A while ago (holy crap! It’s been three years!) I posted on the “new” OK GO video and the awesome amazing huge Rube Goldberg contraption that it featured. I love Rube Goldberg contraptions, in part because when I was a super nerdy high school student, I was in a club called Odyssey of the Mind (which, evidently, hasn’t redesigned their website since I was a super nerdy high school student). OM (as the super cool super nerds called it) is a “creative problem solving” competition, in which you’re given a problem like “write a 3-minute play about Pompeii featuring 10 artifacts that you have recreated in an unusual way” (we totally won that one) or “create a skit featuring a balsa wood construction shaped like a bridge in which weights are placed on top of the bridge until it breaks – points given for creativity of skit as well as soundness of the structure” (we totally lost that one) OR “create a Rube Goldberg contraption with 12 triggers that can be assembled and launched in 10 minutes and some kind of skit to go along with it (I don’t remember the details)” (we totally lost that one too). Our Rube Goldberg contraption was a huge ramp made of pvc with lame triggers like “break through a flimsy piece of tape so a little toy soldier tied to the tape with a piece of thread falls to the floor” and “knock a notebook spring out of the way such that it lands in a giant bucket on the floor” and stuff like that. So, I’m always very VERY impressed when REAL nerds put together a totally legit contraption.

And so I was delighted to come across this video yesterday – featuring dominoes and popsicle sticks that somehow manage to throw themselves up in the air in joyful confetti attacks. This video is slightly less impressive than the OK GO one because there are two cuts (it’s not one continuous shot) but I have to say the things that they make popsicle sticks (and toast!) do are delightful. Have a look (“Tuna Melt” by A-Trak & Tommy Trash):

A-Trak & Tommy Trash – Tuna Melt from Pomp&Clout on Vimeo.

Incidentally, I entirely credit OM for my interest in making things and doing things over sitting in front of the TV or, say, eating competitively, so if your kid comes up to you at some point and says, “Hey Mom, I want to join this nerdy club called Odyssey of the Mind, but it’s full of nerds,” don’t say, “Nerds are the worst! All they end up doing is building space rovers for NASA or designing contraptions for music videos or god forbid sitting at their desks all day long painting – don’t do it! Join the football team instead!” Instead, just play it cool, and say “I know some nerds. Do it.”