I was out buying flowers for my girl in the local Giant when I saw some especially pretty ones in shades I couldn’t believe were real. Turned out they weren’t, but that someone had spray painted them bright green, blue, ect. I know, probably a very common thing, but it really startled me that someone would think of it.
What have you run into?
When I remember to be I am amazed that I can take a shower of clean hot water pouring over me every single day and more than once if I want to.
I am also amazed that at the age of 19, despite being seriously depressed and f*cked up in many ways, I was able find and attract a mate who, 19 years later is still fun to be with, attractive, and thrilled to be married to ME!
I’m always amazed that airplanes can fly, in spite of weighing many tons.
I’m also amazed that people can live many decades without anything killing them.
Mine’s embarassingly simple.
Those vending machines for ice cream bars–they grab the specific bar by sucking them up in this vacuum nozzle thing and then it deposits it down. So hard to explain, but the first time I saw one of these at university, I was so impressed, I actually started laughing in pure joy, like a five year old.
I am sometimes amazed when I stop and think about the relationship between us and our pets, specifically dogs. They’re one of the most effective and dangerous hunters in the world and their wild cousins are still incredibly feared yet many, if not most of us, have one or more in our homes and it’s considered entirely natural.
Edit: Ooh. 10,000[sup]th[/sup] post.
Type faster, you’ll turn over! Ahem…Kids in the Hall moment over.
Dogs do amaze me for that reason, too. I watch shows like “It’s Me or the Dog” and “The Dog Whisperer” and I’m aware that dogs can be have behavioral problems. But when you lay down the law, they actually do listen. They actually care about pleasing us and making us happy. Even though any of them, even the really tiny, adorable ones, could take us down pretty easily, they’re content to cuddle up next to us, play, etc. A lot of dogs are dangerous, admittedly, but when they do misbehave, it’s more like acting up than actually deciding to rebel and rip our throats out.
The transistor completely blows my mind - it’s so ridiculously simple and tiny, and it completely revolutionized EVERYTHING technology-wise.
I’m amazed that humans figured out how to make most of the food we eat. Even bread. Even flour. I never would have thought to grind up grains, combine it with other stuff and then bake it.
I am amazed when I am on the SkyTrain and there is a building with little… bumps on top of it (I’m eloquent eh wha?) in straight lines, and as you pass them, they line up in diagonal lines, then move apart, then line up again in different lines. That is hard to describe in words.
It amazes me that thumping great ships float
Oral sex.
Combustion engines: cars in general! I mean, yes they’re computer controlled now for proper mixture and timing, but for God’s sake, it’s the same bloody principle that the original Benz and Ford were based upon: refined black goop from the ground, sucked into a metal cylinder and ignited by a spark plug to force another shaft to rotate, and thereby transfer the motion to the wheels. This is the 21st century! Where’s my solar-powered helicopter?
I can watch bugs crawl around for hours. This was a favorite activity of mine back when I used to get high a lot.
Seeing a unique vintage vehicle - a 60s muscle car, a rugged old 4x4 like a Wagoneer or a fully-outfitted Land Cruiser, an old Triumph or MG, or a classic motorcycle - totally makes my day. (I’m a firm believer that cars looked cooler “back then,” despite being less safe.)
Whenever I see a jet contrail I think, “there are people sitting up there!” Somehow the fact that they’re sitting down is even more mind-blowing than if they were flying through the air, arms outstretched like Superman.
It amazes me that a spoken sentence or a line of music can be played backwards and totally lose all of its meaning.
The idea that there are songs, interviews and radio shows floating through the air waiting to get picked up by an antenna so I can hear them - I’ll never get over that.
The fact that music can be stored on a magnetic tape or a vinyl record.
A lot of stuff just blows my mind every day.
Clouds never fail to elicit stares of wondrous awe from me. What can I say, I’m a [del]deep and mystical[/del] easily entertained man.
Zippers. Who thought of these, anyway?
Calculators. When I was in high school these things cost hundreds of dollars, so we all had to learn how to add and subtract and stuff. People who were really into math, engineering, etc., had to learn how to use slide rules.
Now, people give them away, and they’re smaller than a credit card, and they fit in your checkbook! I have one in my checkbook that actually remembers my balance.
When I look “up” at at the stars in the night sky and then remember that the notion of “up” and “down” is just an artificial construct, I decide that I’m actually hanging by my heels and looking down into the depths of an immeasurable black ocean.
Try it, the sensation is amazing.
iPods. Every single piece of music I own - literally, thousands and thousands of songs from all around the world and throughout history - all fit in my pocket, and I can listen to them anywhere I want.
That’s simply the coolest fucking thing, ever.
Last year I noticed for the first time (which means I am aware they may have been doing it for a while) that they had spray painted the poinsettias to be blue. I thought that they were so pretty I almost bought one for my mother, until I realized that they had painted them that color.
Which brings us back to mine above. 
Blows your mind huh?
The fact that there are millions of sound waves passing through my body is also a tad amazing
The fact that anyone ever thought to do all of the wild stuff we do to potatoes blows my mind. It’s an ugly lump, hey, let’s fry/mash/bake/boil/distill it!
There’s also the thought that, at a fundamental level, I’m just atoms, this computer is just atoms, my coffee is just atoms – yet I’m the only one of the three giving it any thought. Crazy.