Posts Tagged ‘cool’

365great Day 36: plasma balls

laelene Posted in 365great,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Learn more about 365great here.

365great challenge day 36: plasma ballsThese are such fun toys! I mean, how trippy is it to put your finger on there and watch as it responds to your touch? Even without touching the plasma ball, the constantly moving “lightning bolts” extending out is pretty cool to watch. If you’ve never played with one of these, you’re definitely missing out. It’s like having a magic ball that follows your every move in beautiful hues of pinks, purple, blue, and white. It’s a fun scientific gadget that is sure to please! I’ve got one as a desk toy that actually operates as a USB splitter – practical and pretty in one! A cool gizmo that brings science alive in such a fun way is truly great.

Kickstarter funding addiction

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , ,
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For awhile I had heard whisperings of a site called Kickstarter, where you could use crowd-sourcing to help fund things, but I didn’t check it out.  I forgot how I eventually ended up visiting the site one day… I probably read an article that led me to look into it further.  Well, whatever the case, I found a gold mine of cool ideas that made me happy.  After browsing through a bunch, I ultimately decided to fund one called Twig.

It’s an ultra-portable USB charger and stand for your iPhone.  I hesitated at first because the new iPhone will be out in a few months (hopefully within 2!) and I plan on getting that.  As it stands, the rumors of a smaller charging dock is probably true, so this device wouldn’t work with the new iPhone without a converter of sorts.  Still, I really liked the idea and wanted to get behind it, so I went ahead and funded it.

Then I got one of the emails Kickstarter sends out highlighting some of their favorite projects and one of them really caught my attention.  This one, called the Lumi Process, is like the opposite of developing film in a darkroom.  Whereas traditionally you had to keep your negatives away from the sun, this process actually uses the sun to do the printing.  They have a special ink that reacts to sunlight and imprints itself into any fibrous material.  So the other cool thing is that you aren’t limited to paper like you are in a darkroom; now you can print on a wide variety of mediums, including various types of cloth and even wood.  Being the wannabe amateur photographer that I am, this fascinated me and I just had to get in on the action.

I’ve even got some ideas brewing for Kickstarter projects that I want to post!  It’ll be awhile before I’m ready for that stage, but I’m pretty excited and have done quite a bit of research to brainstorm some cool reward levels.  If you haven’t already checked out the site, you should, and maybe in a few months you’ll see of my projects up there!

A Dole anole

laelene Posted in photo blog,Tags: , , , , , ,
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green anole lizard at dole plantation in hawaii

At the Dole Plantation, we spotted this little green lizard (an anole, I believe).

green anole lizard at dole plantation in hawaii starting to turn brown

It froze on this leaf and I got distracted by a rooster, only to look back and find...

green anole lizard at dole plantation in hawaii after turning brown

...it turned brown on me! Ah I wish I had noticed/caught it, but I had no idea it could morph like that.

In retrospect, I can see that it was already starting to turn brown in the middle picture. Alas, I figured it was just a green lizard so I never thought to watch it so closely.

Blossoming tea

laelene Posted in video blog,Tags: , , ,
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Blossoming, or blooming, tea is quite the art form! Check out this video of how they work. 🙂

glass teapot with blossoming tea inside

Blossoming tea! It comes in a ball and then unfurls in the water to create this beautiful shape and and equally beautiful taste. All handmade!

close-up of blossoming tea

Each flavor has a design using string to keep the shape. Cool, huh?

Caught in a web

laelene Posted in photo blog,Tags: , , , , ,
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I recently went a little crazy on the spiders that have decided to take up residence in corners I rarely frequent. I spent a couple of minutes completely terrorizing them, though I have no idea if they’ll even understand or remember what happened. I tore down their webs and followed them as they crawled around, slapping my hands and stomping things right next to them. I made as much noise as I could and often got close enough to touch their legs. One of the smaller ones I blew the whole way out the door. One of them I attempted to fume away with some strong scented oil. It turned out to be a good thing though, because look at this gem I found!

He was getting himself caught up in one of the webs. Look at how small he is!

tiny baby preying mantis in doorway

Where I first spotted him.

a finger next to preying mantis baby for comparison

With my finger for scaling.

cleaning off his right hand

They groom much like cats do.

climbing up around knuckles

Climbing all over my knuckles!

preying mantis climbing on hands

Flashed.

preying mantis climbing on jade bracelet

Now on my jade bracelet, kind of matching.

preying mantis coming right towards camera

Coming straight towards me.

preying mantis climbing right over camera lens

Goes right over the camera lens.

preying mantis with hula hoop in background

I thought it was kind of cool with the hula hoop in the background.

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