Honestly, what I believe to be my "coolest" possessions (the adjective "cool" being extremely objective here) are my life-sized cardboard cutout of Luke Skywalker and my signed photograph of Scott Bakula. God, I'm such a geek.
Sentimental: My grandma makes everyone quilts, I'm up to two. If I get married while she's alive I get a big King Size bed quilt. It makes getting married look good. My Flip video camera, I've only used it for one thing long enough to edit together a movie (Fantasy Football draft) but I'm not usually a camera guy. Have to get into that mode to use it enough.
The coolest thing I own is my level IIIA Apollo body armor. I'm not a cop, and I don't have any specific need for it, and I rarely wear it, but every once in a while, I'll sneak it out of my dresser and put it on just to enjoy wearing bullet resistance.
My Taurus 7-shot 357 revolver. The coolest part is the story behind the revolver. I had originally bought a Taurus 357 6 shooter at a gun show ($80) that was in pieces, and had parts missing. I handed it over to a friend to source all the parts that it needed, but after $100, a year waiting, and many phone calls we had a revolver missing a sideplate and Taurus wouldn't sell us one. Finally my friend met someone who knew someone who knew someone at Taurus. They said to send in the gun and they would take care of it. 1 week later they had sent me back a brand new revolver as pictured below. That was pretty rocking ass awesome.
I have a few things that I consider valuable to me. When I studied abroad in Spain, I lived with a host family. One trip I took was to a mountain in south Spain to snowboard and the family gave me a scarf. The scarf lasted me the trip and some. I've held onto it as a memory of the amazing times there and of the great people I met there. I have a dog that has been with me for about 5 years now, the only times apart have been school. It's always crazy to go home and see him wag his tail excited to see me, no matter how long the time away was. He's always recognized me, even after studying abroad when I was gone for over 5 months. A funny thing was my sister had a baby about a month before I left and the dog was really strange around her, he didn't seem to know what she was or whether she belonged and because he was territorial, he was a bit weird when she was around. When I was away though, he seemed to kind of realize that she was gonna be there for the long haul and came to accept her. She's about 2 years old now and he protects her more than anyone else in the family. She can do anything to him. I've seen her lift him up trying to hug him, and even though I can see she's choking him and try to stop her, he relaxes and knows that she means well. He plays with her and she's kind of become his favorite person in the family. It's always a joy to see them together. Of course, the most valuable thing to me would be my niece. I love her more than anything in the world. It's hard for me to see her in her situation because I know my sister will never be able to take care of her over her developing years (side note: my sister has been addicted to drugs, hardcore stuff like LSD, coke, and heroin, for much of her life and while it looked like she would turn around, it hasn't changed much). My parents have really become her parents and she recognizes them as such, even at her young age, calling them mom and dad. I know eventually I will probably have to care for her as her godfather and the thing is, I accept that. People have to make sacrifices, and despite the things I would love to do, like teaching abroad, peace corps, grad school, my main priority in life is to make sure she has a better life than I did. And to me, that is far more important than anything I could do.
1920 Parker Trojan, 12 gauge SxS. I love this fucking gun. 89 years old and it works flawlessly. Double triggers, tang safety, traditional pistol grip, splinter forend and coincidentally, fits me very well without much altering. It's not an ego thing, but it's always cool when I hunt with new people and they ask me about it...just fun to share the history of a classic American shotgun.
I will second what several people said about the iPhone. I absolutely love mine, and once I finally get around to jailbreaking it again, it will be even cooler. I also love my xbox 360, but I'm gonna leave the hardcore nerdery out of this post. I think one of my favorite possessions and possibly the coolest thing I own would have to be my 12" Remo Djembe. I may not be able to play it like a pro, but its super fun to play. I bought it on a whim years ago for about $150, and its still one of my best impulse buys. It's perfect for sitting around the house drinking and busting that out to play along with someone on an acoustic guitar.
Somewhere in the late 90s I went and stayed at a beach motel with my girlfriend. During downtime, I set a camera on the deck and aimed it at the surf. I got 2hrs worth of high-quality shorebreak. Once I got home I saw there was a digital duplicating place up the street. I went in and had them loop the waves and stretch the ocean footage into 6hrs. I still remember the odd look on the owner's face as I explained my idea to him. He looked just like Bobby Knight. Later, I learned he was completely blind. But he was excited to work on my project, saying he was sick of little league and weddings. I love the dvd. It's nice to put in while I do other things around my apartment. Sometimes I add music, like Frank De Vol or surf bands. The waves look good on my 50" screen. It just kinda cracks me up watching the TV waves in the middle of the desert.
I sat there for 30 minutes racking my brain trying to pick ONE thing, and I honestly can't. I'm very blessed with a lot of toys that provide happiness for me (beyond my family and friends who come before everything else): * I bought a 1970 Hardinge HLV-H Toolroom lathe at an auction real cheap and restored to it almost new. A new HLV-H is almost $50K. I paid less than 10% for everything. * Own 3 or 4 Cooper of Montana Rifles with AAA Class Claro Walnut stock and incredible accuracy: 3 shots into the same ragged hole @ 100 yards. * My ham radio setup, specially the satelite radio. It is really cool talking to people around the county over a satelite (built by hobbyiest no less). * Got a new HP Tablet Laptop and Touchscreen Desktop. Tottally awesome! * Yes, the Dymo printer is pretty cool and I use it all of the time. I have the one which accepts two different types on labels at once.
One of these days I'm going to buy an old Fox or Parker that's still in working shape and re-stock and re-finish it. Classic doubles have this universal appeal that can't be defined until you handle one. Speaking of why guns are awesome, either of my target rifles win it for me. This is a Marlin 980S that I've had for years and it is hardly a Marlin anymore. I had it re-barreled a couple years ago as well as added an aftermarket trigger. Last winter I made a walnut and carbon fiber benchrest stock for it and did all of the work myself, from design to shaping to finish. On top of that, all of the shaping and finish work was done by hand (including the aluminum buttplate). It shoots like hell and while shooting a custom rifle of your own is always great, it means alot more when you've done the work yourself. This is my newest rifle and it is a Suhl 150-1 Standard. I'm going to spend quite a bit of time working on it this winter so I can be competing with it this summer. I'll start working on a stock pattern with a new design pretty soon and should have a finished product by March. The scope is a Leupold 36X and is a wonder in itself. It won't be the first rifle I've put a ton of work into, but in the end it will be the best shooting. My goal is to be shooting aggregates below .2" at 50 yards with it. It will happen.
If we're going to post photos of guns, I'll play. I'm the sole heir to my uncle's gun collection including a number of Winchester 45-70 and 45-90 rifles and a good number of American side by sides, including a Parker DHE and L.C. Smith Crown grade. Both of these guns were purchased in 95%+ condition and they are still in excellent shape. There is an Ideal grade LC Smith 16 in the mix as well, which is about as perfect as perfect can get. Parker DHE Sample
Well, I can't compete with fancy boats or fast cars, lavish homes or sweet motorcycles. I also own a metric shit ton of electronics, most recently being a 46" 120 hertz lcd tv, samsung impression phone, and my samsung n120 netbook which I love dearly. However, my coolest possession, and I use that term loosely, is my motor scooter. Yes, a motor scooter, and no god damnit, it's not a vespa, quit calling it that. It's actually a poorly built 150cc Chinese piece of awesome that gets me from point A to point B at a whopping 86 mpg. Did I mention that I (against all recommendations) take it on the highway? Traffic can eat shit when I cruise through the bike lanes designated for those pretentious stop-sign-ignoring dingleberries who use their legs, like some kind of cavemen, to propel their two wheeled vehicles. Not this guy. In this weather, I'd be retarded to try and drive it, but going down lake shore drive in the summertime wearing shorts and feeling the wind against my balls is fucking serene. It's also a blast going down to the beach with my girlfriend on it (see, owning a motor scooter doesn't make you gay) and getting road head. Ok, I made the road head part up, seeing how one of us would surely die if it was attempted. Still, it's an awesome and reliable vehicle. The next cool thing on my cool thing list to buy is a Mr. Jones watch. It will most definitely be The Accurate. The hour and minute hands are actually words, one says "remember", and the other "you will die". Some memento mori type shit. Plus I have a cell phone, which has a clock, so who needs accurate timepieces anyways?
I don't really own them, as they are not possesions, but the coolest things in my house are my kids. They are the only thing on earth I could not survive without.
My grandmother's Christmas stocking that she knitted for me in preparation for my birth, made to be extra stretchy. Its the only tangible thing I have to remember my grandmother by and I will use it again this year. Second are my old, beat-up copy of Maus I that Spiegelman drew a mouse cartoon in with a word bubble saying "For [my name]" and the die-cast Star Destroyer that you couldn't have torn from my grasp as a child. These are the things I would save if there was a fire.
Another vote for the iPhone. Bought the first one on a whim, and would be lost without it. My MacBook Air would have to be on the list, too. So damn light it's not funny. I have a small sleeve style backpack, and it goes everywhere. I don't have a car, and only ride a motorcycle, so not having a sore shoulder at the end of a ride is worth it. Plus, it's gotten me laid a couple times. Chicks dig it. But, if I had to pick the one thing that makes me happier than all this other stuff, it has to be the motorcycle. Triumph Speed Triple. 955cc 3 cylinder. I bought it just over 2 years ago with 14k on the clocks, and it's up 61k as of about a week ago. 5 days after I bought it, I quit my job and rode it across the country. Wouldn't trade that for anything.
The coolest thing(s) I own is probably the complete set of Led Zeppelin studio ablums on vinyl , I bought them new in 1990 and have only played each one 2 or 3 times. I don't really care about how much or how little they are worth , its just one of those "old school" cool things that I'd like to hold onto.
Coolest thing I have with me where I'm at? My 2003 BMW 540i 6-speed. Back at my parents' house however, I have a football autographed by the 1986 Chicago Bears. Hey, they still had most of the '85 players.
I have a few things that are pretty cool. I bought my snowboard in Vancouver when I was there on an exchange last year. It was the cheapest one I could find and doesn't have any cool design on it or anything, but it's the first snowboard I have owned. I love not being forced to line up for a rental, and until I ride a better one it will suits me just fine. A pool table that has seen many nights of debauchery and for a long time it had a lean on it making my brothers and me very hard to beat as we would curve the white ball around others to make impossible shots. My grandfather left me an old Eames chair and ottoman. It looks cool and is extremely comfortable. Mine is a older than the one in the photo, is missing some buttons, is a bit dull and dirty but I really like it. But the coolest thing I own? A Zap Bat. I really hate flys and mosquitoes, and this is the most satisfying way of killing them.
My cobalt Kitchenaid mixer. My autographed Lewis Black CD. Also included in the Lewis Black awesomeness is a picture I got of the man himself posing with a very giggly goofy Pink. Mr. Pink's first married man Christmas present from me - a picture of Mark Messier hoisting the Stanley Cup in 1994 - complete with Mess's autograph. Easily the best money I've ever spent. That's about it. I am indifferent to electronics, guns, cars and things of that nature.