Archive for the ‘Desk Fans & Stand Fans’ Category
Best Ergonomic Notebook Stand – Save Your Body!
Without a doubt, the BakkerElkhuizen ErgoQ260 notebook stand is the best. If you are using your notebook at lot, you will find that it becomes very uncomfortable quite quickly. If you use it at a desk it is not too bad, but on the floor or in bed, it is not only bad for your health, it is bad for health of your computer.
A notebook needs to breathe. Unlike a desktop, with a large cooling fan, the cooling fans on notebooks are quite small. Beds are the worst because the cloth bedding suffocates the fan completely. You will burn out your CPU in no time. Not to mention the damage you are doing to yourself.
Beds do not promote healthy posture and the cramped position of your hands will cause major problems after a while. You need a notebook stand. It is designed to let your computer breathe. The ergonomic benefits alone make it worth the price.
The BakkerElkhuizen ErgoQ260 is such a cool little thing you will want to take it with you everywhere. It is compact enough that you can. You can sit in the park, pop out your ErgoQ260 and type away. Notebooks get hot. After sitting with your computer on your lap for an hour, your legs are ready to burn up. Plus the BakkerElkhuizen is tough. Its cool design is crafted out of “aircraft aluminum”. A tough alloy used on airplanes.
Using a laptop stand improves posture, reduces strain on your neck and increases comfort. The unique feature of the ErgoQ260 is the ability to integrate a docking station, plus it has a built in document holder to make inputting data even easier. The unique design secures the ErgoQ260 and all connected accessories with just one cable.
Ceiling Fan Direction – Warm or Cool?
Have you ever wondered which way your ceiling fan should rotate depending upon the season? You are not alone in this dilemma, as many people are not aware of the proper direction ceiling fan should rotate for the right job.
Most fans come with a ceiling fan direction of forward and reverse. When the ceiling fan direction is on forward, it will blow the air in a downward motion. When you stand beneath the fan, you will feel the breeze. When the ceiling fan direction is in reverse, it will blow the air upwards. If you stand beneath the fan, you will not feel any breeze.
The proper ceiling fan direction should be obvious. When you want to enjoy the cooling breezes, you will want your ceiling fan direction on the forward setting. This will circulate the cool air throughout the room to ensure your comfort. If you use your air conditioner in conjunction with a ceiling fan, you will enjoy the cool air without your air conditioner having to do all the work.
In the winter, with the ceiling fan direction on reverse, all the warm air that is trapped close to the ceiling will be sent down to the ground where you will need it most. This will ensure that no toes are affected by the cold. You can save lots of money on your heating bill when you reverse the ceiling fan direction in the winter. Think of the heat stuck up on the ceiling as money, and the ceiling fan direction in reverse can shower you and your family with plenty of dollar bills.
If you have a room with a staircase where the ceiling fan is located, you will want to do the opposite. For a ceiling fan direction in reverse in this case, you will want to send the cold air up and in the forward setting in winter to circulate the heat downward.
Read the instructions that come with your fan to ensure you are operating your ceiling fan direction the right way to enjoy the full benefits of your ceiling fan all year round.
Stand-Up Comedians Make a Come Back
Unless you are a fan of stand-up comedians, they generally come and go in the spotlight. There will be a rush of demand, or one stand-up comedian makes it big, and then they fade away until the next big hit. But there are a few comedians that have made it big without ever disappearing again.
US comedian, Jeff Dunham is one of them. Although, you can’t really say ‘one’ when referring to Jeff’s act. Jeff is a ventriloquist with about 5 plus talking-dolls that join him on stage. He became famous with his live show: “Arguing with Myself”, which aired on Comedy Central. It was one of the network’s highest rated hour-long stand-up specials. The show was aired every month for the past year, and the DVD won quintuple platinum.
Some of Jeff’s most popular dolls include Peanut, Walter, Jose Jalapeno and from his latest act, Spark of Insanity, Achemed the Dead Terrorist. Peanut has been one of Jeff’s longest acts. According to Peanut, he is a woozle that was born in Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean. He is a self-described comic genius.
Walter has been with Jeff since the very beginning. Walter’s act generally orientates around his wife, to whom he has been married for 48 years. He is generally a brash, negative, sarcastic character, who doesn’t care what people think of him.
In the act, Walter describes marriage life as drinking a slurpy, “(the) First couple of sips, it’s like ‘Boy this is really good! I’m glad I did this!’ Then you keep drinking, it goes right to your head, and you go “Ow, Ow, Ooooow! What the hell was I thinking? Someone kill me please!”
Jeff then tells Walter that eventually the sensation goes away. Walter agrees and then says, “Until you take another sip!”
In Jeff’s recent act, “Spark of Insanity”, he dives into the political area, with his latest dummy, Achmed, the Dead Terrorist. Achmed explains that he was a suicide bomber; however, the bomb went off early. He doesn’t realise that he is dead until Jeff points it out. He believes that the reason behind him being a skeleton is due to a flesh wound.
He is famous for his one liner, of telling the audience to “Shut up…I kill you.” When asked if he is Muslim, he declines, explaining that it says “Made In China” on his backside.
Another famous comedian is UK stand-up comedian, Eddie Izzard. Eddie has toured around Europe and, more recently, the US. He is a transvestite who describes himself as a male lesbian. The reason for his dress and make-up tastes, he declares, is his belief in 100% clothing rights for all. Since women can wear pants, men should be able to wear skirts.
On his website he explains that he takes ideas and situations, and then extrapolates them into bizarre, tangential, absurd and surreal comic narratives. He is the first to admit that he gets paid well for talking bollocks. The good pay is because, unlike the “bollocks” most of us talk, his is funny.
These are just two examples of stand-up comedians that have made it with a large enough fan base to keep surviving. However, there is new talent hitting the cameras with a lot of potential to get stand-up comedians a confirmed spot in the limelight.
Information on Installing a Ceiling Fan
If you are looking for a simple way to get the air flowing in a room, but you don’t have a window to install a window unit then check out the process of installing a ceiling fan.
The first thing you want to do when installing a ceiling fan is to first understand if yourself will be capable of installing the fan on your own. There is wiring to work with, and there is the lifting of the fan intro place, both can be daunting tasks for an untrained handyman. In order to avoid any kind of electrical problems it is best to hire a person certified for the installation, unless you are trained and have the ability to install the ceiling fan on your own.
Once you decide whether or not you are going to need a professional you can start working on the process by marking the place where you would like the fan to go. In a typical square room the fan is best placed in the center to help get air flowing all throughout the room, not just in one area. Once you have the place marked out you can begin by cutting a small circular hole for the electric wires to flow through. Once you have the place marked and the fan you would like to install all in place it is best to hire an electrician to work out the wiring of the unit. I say hire an electrician, because you will need to rig wiring that runs to a source and connects to a light switch which could require more cutting into the wall. Once the wiring of the unit is complete you can continue with the installation by assembling the fan together and connecting the top wiring that was laid out by the electrician.
With the wiring in place and the fan assembled you can grab a step ladder and screw everything in place. Now that you have everything in place you can either pull the strings to test the fan, or switch the light switch to turn it on. Make sure that the fan is running in the direction to make air flow downwards by moving the switch on the top base into the correct position.
So overall if you are looking into installing a ceiling fan you can do the basic cutting and fan assemble yourself, but when it comes to the wiring you want to hire a professional to make sure everything will run right.
An Overview of Household Fans
When it comes to household fans, there are many different kinds to choose from. One of the most popular of course is the ceiling fan, which can be purchased with a multitude of different features. These can include different speed settings, as well as lights that have different settings. They are directly mounted in the ceiling, hang down, and are hard wired into your regular wiring. Some can be turned on from the unit itself, and also from a switch on the wall. Adjustments are made on the fan itself, from a pull string, or turn switches that are out of the way of the spinning blades. These blades can be made from various materials, such as wood, metal, or even plastic.
There are other household fans to choose from as well. One of the other popular kinds is the box fan. These box fans are a fan in a housing with mesh sides, and these come in various shapes and sizes, depending on your needs. Some even have two fans, which you can set for intake of fresh air and sucking hot air out. They can stand alone, on a floor, and some models can be mounted directly into a window. These fans usually have an adjustable setting, and some even have remote or programmable controls.
One of the most popular fans is the fan that comes on a stand. These have adjustable heights, and can be tilted or even oscillating, which means that they rotate back and forth on a predetermined pattern. Many come with a variety of different settings, and can have a remote control, so you can adjust their speed from anywhere in a room.
Fans are an invaluable appliance in the summer. They can be set in a window for drawing hot air out of your house, or for bringing in cooler evening air. They can be used for removing dust and other contaminants from your house, as well as many other applications. It is important that when you are looking for a household fan that you follow some guidelines. One is that you should make sure that the fan blades are completely enclosed, especially when you have children or pets. The blades spin at an extremely high rotation, and can seriously injure you if they don’t have some covering over them.
Make sure that whichever size or style of fan is UL listed, which will ensure that it is safe. If you already have a fan, you need to check it each year before you use it. Make sure that the cord and plug are in good condition, and clean the casing and fan blades, while unplugged. Having dust accumulated on the fan blades, or the covering will make the motor work harder, and the air flow won’t be that good. If you can, it is a good idea to check the owner’s manual to see if there is some way to oil the turning mechanism. Some have sealed bearings, so you don’t need to lubricate them in any way.
If you are buying a ceiling fan, make sure that you follow the installation instructions carefully, and turn off the power at the breaker box. Depending on the size and the model, you may even have to have a professional come and set it up for you.
Stand-Up Comedy and the Art of Creativity
If you are a fan of stand-up comedy you certainly have your favorite comedians, but where do they fall on the “comedy spectrum?” The old style stand-up comedians include Bill Cosby who was a master at telling long stories and making you laugh as he took you on the journey. More recently we have started to experience the “Seinfeld” type comedy where a series of random quick-fire observations make you laugh, but don’t really have too much flow to them. The bits may be loosely connected, but often times they are not.
I am not saying that one type is more funny or more “proper” than the other. As a matter of fact the two are often blended seamlessly and with seemingly little effort if the person talking is a real professional. But the rapid-fire unrelated gags seem to be more the norm than the story telling genre. This is very evident in shows such as “Last Comic Standing.”
With a good sense of timing a comedian can string together a series of observations and keep an audience laughing for an entire show. There may or may not be a unified theme. The jokes could be about the person’s life – job and family, or it could be about things they’ve observed as a fly on the wall. The fly on the wall humor was and still is an integral part of Jerry Seinfeld’s stand-up routine, while his show tended to integrate that same sort of humor into the character’s situation, so suddenly a tuna on white bread sandwich that was observed in real life becomes George castanza’s meal and the basis for the opposite-George storyline.
In today’s sound-bite, YouTube generation it seems like the story-telling comedians have become the minority. If your build-up is too long people are going to turn the channel on the television, or surf to a new URL. I personally feel the story telling stand-up is more humorous and takes more of a thought process to make it work. The thing is that the quick punch-line fly-on-the-wall jokes can become the cherries on top of the cake that is the story. The icing, if we are to continue the metaphor, is the final “punch line” the culmination of the story. It is the crescendo of a segment of the routine. That is what you will be thinking about the next day when the hit-and-run jokes are a hazy memory.
Both types of stand-up are tough, and by personally favoring the long form of story telling, that doesn’t mean that the short quick-hits are easy by any stretch of the imagination. A rhythm and flow along with a good sense of timing and stage presence is integral to any comedic effort. When the presentation is done well either form is going to send you home with a smile on your face and an evening to remember.





