Galileo? Galileo, will you do the fandango?

It’s safe to tell you now.  Yesterday was the due date, and I don’t have to run the risk of you, my more creative/talented/punctual/passionate friends competing against little old me.  I put my name in for what might be another fun adventure, and I kept it all to myselfishself.  The next whim I’ve been searching for:  A hell of a good story:

I applied to live at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago for a whole month. 

Crazy!  I gotta tell you, the kid in me is so wild with the possibilities contained in this contest.  It’s just as far-out as it appears: you live at the museum, walking around and talking to people, helping out with demos, blogging, tweeting and taking photos.  Maybe you might go do some science outreach but for the majority of 30 days, your home is 14 acres of elegant building (first built for the 1893 Chicago World Exhibition – the same one that saw the birth of pop belly-dancing in America); a green SmartHome, a model coal mine, an OMNIMAX theatre and a German U-boat.  Um, awesome!

Man, can you imagine it?  An empty science museum would have excellent acoustics to sing Bohemian Rhapsody.

Oddly, the prize of the contest is to live there, but that also seems to be part of the challenge.  If, says the website, you successfully complete a month at the museum, then you win $10,000 and get to keep your blogging/tweeting/photo-taking equipment.  Supplementary awesome!  I don’t know, I’d do it if there were no money involved at all.  Not that I’m saying no to it.  As far as I know, you can’t barter good stories for plane tickets and gasoline.  Though maybe I just need to try harder.  Anyway, I’ll know if I made the cut (presuming my skin-of-my-teeth application arrived in time) by August 25^th, they say.  At that point, there will be an APB out to you guys to vote for my YouTube video (no, not that one – the family-friendly one of me applying to live at the museum).*  We’ll cross that bridge made out of toothpicks and marshmallows when we come to it.  But I hope I at least get a fighting chance.

Nerds unite!

*Kidding, family!