Discover Top Posts Tagged with #coolhunt2

When my mom asked me what I wanted for my 17th birthday, I just told her to surprise me.

This was certainly a surprise.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t a glass ball filled with tiny shrimp. Her excitement as I opened the gift only confused me even more, because what on earth could be so cool about… whatever that was? She must have seen my puzzled expression, because she immediately began to explain her reasoning behind thinking — “Ah, yes. I know what my daughter would like for her birthday: a ball with shrimp in it.”

This glass sphere, she told me, is called the Ecosphere, and it has 8 incredibly tiny shrimp inside of it along with algae, bacteria and other microorganisms, a fake sea fan, decorative shells, and lightweight gravel. Because it can’t be opened in any way, the Ecosphere runs on energy. Indirect light and carbon dioxide in the water — mainly given off by the shrimp and the bacteria — enable the algae to produce oxygen. The shrimp then breathe it in and eat the algae as well as bacteria in the water. Meanwhile, the bacteria break down the shrimps’ waste into nutrients that the algae uses to grow. Now, tell me that isn’t cool. It’s a self-sustaining ecosystem! The coolest thing is that the idea came from two scientists and was further developed by NASA, who saw it as an opportunity to study the Earth’s biosphere and to conduct research on the construction of space stations to explore our solar system. In the simplest terms, this sphere represents our planet on a tiny scale: we are the little shrimp, forever as dependent on the organisms around us as they are on us. But maybe the absolutely coolest part is that I can’t forget to feed or water it. I have killed many plants and fish in my days, but the Ecosphere is so low-maintenance not even I could manage to kill it (hopefully).

I don’t care that most of my friends look at me weird for being sort of obsessed with Jacques — as I lovingly call all the shrimp after the character in Finding Nemo. Now, the Ecosphere sits proudly in my bookshelf as the little shrimp swim happily in their glass home.

#coolhunt2 #jacques #ecosphere

My Cool Duck

This is my doll that I have owned since eleven months ago. It is a gift from my friend. Maybe when people see this doll, they tend not to consider that it is cool. But for me, it is cool because one of my dream I have had since I was a child finally comes true. When I was young, the animated movie about prince and princess was very popular. Among the animated movies, I liked the Barbie Princess the most. Because of this, I wanted Barbie dolls. I always imagined that I could dress them up and then they would go to parties. At parties, they would meet princes and have a happy life. What a beautiful story. However, unfortunately, when I was young, I was so introverted and always did not tell my parents what I want to buy. Therefore, I did not get my “princesses”. Besides, when I grow up, I become more outgoing but I suppose that I was so “old” to play Barbie dolls. If I do so, maybe some of my friends will “laugh” at me. Therefore, I still did not get my “princesses”. Yet, during the last winter holiday, when I come back to my own country and went outside with my friend, she gave me a duck doll as a gift. The duck doll can also be dressed up with clothes, shoes, glasses etc. The only difference from the Barbie dolls for me is that he is a duck and he will meet a duck princess at party, not prince. I was so surprised because I have never told her my story about Barbie princess. But she bought this special gift for me by chance. This special gift makes my “princess” dream come true to some extent. I believe my duck prince will find his princess at the end.

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Black and white film

Black and white films are like old picture that reminds people of their memories of the old days. Back to the days when the movie has no color but black and white, everyone loves them. Now days, movie industry has developed much better and it is still on going under fast speed. Black and white movies have already been forgotten somehow. However, the influence of the black and white movie will never fade away. It has motivated and affected one generation after one generation. For the black and white movie, their filming equipment, technology and producing, none of it can be compared with modern movie. The modern high tech and big coast movie focuses too much on making money. It is too much about business instead of a form of art. Modern movie would hire some celebrity who can’t act at all to attract people to watch the movie. Rashomon a very classical black and white movie and it is one of my favorite movies. It is talking about how different people lie and tell a same incident by different version to achieve their self-interest and hide their sin. No one really knows the truth of the story because everyone been through the incident tells people their own version of the story. Rashomon is acknowledged as a milestone to the movie history of Japanese and the world. And I think it is one of the greatest movie. There is no computer graphics or fancy editing in the movie at all, just black and white. The black and white in Rashomon gives the audience a feeling of mysterious and desolate which I don’t think is easy for modern movie to achieve.

#coolhunt2

Season after season, denim is a wardrobe essential, but the styles are always changing. People tend to think denim skirts are not “cool” because they are seen as out of style. This particular clothing item was a popular outfit staple for girls and women in the 1980′s, 1990′s, and early 2000′s. For the first time in a long time, however, I believe denim skirts are back in style. Only the true innovators, the coolhunters, and the elite of the fashion world are sporting this newly restored fashion trend. Denim skirts are slowly but surely making a come back, but not the faded minis denim skirts of the '90s. The modern day take of a denim skirt is a little lengthier and can be worn either skin-tight or looser with a bit of flare. Some of the skirts have large buttons running down the front it. I believe denim skirts should be considered “cool” again because not many people have caught on to the trend yet; not many people are riding this fashion wave as of now. Once denim skirts catch on and everybody and their brother begins wearing them, they will lose their appeal to innovators and will no longer be considered a “cool” item. Trends are fleeting in that they are very short-lived, and they are constantly changing. Something is only considered “cool” as long as an elite group of innovators are following it. In my opinion, something being “cool” requires that it be unique, and denim shirts surely fit this definition.

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UNCOOL

This is a mini notepad that can get from any bookstore, or website like amazon, eBay, etc. Very normal, not cool. I also think in this way before, however, I changed my mind after using it, and now I want to persuades you to believe that it’s actually cool. I can still remember the first time I used it was in a café, I was reading a traveling magazine, and many places in the magazine attracted me, so I wrote them done in this notepad. After that, I regarded this notepad as my wishing lists, I gradually form the habit to write done the specific information and my personal feelings about the countries, cities, specific stores, hotels, restaurants, even the clothes, daily uses, etc, which I like in this mini notepad. I like to “collect” these interesting, fancy, unique places and objects, although I can’t actually own them, at least they belong to me in this notepads. Some of the places and objects has been ruled out, since I finished them up or for some reason that they don’t attract me anymore. So, this notepad isn’t cool enough for itself, but it becomes super cool since I use it in a cool way, and I highly recommend you to use this normal notepad in your cool way, and please share it to me!

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To most people, this may just look like a door covered in stickers. But to me, each sticker brings me back to a different memory of the past 7 years of my life. In 2012, I moved to Miami, and humbly taped on a psychedelic poster to the center of my door. At the time, I thought it was the coolest poster, and my “edgy” fourteen year old self was content with just that. I also always had a box full of stickers from events and brands, but I just never knew where to put them, until I met my friend Tiffany. Her room was full of stickers, lights, posters, and tapestries, and I thought it was the coolest room I had ever seen. So, one day when I got home, I fished out my sticker box, and began stickering my door. I really underestimated the amount of stickers I had, because only a quarter of my door was covered. But, over the past six years, I’ve gone to countless shows, events, and ordered a ridiculous amount of clothes (hehe), to a point where I have so many stickers, that I'm trying to conserve door space.

I think the coolest thing about my door is the left side where all the wristbands are hanging. One of my favorite things to do is attend music festivals. So far, I’ve attended 20 music festivals, (3 rap festivals, and 17 electronic music festivals). For every big festival I attend, I will always hang my wristband or ticket on my door. Most people wouldn't really find this cool because it’s just some stickers and old tickets. But it truly means everything to me. I always promise my parents that when I move out, I am absolutely taking the entire door with me.

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Cresty

This is not an item, but here is my beautiful crested gecko. Her name is Cresty since she is in fact a crested gecko. I know many people do not find any reptiles cool, so that is why I chose Cresty as something that is not seen as cool. These types of geckos are actually very interesting because they do not need any heat to live. They are very tropical lizards, which means they thrive in temperatures from 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit. The most important aspect that these lizards need to survive is moisture. Every day I go to Cresty’s cage and I spray water on the sides and on the tree she has to climb, keeping her comfortable in her habitat.

These lizards are the only ones of its kind that cannot grow its tail back. These species of lizards, as you can see form the picture, have beautiful tails that are usually lighter than its whole body. The only reason Cresty still has her tail is because of all the attention I give her. In a natural habitat, if Cresty was shown something that scared her, her tail would fall off due to fear. In other caged environments, crested gecko tails can fall off do to the same kind of fear or from stress. These creatures are very calm and love to be at high surfaces. They are very intricate animals and hard to understand, this could be why not many people will think Cresty is cool at first sight.

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This is my longboard that I got between the fall and spring semester. It’s made by the company “lost” which is mainly a clothing and surfboard company. Around 2013 lost decided to do a promotion called “kampus kruisers” and the idea was that lost would make a bunch of skateboards with different college logo’s on them and all the new kids going to those colleges, suddenly in need of convenient transportation around campus, would buy their board. Long story short it flopped with lost getting 9 colleges on board and selling hardly any. One of these colleges was NYU which is near my hometown. Fast forward to Christmas break when I was looking for a skateboard for the spring semester and I find this guy on Craigslist who says he used to work for lost and has like a storage unit full of these things (NYU ones) and he’s basically trying to get rid of them. I paid 10$ for the board and another 7$ for a can of white spray paint to cover up the NYU logo but what I came out with was a stylish purple longboard that got me where I needed to be, and many would pay in the triple digits for (based on looks and the fact longboards are really expensive not build). The board itself is heavy because it’s poorly made with inefficient materials and hardly turns, but it’s still faster and easier than walking, there’s probably a couple hundred of these in existence, and it cost me about the same as my average chipotle order. Taking all of this into consideration,I think, is enough to consider this board cool.

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