Expanding upon our last entry where we discussed the benefits of a few fantastic (and freely available) software programs, today we’re going to highlight two essential accessories for those who love laptops.

While laptops have always been great for school and travel, many of us are adopting the use of laptops in the workplace and at home. Luckily, thanks to advancements in technology, it has become easier to grab a high-performance laptop for a reasonable price. Laptops are wonderful little devils, and in many cases, make our daily lives more integrated. Add universal wifi to your laptop and you can work, play games, surf the web, read, blog, shop, and communicate via email, chat, and webcam from almost anywhere. Unfortunately, while laptop owners love the portability and convenience offered by their machines, most are not careful enough with these frail little robots; the truth is your laptop requires daily attention if you want it to last. If you’re someone who likes to get the most out of your investments and/or finds it a hassle to switch computers often, consider the following tips to keep your laptop running smoothly, for as long as possible.

Invest in an External Hard Drive…Seriously.

External hard drives are a simple but often overlooked component of any computing set-up. A means to backup your data and/or store files you don’t necessarily need but don’t exactly want to trash, an external hard drive is a storage device that stands alone and is not connected to a computer. The drives vary widely in size and storage capacity - some are as small as a fingernail and others the size of a cable modem and can hold anywhere from 1 megabit to 4 gigabits of data.

Now to the important part: the benefits. First and foremost, using an external hard drive lets you clear your laptop of less commonly used files, and subsequently, improve performance and speed. Secondly, using an external hard drive makes it ridiculously easy to move files from your laptop to another computer (all you do is connect the drive to the computer you are transferring to and you’re in business). Finally, external drives are the easiest way to physically backup your data - and we all know a backup comes in serious handy in the event of a crash or some bizarre event that renders your files corrupt.

Corks

Corks? Yeah, corks. Tonight when you down a couple bottles of wine, save the two corks (even the not so classy plastic corks!). A common cause of laptop death is heat exhaustion (seriously!!). Since laptops generally have only one fan in their backside, and that fan is obstructed during normal use (your laptop’s backside is always resting on a table or other surface), there is rarely enough air available for the fan to cool things off on the inside.

What can you do? Place two corks under the back edges of your laptop, and let your fan (and laptop) breathe easy.

Come back next week and we’ll clue you in on a couple more things you can do to maximize your laptop’s life span.

Oh, and Happy Labor Day weekend!

Today we’re going to preview some of the most beneficial office supplies out there - ones that get you organized, working more efficiently, keeping everything clean, and looking sharp. These office supplies are not necessarily plastic office supplies, nor are they essentially material in nature. The “supplies” I want to preview today are computer programs you can acquire online, for free, that will renovate your computing experience and leave your (virtual) desktop less cluttered, cleaner, running faster, and more soothing overall.

Pidgin

Pidgin is a messaging application that aggregates all your messaging providers into one simple and ram friendly program. It is clean and easy to use. It basically allows windows and UNIX users to simulate the sharp and clean Mac program Adium. Pidgin is around 10mb in size, and uses less than 25mb of memory at any given time. This is perfect for users of AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN (Live) Messenger, and IRC, who are tired of having a million instant message windows up all over the place.

Songbird

Everyone uses iTunes these days - it’s beautiful, very user friendly, easily accessible, and cross compatible. But, if you are like me, you’re tired of it taking so darn long to load and using so much memory to perform simple tasks. The good news? Songbird is here to save the day. Songbird has essentially all the same features as iTunes, except for the hunger to eat all your memory, and make everything on your computer run more slowly. Songbird also syncs up to iPods and any other mp3 player.

Firefox

If you’re not using Firefox as your Internet browser, you’re not surfing the internet correctly. Internet Explorer is terribly unstable, messy looking, and slow to load even simple pages. By contrast, the open source Firefox browser is stable, has a clean interface, and is generally fast. It also integrates with many add-ons, is always being updated, and has built-in features like security, anti-phishing, and spellcheck that make everyone’s lives easier.

Some of the best office supplies may not be plastic office supplies, but brochure holders and freeware both make our lives easier, more efficient, and less hectic.

Ahhh. Make sure to join us again on Friday!

Few would argue that one of the most annoying, draining, frustrating, and costly activities known to man is moving. Moving is a dreaded task for everyone, not only for the person moving, but also for his or her friends, who despise the event due to fear of being asked for help. There is so much to do, and so many little items you have to account for, and in the midst of all this activity, you have to face the most terrifying aspect of all:  cleaning.

Aside from the less pleasurable aspects, there are some parts about moving that are nice. With a move comes the refreshing and revitalizing feeling of new. Moving offers a brand new start - a blank page to color your own way, again. And although I may have fallen prey to the dark side, I’ll spare you the dirtier of details of my recent move and talk instead about my garage sailing adventure for a couple of used poster holders.

What’s ‘garage sailing,’ you ask? It is a fantastic way to spend your Saturday or Sunday morning. In most neighborhoods, you’ll be lucky enough to hit four or five garage sales in walking distance. Last Saturday morning, I was lucky enough not only to find four sales, but one of them complete with children selling brownies (which they totally didnít make alone, because they were far too delicious to be crafted by the curious minds and mischievous hands of children). Here I was able to pick up a 24×36 inch poster holder, a couple of adorable hand crafted mugs and bowls, a new bathroom rug (yes, I washed it), a recently spray painted bookshelf, and a rather old end table for a mere twenty dollars.

Garage sales are obviously not the best place for one’s everyday shopping needs. Still, there is something incredibly satisfying about walking through your neighborhood and buying someone’s old stuff. The recycling aspect of it is as important to me as is buying items with history and character. Or maybe I like garage sale shopping just because it’s ridiculously cheap, but I’d like to think I have more layers to me than that.
In the end, my recent garage sailing adventure made the process of moving much more enjoyable. I was able to fill my new room with someone’s old stuff and color a picture on my blank page with someone else’s old crayons.

See you on Wednesday.

Today, Plastic Products continues its coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics by turning the spotlight on two international superstars – Australia’s Stephanie Rice, and China’s Jingjing Guo, both of whom are female aquatic masters. Rice and Guo equally impressed the masses with their gold medal performances during the first weekend of the Olympics. The Watercube was good to both Guo and Rice, who medaled gold in diving and swimming, respectively.

Guo, who’s been diving and astonishing people with her ability since the age of six, has become a Chinese superstar for her impeccable and graceful dives, her various commercial endorsements, and her various extravagant outings captured by the paparazzi. Guo gained international prestige after her breathtaking performance in Athens, medaling gold in the 3-meter springboard event. Since then, she’s become an icon in the East, and a recognizable ambassador for China.

Guo won over the masses this summer, and we don’t doubt she’ll do the same next time.

Australian national Stephanie Rice made headlines August 10th after the women’s 400m individual medley. She beat both Kristy Coventry and Katie Hoff, along with the previous 4:31:12 world record (new – 4:29:45). Rice - who was not favored to win - wowed fans with a surprising lead at the half way mark, which later led to her magnificent first place finish. Oddly enough, Rice is also well known for a recent breakup with current Australian men’s relay racer, Eamon Sullivan (who recently received some bronze love) – and on a side note, we think the Rice/Sullivan duo was far more fascinating than any stint by an American actress and actor (sorry Jolie/Pitt, you’re just not that interesting).

Both ladies are phenomenal athletes and powerful contenders – forces not to be taken lightly! And they are definitely giving the US team a run for their money.

See you again on Monday for some more 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics coverage. Have a great weekend please!

Photo courtesy bbc.co.uk

In keeping with the Olympic spirit, there is a new attraction at the plastic products office – a literature display showing the top three most interesting Olympic sports that most people don’t watch but totally should. Badminton, handball, and beach volleyball have really been all over the television lately, but during non-peak times. For some reason, NBC doesn’t think these sports are primetime material - but obviously, we think differently! Read on and enjoy learning about a couple of the most notable yet underappreciated Olympic events below.

Badminton

For those of you unfamiliar with badminton, it’s the second fastest racquet sport, played on a court the size of a small living room. Players hit a little goose feather shuttle back and forth at crazy speeds with phenomenal dexterity. It’s played either singles or mixed doubles in the Olympics, and its top ranked players are most commonly from the Eastern part of the world.

Handball

Handball is, get this…water polo without the water! Yes, five team members try to maneuver their way across a linoleum court to the opposing team’s goal where throw in the ball. The goal is about half the size of a football goal, and as I’m sure you can imagine, it’s a fast-paced and high-scoring game! The ball is similar to a volleyball in weight, but is a little smaller in size. This sport is not only fun to watch because of its thrilling pace, but also because people often get hit in the face. Yes, handball is dangerous. Ouch!

Beach Volleyball

Beach volleyball is always a good time. There’s sand, scantily clad players, impressive drives, and exciting volleys…and games rarely end in a blowout. The United States Women’s Volleyball team (Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh) is favored to win, and reasonably so – they happen to demolish anyone in their path, and have done so for many years. The US Men’s team is also doing well after a disappointing loss to Latvia, who recently said they trained by playing two versus six. That’s heat.

In the end, gymnastics and swimming are fantastic to watch, but you may be missing out on some serious action if you miss some of the less popular sports.

Come back on Friday for more on the Olympics!

Yeah, we’re a little late to the party in Beijing, but the 2008 Olympics are still going strong. At this point, I’ve watched nearly thirty hours since they started. Ever since the absolutely astonishing opening ceremony, complete with dancers and fireworks, home viewers like me have been captivated, not only by the visual spectacle that is Beijing, but also by the record-breaking athletic events. Still, my chief appreciation is for something less animate: the new athletic stadiums. While getting coffee before work this morning, I scanned over a brochure holder displaying some information on the “Watercube.” Needless to say, I was flabbergasted!

The Watercube is a swimming pool that spans about eight acres and seats 17,000. It is made of steel, foam, and other random awesomeness, and has hosted more world records than any other Olympic venue to date. But there is more to the Watercube than its beautifully modern architecture. It is what’s inside that’s making a lot of headlines.

In a recent article featured on NPR.org, prized features of the pool were discussed. The athletes commented on the depth of the pool in Beijing, which is 10 feet - 3 feet deeper than ordinary pools. Considered by some to be the perfect depth, the pool is shallow enough not to hinder swimmers’ sight and orientation, but deep enough to send the wave turbulence from the top down to the bottom. Many believe these features of the Watercube played a major role in the many world records that have been broken in this year’s Olympics, and I don’t doubt it.

There are plenty more events to take place in the Watercube, most of which I’ll end up watching. If the rhythm of the Olympics thus far is any indication of what’s to come, the athletes will continue to break records and make headlines – and with any luck, the United States will continue to rack up more medals. Come back on Wednesday for an update on the competition.

See you then!

We here at plastic products hope you’ve enjoyed the past couple of blog entries, as they’ve honestly been quite a pleasure to construct. Books are fantastic, and most of us have a very hot cold relationship with them – sometimes we’re just not interested, and sometimes we just can’t put them down. Our relationship with reading depends, more often than not, on our workload and our subsequent free time. Different literary genera speak to different people, but the message is the same: I’m here to help you in your quest to forget about your life for a couple of hours.

To close out our literature rich week, we bring you one more book review and recommendation (a book that I previously forgot about, and was happily reminded of by a sale sign holder in my local bookstore). Today, The Children of Men from P.D James.

The Children of Men, P.D James

The novel, written primarily in diary form, takes place in England during 2021. “Things” are a little different in these days – the government is no longer run by parliament (though, it still exists for publicity’s sake), but instead by a council of five, one of the members having complete executive power. This council has three goals for its constituents – protection, comfort, and pleasure. From these, the council wishes the people to be free of fear, want, and boredom.

Wait, freedom from want and boredom – and they want us to be comfortable and always in a state of pleasure? Why would there exist a government with such interesting aspirations? They want babies to start being born again, because the last one was born in 1995.

This is one of those reads that makes you a bit more conscious of your actions, and skeptical of actions from those around you. It’s also one of the most fun and seemingly or uncomfortably realistic “what if” novels. It’s quick, it’s smart, and it’s beautiful. Female author James does a commendable yet far too impressive job detailing the daily life of a man of many obligations and regrets in his forties. Jump into this novel, and I promise you won’t climb out empty handed. Thanks to that sign holder, I had the pleasure of reading this dystopian sci-fi thriller drama.

Also, if you’ve seen the movie, please read the novel. The 2006 theatrical version is loosely affiliated to the book, in more ways than one.

In today’s post, we’ll continue our end-of-summer book reviews, but before we get started, we want to share with you a site who’s content often ends up in our literature displays. The name of the site is Mcsweeeny’s, a book publisher started by American novelist, Dave Eggers, most known for his novels You Shall Know Our Velocity and What Is The What. Every two weeks, McSweeney’s posts a collection of user-submitted “lists.” While the lists vary in content and hilarity, they are promised to please most anyone with a quick wit and guileless sense of humor. Without further ado, here are two lists from Mcsweeney’s - the first being the pick of our blog editor, the second chosen by the author, aka, yours truly.

CLASSES MY TOP-TIER LAW SCHOOL SHOULD HAVE OFFERED AS WARNINGS ABOUT THE PROFESSION.

• Cutting and Pasting Legal Lingo
• Explaining Business Associations to the People Who Are Running Them
• 4 A.M. Word Processing and the Law
• Ethics of Conspicuous Consumption
• Forwarding E-mails: Theory and Practice: Seminar
• Arbitrary-Deadline Negotiation Strategies
• Crying Quietly: Clinic
• Jeans-Friday Advocacy Workshop
• Cutting and Pasting II: Plural to Singular

PERSONALS FROM NONPERSONS.

• Toyota Prius seeks irritating pseudoenvironmentalist for smug attitude and poorly informed dinner-party rant on Middle Eastern oil politics.
• California relocation for “fresh start” seeks disaster-prone individual for post move loneliness and employment difficulties followed by crippling “sleep all day” depression episode.
• Cringe-inducing racist remark seeks grandfather for slip of the tongue during family get-together.
• Tedious recounting of last night’s nonsensical dream seeks potential suitor on first date for obliteration of second-date possibility.
• Surprisingly explicit and seemingly unending movie sex scene seeks family for very uncomfortable viewing moment.

Lists courtesy of Mcsweeney’s, www.mcsweeny’s.net

And now, the book reviews:

The Contortionist’s Handbook, Craig Clevenger

The protagonist in Clevenger’s novel, John Dolan Vincent, is the world’s most dangerous man. Potentially. He’s inordinately good at drawing absolutely anything, including legal documents, signatures, and other not-to-be-copied elements – a skill that have left him running from the law. He can even tell you the volume of a bowling trophy if you ask him nicely. Our protagonist’s fatal flaw? Headaches. Unfortunately, John’s headaches are so debilitating, he overdoses on painkillers every time he ends up getting one, leaving him in a new hospital and enmeshed a bad situation from which he must escape. What drives this book is the beautiful, insightful, and quick-witted writing, coupled with the reader’s obligatory jealousy of the protagonist’s talents.

The Prestige, Christopher Priest

The Prestige is a creative and animated story of competing magicians in the 19th century. The comical and sometimes ludicrous rivalry among the musicians is so charming, it is easy to lose sight of the author’s detailed portrayal of 19th century society, but it is the combination of setting and story that make this novel such an engaging read. Later adapted for the big screen, with Christopher Nolan at the helm, famed for directorial work in Memento, Batman Begins, the film version of the book is also fantastic, lending further credibility to Priest’s dynamic storytelling.

Hopefully you’re enjoying these book reviews as much as we enjoy sharing them with you. Come back for our final round, and make sure to keep your literature displays fully stocked!

We here at plastic products love to read, so much so that this week, we thought we’d recommend a few of our favorite books to those of you looking for a good read in the last months of summer. While none of the titles we plan to preview today are especially summery, they are good and fast reads, perfect to take to the pool, the beach, or on a long flight.

Today, we kick off our book review series with commentary on two novels by Kentucky-born author, Joey Goebel, who is famous for his writing on the quirks of life in Middle America.

The Anomalies, Joey Goebel

The Anomalies is a book with around one hundred chapters, each of which is written in one of almost thirty points-of-view, wherein different characters describe the same scene from their individual perspectives. The story is centered on a group of haphazard and farfetched friends ranging from ages seven to seventy, all aspiring to “make it big” and leave the small town for the big city, and hoping to do it via spreading the word about their hilarious musical group. The constant yearning for the American dream is masterfully articulated through the voices of the various characters, whose unlikely friendships defy social norms, making for a very funny read.

Torture the Artist, Joey Goebel

Goebel’s first published novel is the story of Vincent, a talented youngster, Harlan, a college dropout turned entertainment suit, and “New Renaissance,” the all-powerful entertainment corporation forcing a cultural renaissance by pulling gifted children into a boarding school, where they break the children’s spirits, all under the guise that tortured souls create good art.

When Vincent is pulled out of a broken home, one laden with bastard children and a promiscuous twenty-something mother, New Renaissance places him in a special school that produces everything from music to sitcom scripts. Once there, Vincent is faced with Harley, the person who has the unfortunate job of making sure everything in Vincent’s life goes wrong, which New Renaissance believes will energize Vincent’s creative process. A quick read with many twists, Torture the Artist keeps you engaged from start to finish.
Be sure to come back to the plastic products blog this week, for previews on Craig Clevenger’s The Contortionist’s Handbook, Kurt Vonnegut’s Galápagos, P.D James’ 1992 release Children of Men, and finally The Prestige, a 1995 novel-turned-film by Christopher Priest.

See you then!

(photo courtsey of Amazon.com)

In our last entry, we discussed ways in which the American workforce is changing, and the possible creative effects alternatively educated students may have as they begin to flood the business world. Today, we wrap up our plastic products mfg series on Education & the Changing Workforce by talking about outsourcing, a prevalent business philosophy that is likely to become less common here in America as the workforce adopts new and innovative ways of doing business.

Outsourcing, or the reallocation of entry and mid-level positions to companies outside your own, is an enticing option for businesses. More often than not, outsourcing allows a business to produce items or services comparable in quality to those produced in-house, but at a much lower cost. Of course, there are services that some businesses can’t accomplish on their own – like advertising and marketing, security solutions, and financial management – which therefore require outside help, but this practice isn’t the kind of outsourcing we’re are talking about.

The kinds of jobs being outsourced are things that would have been handled in house ten years ago – things like graphic design or customer service – that are now going to other companies for completion. Take for example a guy named Robert Berkeley, who runs KCS Express, an outsourcing company in India that writes ads, copy, and weekend stories, not for an Indian newspaper company, but instead for American and British ones.

What is the message to young Americans as they prepare to enter the workforce? That old standards on what it means to do a good job are changing. Hiring an average salaried worker with a high school or college degree alone is no longer appealing. Why pay someone a salary when you could allocate a mere quarter of that money to another company in India, as needed?

American politicians, business men and women, and everyday people have started to realize meeting the standard educational and professional requirements is just not enough any more, at least not if you want to be successful over time. Jobs that used to be performed by Americans, and sometimes reserved for Americans, are being performed overseas. But with the methodological changes in education, and the increasing popularity of alternative educational methods, there is a good chance young American workers will help revolutionize the way business is done, and, help bring jobs back to the American public.

Hope you enjoyed our series. Come back next week for reviews on a few books to enjoy as the summer dies down. See you then!