This Is Just Cool!

We received a great tip about something cool that we just had to check out. The person who submitted the tip did a great job of succinctly describing it so we’ll start off by sharing what the submissions said about the website called Avatara.

The creators of Evolver, the world’s first web based tool for building custom 3D character models, have just launched Avatara™, a new site designed specifically for social media enthusiasts. Avatara enables fast, easy creation and upload of customized, animated 3D avatars for use on Facebook, Myspace and for instant messaging to friends. Check it out!

That description sounded like enough for us to want to check out so we headed over to the Avatara website and here is what we found:

• This is a website where you can easily create an animated avatar of yourself.
• The process is super simple. You can either use an existing avatar or upload your own photo. Your photo does have to be larger than thumbnail size though.
• You can choose a lot of different actions for your Avatar. We like the "peek-a-boo" action shown above.
• You can upload the image to over two dozen different social networking sites to use as your profile avatar.
• It’s fun!

The two drawbacks we could see on the site:

• They’re in the process of upgrading their capacity. Until they do it’s a little bit slow to work with. It does work though.
• You have to either use OpenID or sign up for a free account. It’s not that difficult but it’s one more step in the process.

This is really cool. It seems like it’s the next thing we’re going to see a lot of in terms of profile pictures on social networking sites.

Most of the posts that we have for you here on this blog are about very specific things that we think are cool. We like to provide you with detailed information about those things so that we can help you see how cool they are, too. However the truth of the matter is that there are tons of topics that we think are cool and we just can’t cover them all in depth right away.

Hopefully we’ll give you more details about them as time goes on but here’s a brief look at ten cool topics that we think you might want to learn more about:

1. Lomography. This is a very specific kind of photography that uses specific cameras. (Think Polaroid photography except the cameras and photos are a different style.)
2. Weird Asian News. What can we say; there’s a lot of funky stuff that comes out of Asia.
3. Crochet. There are tons of blogs and galleries for people who are into knitting but not nearly as much out there for people who love crochet. Why is that? We think crochet is totally cool.
4. Underground dining. There are a bunch of groups that produce dining events in odd locations like art galleries and bookstores. We want to learn more about this cool stuff!
5. Swapmeets and flea markets. Cool average people selling cool random stuff. We love it.
6. 3D IMAX movies. Sure the glasses are silly but the special effects are super cool. We think there should be more of these!
7. Green creativity. You can find a lot of information on many green topics but it’s tough to learn about being green in the creative world.
8. Weight loss books that aren’t about dieting. Skinny Bitch and French Women Don’t Get Fat are two great examples.
9. Broadway musicals. We think they’re cool. Do you?
10. Really fancy chocolate stores. We’re talking about the ones that sell chocolate made with sea salt or chocolates shaped like detailed animals. Is there one of these places in your area? Should we know about it?

Is there a random topic that you think should be added to our "cool" list?

There’s a new T-shirt company based in the San Francisco Bay Area that seems like a business to really keep an eye on. The company is called Edgi Clothing. The main thing that they offer is a set of artistic, indie T-shirts. These T-shirts feature cool designs and intriguing sayings. (We love the one that says "I’m having an emotional orgy".)

5 reasons that we think that Edgi is a company to keep an eye on are:

1. Their clothes are hot. The number one thing about fashion companies is that they have to produce amazing clothing. This company is making really sexy T-shirts that flatter the figures of both men and women.
2. They employ wicked cool artists to do their designs. These aren’t your average T-shirts. They’re art that you can wear.
3. They have a really interesting approach to their business. They define "edgi" as being on the edge. They’re all about pushing boundaries, living breathlessly and infusing the fashion world with something new. They don’t just create T-shirts; they aim to create fashion experiences.
4. They’re socially conscious. They have T-shirts that you can buy that help out with certain causes. For example, they have a Charity Water tee that provides funding to clean water organizations around the world. Helping others with your business is always cool.
5. They have a cool fashion blog. It discusses Tshirt news, fashion tips, how to recreate celebrity styles of less and even has a weekly focus on men’s fashion.

The company is new but they’ve already got a great lineup of Tshirts for you to check out. We hope you think they’re as cool as we do!

We always love learning about cool new ways to save money, right? Unfortunately most of the tips and tricks out there are things that are tired and old. They’re good if you don’t know them yet but not so hot if you’re already a frugal person. So it’s always exciting when some money-saving opportunity comes along that’s actually fresh and new. That’s why we’re loving Groupon so much.

Groupon is a community-based coupon deals site that offers a new deal every day in a variety of different cities. Some of the reasons that we think Groupon is cool are:

• It saves you a ton of money. The coupon deals are often for as much as fifty percent off!
• It’s social. The site is set up so that the deal only works when a certain number of people sign up for it. This encourages social networking around the deals. We love this idea!
• It supports local businesses. The deals are designed to support and introduce you to great new businesses in your area.
• The deals are for really cool things. This depends on where you live but, for example, recent deals on San Francisco Groupon have been for family photos, whale watching, sky diving and wine bars.
• The coupons last a long time. You can use most deals six months or even a year from now. This flexibility is nice.
• It’s free. This isn’t some scam that you have to pay to be a part of.

The one downside to Groupon is that you pay in advance for the coupon. This is great when it comes time to use it since it’s already paid for but kind of bad if you’re buying a lot of coupons at once. Still, overall, this is a truly cool money-saving option.

The first cool thing that we’ve got for you for the New Year is some information on a product called eXapath™. As the video above describes, eXapath™ is an in-wall cable pathway system. The thing that makes it really cool is that it provides a quick, easy and affordable method of updating old homes to be capable of handling the latest technology.

What exactly is it? Well, basically it’s a way for you to alter your home wiring system without a lot of hassle. A couple of the things that this product allows you to do include:

• Move, add or upgrade low voltage wiring in your home. The reason that you would want to do that is because as your consumer electronics needs change so does your need for low voltage wiring. For example, your living room used to only need wiring to handle your television set. Now it needs to handle a whole multi-media and computing system.
• Create new outlets. You can use this product to actually create new outlets in your walls, either before or after drywall is in place. Those outlets can go absolutely anywhere from floor to ceiling. Think about the convenience of actually being able to put outlets where you need them instead of having to run wires all around your rooms. This is especially great in old homes where there aren’t a lot of outlets.

All of this is done without affecting the insulation of your home. You save energy, you keep your older home intact and yet you can use the electronics stuff that you want to use.

Thanks to Mike Hines and his Homepath Products for this cool tip!

This one is an oldie but a goodie. It was uploaded to YouTube two holiday seasons ago but it’s still a funny charming little video to enjoy now. It’s a little ditty all about making New Year’s resolutions that you can keep.

The thing about this video is that it’s supposed to be humorous but it also ends up having a really great message behind it. It’s basically about how everyone tries to make these unrealistic New Year’s resolutions and then they feel like failures because they can’t keep their goals that they’ve set for the new year. The song recommends that you choose instead to make New Year’s resolutions that you can keep because they’re things that you’re already doing.

While this does kind of go against the whole purpose of making New Year’s resolutions, it’s actually a cool little annual practice that could be worth adopting. What it’s really all about is just accepting yourself the way that you are. It’s about saying to yourself, "I’m going to make a resolution to keep those five extra pounds this year because that’s who I am and I’m tired of fighting it".

Sure, it’s great to set goals. But it’s also great to go easy on yourself and to like yourself for just the way you are today. New Year’s is upon us and that’s a perfect time to re-commit to being kind to yourself in the year to come!