Ultra Slim Large Mouse Pad

I was taking a look at my mouse pad the other day and it is in rough shape.  It's got some odd discoloration from that day we had nachos and the threads are starting to fray.  It's doing a reasonable job of collecting various dog and/or human hair along the rubber sides.  I was looking at some of the fancy mouse pads available to step out of the doldrums of rounded squares-ville mouse pads.  I found the Innovera Ultra Slim Mouse Pad.  It looks like it has the same general properties of your standard mouse, but according to the feature list is so much better than a standard mouse pad.

Innovera Ultra Slim Mouse Pad

It features a "Grid Pattern" that is supposed to enhance mouse tracking.  I don't know anything about that, but it sounds reasonable and enhanced mouse tracking is something we all strive for.  It is advertised as credit card thin.  That's cool, it won't look so out of place and bulky on my desk.  It has a non-skid backing made of natural rubber.  That sounds about right to me, because a mouse pad is useless if it slides around and nobody has come up with a reasonably priced rubber alternative yet.  Lastly, it advertises a large surface for more mousing.  As monitors have grown over the years mice either need to get more sensitive or need more room to roam the desk, so larger mouse pads would be great.

Innovera Ultra Slim Additional View

So I checked out the 360 degree view of the mouse pad.  It looked about what I expected but without the large black border in the original product photo.  That's cool because it probably just gives me even more space for mousing.  The fact that it has odd rounded edges did start to bother me when I realized that all computer monitors are rectangular.  But what really killed me was that it measured in at 8.75" x 7".  That seemed just a bit on the small side so I went looking at other standard mouse pads.

Super Cheap Belkin Mouse Pad

Yeah, this mouse pad isn't going to win any beauty contests but it is under a buck and is actually larger than the Ultra Slim.  Measuring in at 9.84" x 7.87" you will get more mousing room for your buck.  Sure it might discolor more easily or come apart a little more easily, but at this price you might as well buy yourself a couple.

Expect to See Duct Tape at Prom

Duct Tape has gone main stream and Duck Brand adhesives dragged it kicking and screaming there.  When I was in High School I was mocked for my liberal usage of the Classic Silver 3M Duct Tape to keep my pair of steel toed boots wearable.  It is quite likely that anybody doing the same thing in a High School today would also be mocked, but according to MTV Style the Duck Tapes Prom Dress Contest was the 13th hottest trend of 2010.  So while you may still be publicly shamed for attempting to use Duct Tape as part of your day-to-day wardrobe you can at least be confident that MTV has got your back when it is time for Prom.

2010 Winning Entry

As you can see the people at Duck Brand would prefer you turn your tastes more toward Project Runway and further from Red Green's styling.  Of course these folks aren't going for the straight forward silver tape of old, but taking advantage of the multitude of colors available.  If you are planning on entering the contest this year you probably missed the deadline by the time you are reading this (so go read the official rules).  Fortunately, they have taken to holding this contest annually so you should be able to enter next year or the year after that.  You'll want to mark it down on your calendar.

3M High Performance Duct Tape

If you are going to be creating a piece of fashion that you'll only be wearing for a few hours go ahead and buy whatever color tape you want.  That's the important part anyway.  If you are going to be doing something like actual construction or you know, actually taping ducts you need some primo quality tape.  Enter 3M's Performance Plus Duct Tape.  I don't want to spoil the surprise for you so just go ahead and read the product description.

Post-it Notes Now Part of Political Discourse

It doesn't matter what side of the political spectrum you lean toward, everybody can agree that the most recent goings on at the Wisconsin Capitol are hairy and only going to get worse. After two weeks of protests in and around the Capitol, access to the building has been shut down to the public. So what are a bunch of protesters to do when they can no longer directly access their elected officials? Why, leave a message of course. How would a bunch of peaceful protesters leave messages for those officials when phone calls and emails go unanswered? Why, leave messages on easily removable Post-it notes on the doors of course.

Post-it Notes Cover the WI Capitol Doors

Of course, not everybody inside the building is going to come out and read every message left outside. It is nonetheless a way to leave a non-permanent mark and air their frustrations. Taking a look at the Post-it Notes used, you can easily tell they are all the standard 3x3 square Post-its from the Ultra Color series. Based on a quick guess that the doorways shown are 7 feet tall and 6 feet wide, you would only need 672 Post-it notes to cover one complete doorway. Post-it Ultra Color Notes are available in a 1400-sheet pack, and seeing as how the doors are not completely covered, it's a fair bet that fewer than 1400 notes have been affixed to the doors in the photo taken. If you have a lot of time on your hands, you can grab the original photo and probably count the notes and tell me I'm totally wrong, I dare you.

1400 Piece Pack of Ultra Color Post-it Notes

There is one review of these Post-it Notes noting "Such fun -- adds flair to all projects and messages" and I'm sure that the protesters, and not the Capitol custodians, would agree they they not only add flair to messages, but also buildings. I assume they aren't the Super Sticky Post-It's because they have slightly more adhesive and these protesters are not looking to cause any actual damage to the Capitol.

UPDATE:
Now that it has been a few days since the original Tweets with images the bloggers with better cameras have posted images.  From the blog Grinders Island comes a close up high resolution photo of the Post-its and a pulled out high resolution photo of the doors.

Poor Excuse for a Rubber Band Gun

Is that a rubber band gun, or a pen?  I guess it depends on who you are trying to convince this product is a good idea.  If you are a kid trying to impress your friends, it is totally a gun used to shoot bands of colored rubber in the direction of other kids.  If you are a kit trying to convince your parents and/or teachers that you are to grown up for shenanigans, then it is a pen.  If you are not a kid, then this product is a cheap conglomeration of two otherwise useful products.

 

Rubber Band Shooter Blaster Supreme

The Rubber Band Shooter Blaster Supreme (what a name) is the follow up to the Rubber Band Shooter.  You can waste a few minutes of your day and compare the two, but basically the Blaster Supreme version of the product will shoot a rubber band more often and not get stuck when compared to the previous version.  I see no advantage to using this gun over the standard wrap the rubber band around your hand maneuver.  The marketing geniuses at Hogwild toys will even sell you rubber bands that are specifically sold to work with your Rubber Band Shooter (also notice they never call it a "gun").

But you know what?  I'm in a generous mood today.  So here's some free advice.  Don't waste your time or money on this rubber band shooter/pen contraption.  Just go out and purchase some real pens and use those to write.  You can't go wrong with a Zebra Sarasa, so just add them to your online shopping cart.  I just gave you permission.

Blue Zebra Sarasa Pen

Really?  Just a pen isn't enough for you, you still want to shoot rubber bands at your friends and family?  Well go ahead and pick up a bag of assorted rubber bands.  You'll have a pound of various and oddly shaped rubber bands so you can shoot the smaller ones at Little Suzie, and bigger ones at Lumberjack John.

Grab Bag of Rubber Bands

There, now don't you feel smart for not getting pulled into the lure of yet another rubber band gun?  You are not only incredibly smart, but incredibly good looking as well.  Congratulations.

Scotch Tape Gives You Super Powers

If you are counting the number of times I post content that is way behind the times prepare to put another notch in your bedpost.  But I was just pointed to an article in the New York Times from October of 2008 that caught my eye.

Scotch Tape Unleashes X-Ray Power

Apparently, when tape is unpeeled in a vacuum it unleashes a fair amount of energy.  Some of that energy is largely available as x-rays, but when unpeeled in a normal office environment so sadly you won't get to x-ray your co-workers.  Don't go trying to perform this experiment inside your Hoover Vacuum, they mean a proper scientific vacuum.  But technicalities aside, some scientists were able to create an actual x-ray image of a thumb using just scotch tape in the proper conditions.  The experiments with duct tape, but not masking tape (read the article for details).

Super Scotch Tape

So go ahead and live out your dreams of becoming a super hero and buy some Scotch Tape.  I can't promise you that you'll fly or have ice breath, but you can have x-ray vision if you have access to the proper scientific equipment.  But really, who needs super powers when you have the power to safely affix photos to your scrapbook with superb archival quality adhesive.

A Box for Stanley Kubrick

A link was recently sent my way to a site talking about Stanley Kubrick's quest for a perfect box. G. Ryder & Co. Ltd. were approached by Kubrick's people because Stanley wanted a box with a lid that wasn't too loose or too tight and was the perfect size. You can watch a video that looks to be part of a different documentary by visiting the G. Ryder & Co. Ltd. site and pressing the Kubrick Video button in the lower right corner. It'll be worth it just to hear somebody say "It's a Lovely Box."

Stanley Kubrick's Custom Box

They don't actually discuss the dimensions of the box and some people report the box is still for sale, but I wasn't able to find any information to back up the claim. In a day and age where there are hundreds of boxes for hundreds of uses, it is difficult to sift through the rabble and find a decent substitute.

I could tell by the video that the Cardboard Kubrick Box was wire stitched, but checking for that only came up with results of wire stitched notepads and wire stitched brooms. So we have to throw out a properly constructed box. We are going to have to make some compromises in the quest for a general facsimile, but we know we know the general shape and we know it needs to be high quality.

Fellowes Bankers Box Liberty Storage Box

Unfortunately, we have to forgo the ever important lid to get an appropriate sized box. With the string and button closure instead of a lid it is actually a little easier to keep the box closed, but allows easy access without the lid sticking. I don't have the proper dimension of the Kubrick box but this looks about right. Fellowes produces several varieties of these boxes so you can find the one that makes you feel the most like Kubrick and stock up. Take special note of Fellowes 4.25" high, 9.25" wide and 23.75" deep box as it is the most economical of the group.

Specialty Pencils

I don't often blog about the standard #2 pencil because they are boring and only serve as a reminder of hours spent filling out Bubbles for uncaring Scantron machines.  I like a normal pencil for a few things, but mostly I prefer pens.  People who know me know that I'm a sucker for a Dixon Ticonderoga.  Why?  I couldn't tell you, but of all the #2 pencils in the world it's my favorite.  I've previously blogged about Sharpie's Liquid Pencils several times and even once about a Pencil Sharpening Service, but never about the lowly #2 pencil and I don't plan to start now.  I found a couple odd takes on the usual pencil.

Chopstick Pencils

Here is a pair of pencils cleverly disguised as chopsticks in hopes of raising awareness for human rights violations in China.  Visit the site linked above for more details and to read the text included on the packaging.

Cuss Photoshop Pencil

This pencil is on sale on Etsy for only 3 dollars.  If you want to give a middle finger to digital artists because you do things old school then why not buy it.  I'm pretty sure the pencil you actually get won't be as nice or as interesting a conversation starter as the Dixon pencil made from recycled tires.  Why are we cussing at a computer program anyway?  Why don't we cuss at things everybody can agree to hate, like Cancer.