not awesome.

In case you missed the large comic in the area above this, I want to specify that watching movies alone is awesome as long as you aren't in a movie theatre where there is supposed to be other people. But if you are at home in whatever room has a TV or computer it is pretty awesome. In order to watch a movie alone you must first pick a movie to watch. Don't know any movies? First of all, have you been in a coma since the late 1800's? Second, check IMDB they seem to know their movies. Now check to make sure you are alone. No one hiding under the bed, no one in the closet, no one under the rug. Make sure you are comfortable; grab your Snuggie, a nice cup of cocoa, and that heart-shaped pillow your roommate bought you in first year. Now you may begin enjoying your film.

Note: I'm not sure how enjoyable this is with horror movies, but at least no one will be there to see you soil yourself in fear.

Why Is It Awesome: Because it is a lot easier to concentrate on the content of the film without that friend who always talks during movies around. You'll gain a new appreciation for cinematography and acting. Plus, you can watch that movie that you really want to see, but you know it would be super embarrassing if any of your friends knew you had seen it.

Storage Wars


Level of Awesomeness: If finding $90, 000 worth of newspapers isn't awesome, I don't know what is.

What Is It: Thanks to the magic of reality television, it is now possible to experience the auctioning off of abandoned storage lockers without the hassle of leaving your house. The premise of the show: When a person renting a storage locker fails to pay rent for a certain amount of time, their locker is auctioned off to the highest bidder. The auctioneer cuts the lock off the door, and opens it. The bidders have five minutes to look in the locker (they can't go in or touch anything, all they can do is look from the entrance). Storage Wars follows 4 bidders in particular: Dave Hester, Darrell Sheets, Jarrod Schulz and Barry Weiss. When one of them wins a locker, the show follows them in their attempts to turn a profit on the contents.

Barry (L), Jarrod, Dan (auctioneer), Darrell and Dave

It may seem like a non-awesome premise, but I assure you if you watch it you will become hooked. And here to get you hooked is the Internet: Watch Storage Wars Online. It's like a modern day, urban treasure hunt! Also it's like the crack cocaine of Reality TV.

Why Is It Awesome: Because it's exciting. Imagine opening an old briefcase and finding $17, 000 worth of jewelry, but you could also find nothing, so try not to overspend. On top of the inherent excitement, Storage Wars offers some of the best characters in all of storage locker auction reality television (there are 3 separate shows on the topic). You can't help hating Dave and cheering for the underdog. For me, Storage Wars was this summer's go-to show to cure boredom, and it always worked. That's why it's awesome.

Planking and Sunsets

    Hello everyone, I think I'm getting too old for this. In my age I have once again failed to post for an excessive amount of time, even though I started a new post (this post) like one minute after writing my last post.  I wrote what my two topics were going to be, and then I just left the page open for around 2 weeks and never really wrote anything else. Until now. That being said, I am currently on my lunch break, so I'll have to go back to work in 5 minutes. However, today is my last day of work (still not fired just going back to school), so there is a possibility that I will have time to finish writing this post in my new found spare time. We will see. But then school will start, and I have no idea how the whole blog business will turn out since I started this blog after summer break started, so I've never had to juggle school and blogging before. We will also see about that...

    Okay I'm back from work, let's do this. Today's topics will be Planking - not to be confused with owling or horsemanning and Sunsets because it's pretty much impossible to take a bad picture of a sunset, and I think having pictures in my blog makes it more awesome. Remember, becoming awesome is not a spectator sport, so get out there and start being awesome.

Planking

Level of Awesomeness: Fall (or lie) on your face awesomeness

What Is It: As it is known on the Interwebz, planking is "parkour for people who can't move fast." Basically, you lie face down on something (eg. the ground, a statue, a small child) preferably in public, and take a picture for the purposes of documentation. Recently, planking has received a lot of hate from YouTube commenters, but then again everything receives a lot of hate from YouTube commenters. On a side note, if you were guessing that I will never be discussing the awesomeness of comment boards on the Internet, you would be 100% correct. While planking may look stupid to the untrained eye, it is in fact quite fun to partake in. Look around you. Where could you plank?

On a garbage can?

Inside an airplane?

Better yet, on an airplane and yes that is Gordan Ramsay.

There are tons of places to plank, you just have to go out and find them. Just try not to get hurt doing it, it makes for bad publicity. Beginners may want to try planking on the ground first just to get the hang of it, then you can move on to bigger and better things when you feel you have mastered it.

Why Is It Awesome: Because it is fun to look for places you could lie down. Standing all day is tiring, so if you can find creative places to lie it could improve your quality of life by 7. Plus, you get a good ab workout if you lie on something that does not completely support your body. And as an added bonus you get to practice your photography skills. But wait there's more! You can't plank alone (at least it is very hard to photograph in this way), so you'll get to hang out with all your planking-loving friends (the best kind of friends) who are sure to be awesome. All this and more for the low, low price of - Free.

Sunsets

Level of Awesomeness: Better than Twilight

What Is It: At the end of the day - you may have noticed - the sun drops below the horizon and makes the sky all pretty and colourful. The sun then tunnels under the Earth below us and surfaces again sometime the next day around dawn. The sun tunnels more slowly in the winter because it is cold and if you will remember from particle theory, heat causes particles - or masses of particles such as the sun - to speed up. But we're getting off topic, what we want to be focusing on is sunsets. Perhaps it might be easiest to show you what I mean through use of visual aids.

You will notice a sunset in the background.

Sorry about the reflection off the window. They wouldn't let me on the runway.

Don't let the presence of the moon fool you; this is still a sunset.

They have sunsets in Italy too!

So yeah, that's what sunsets are if you didn't know.

Why Is It Awesome: Because the sky is more pleasing to look at when it is multi-coloured (that's why rainbows are also awesome). Also, sunsets make me seem like a half decent photographer because you can basically just point your camera at it, and it will turn out well.

P.S. I worry about my ability to complete tasks in University. Question...if it takes me 2 weeks to start writing a post and another 5 days to actually write it, then how long will it take me to fail out of University?

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Express Passes

    Hello everyone, as you may remember from last time, I said I was leaving for Orlando. The reason being I was going to Universal Studios to see The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Now I'm back, and I can tell you it was awesome (see below). I went with my brother and aunt, as well as one of my aunt's friends and her husband and son. We stayed at one of the hotels that's part of Universal Studios, so that was cool because it was only a 10 minute walk to the parks in the morning. What wasn't cool was the weather - I know I used that joke already about Indianapolis - I don't know if it's just because I'm Canadian, but the United States feels really hot all the time. And you know what sucks when it's hot? Waiting in lines for rides. That's why Express Passes are so awesome, because you don't even have to wait in lines. Sure you feel bad for a second about walking past all those people in the regular line, but then you realize you're on the ride already and you couldn't care less about those people. If you go to an amusement park sometime (I recommend Universal Islands of Adventure - that's where Hogwarts is) you should invest in an Express Pass at least once to see why I think they're so awesome. Remember, becoming awesome is not a spectator sport, so get out there and start being awesome.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Level of Awesomeness: More fun than burning witches.

What Is It: June 18th, 2010. The day Hogwarts opened its Orlando campus. These days that seems so long ago. Back in 2010 Rebecca Black wasn't even famous, but now I don't know if I could imagine the music industry without her... False. That is not difficult to imagine. But it does mean it took me over a year to get to Hogwarts. Now in case you're not familiar with Hogwarts, it is the school from Harry Potter, and in case you're not familiar with Harry Potter, he looks like this:

Or more importantly, like this:

See "A Very Potter Musical"

Now that that's out of the way I can tell you what The Wizarding World of Harry Potter really is. A land of wonder where all your dreams come true. Need I go on? Yes? Okay, it's an amusement park. Happy now? Good. It has rides such as: The Forbidden Journey (now featuring the longest wait times on this side of the Mississippi), Dragon Challenge and Flight of the Hippogriff.

Why Is It Awesome: Because it's almost as awesome as being Ron Weasley, which is still really awesome. Don't believe me? Check out these pictures I took.

It's Hogwarts!

It's a sign! Read what it says!

I got distracted by a roller coaster...Hogwarts is in the bottom left corner.

Express Passes

Level of Awesomeness: Passable

What Is It: Sometimes they are cards, sometimes it's just a piece of paper, but whatever it is it lets you skip the regular line at an amusement park and go in the express line instead. It's what those people you hate have. And it's awesome. Imagine, instead of waiting 2 hours to go on that ride you like, you wait 2 minutes. Now you can go on your favourite ride 59 extra times. Or, if you don't want all those extra rides, you have enough time to watch Cowboys & Aliens in the middle of the day while you wait for the regular people to get off the ride.

Why Is It Awesome: Because you have so much more time for activities! Standing in lines is not awesome, but going on rides is awesome! Now you get more awesomeness per unit of time!

P.S. When I was in Florida I found this "Awesome" mug.

Look how awesome it is!