The coolest informal research you ever did see

This homework assignment was to do informal research on some of the sources of cool. I tried to focus specifically on "guides". What I mean by this is sources that tell you how to 'be' a certain way. If there are instructions for it out there and it's not something that you'd have to do with the instructions or not, someone must think it's cool.

Smugopedia. Web. .
As this website describes itself, "Smugopedia is a collection of slightly controversial opinions about a variety of subjects. We offer you the chance to buy a fleeting sense of self-satisfaction at the small cost of alienating your friends and loved ones."

Within some circles (I think this includes our classroom as well) the slightly controversial opinions offered are seen as the "uniqueness" so often thought of as cool, and the sense of self satisfaction that comes from all but shamelessly proclaiming the superiority of your opinion is what is defined as "confidence". Worth reading if your circle of friends thinks like this, but in that case chances are you're not satisfied to use someone else's opinion.

"How to be Ninja (nigahiga)." Web. 12 Dec 2009. .
"How to be Gangster (nigahiga)." Web. 12 Dec 2009. .
"How to be Emo (nigahiga)." Web. 12 Dec 2009. .
"How to be Nerd (nigahiga)." Web. 12 Dec 2009. .
"How to be UFC Fighter (nigahiga)." Web. 12 Dec 2009. .
These are all of the videos from Ryan Higa's "How to be..." series. Even though the videos are meant as parodies, I still think it's valuable as an example of perceptions of archetypes in our culture. They won't really teach you anything about being those things, but they might teach you a bit about how to be like Ryan Higa and his friends.

Ryan Higa has thousands of subscriptions to his youtube channel and has gotten popular enough that he has acutally been contracted to make a full length movie which will be comming out in theaters. Based on that, I'd say he's considered pretty cool.

Andrews, Scott. "What Men Want." AspireNow. Web. 12 Dec 2009. .
This is one of the many online guides to what men want from a relationship. There is a corresponding guide to what women want on the site as well.

The matter of what men or women want is the subject of constant pondering and several cheezy romantic comedies. These guides attempt to offer a solution. Whether their advice actually helps probably depends on who you use as a test subject.

"Guide to COOL--fd." Web. 12 Dec 2009. .
This is a parody of cool, desplaying many of the same ideas we've discussed in class. It makes fun of alterations usually thought of a cool on objects like cars (such as making them lower, faster, and louder), highlighting their rediculousness by demonstrating them on a cat.

Especially cohesive with the themes of our class is the idea that desplaying a big company logo on something makes it cooler. Given the use of this concept in a parody the artist behind the comic probably also subscribes to the view of the masses as corperate puppets.

"Top 100 Coolest people in the World." ListAfterList. Web. 12 Dec 2009. .
This is a comprehensive listof the top 100 coolest people in the world. I figured this probably fit with the theme a little, because if you wanted to rip off someone else's cool these are the people to immitate.

What impressed me most about it was that it seems to draw from a wide variety of perspectives on cool, listing people ranging from Justin Timberlake to Thich Nhat Hanh.