Back to School

Alright parents, we know you love your kids and they're the best and the smartest and you're oh so proud of them.  Your car has the "My kid is an HONOR STUDENT at Lincoln Elementary" sticker to prove it.  But let's be honest, aren't you glad summer is finally over and those wonderful model citizens of the future get to be on someone else's clock?  It's perfectly OK to admit that the phrase Back to School gives you a sense of relief.  So I'm certain you've guessed by now that today's post is all about cool, affordable Back to School gear for your current or potential honor student. 

First up we have the Enhance ErgoPROP stand that works with laptops and tablets.  Just like sitting too close to the TV is bad for little Billy, so is slouching over a laptop screen.  The ErgoPROP has an adjustable riser that helps raise the screen to the perfect, ergonomically correct viewing height. 

Next is the WireFree Bluetooth keyboard.  Pair the WireFree with your tablet for more efficient typing or use it in conjunction with the ErgoPROP for a safe and comfortable homework setup.  Anything you can do to make book reports a little less scary. 

And lastly we have the Enhance Touch Screen Joystick, because every kid needs a reward after they've finished their homework!  The joystick attaches to any tablet screen for that old school arcade feel.  It's also available in a mini version for touchscreen smart phones.  But if you get them the mini version we can't promise your kid won't end up in detention for playing video games in class.

How to Survive a Road Trip With Your Significant Other

Over the course of the summer we've seen plenty of posts and articles all over the internets telling us how to keep from losing all sanity during a family road trip with the kids.  Which are all much appreciated tips, but we all expect kids to get restless and anxious.  The best case scenario, they get sleepy and take a nap just when their iPod or iPad starts to run low.  Worst case scenario you raise your voice to an authoritarian tone and make threats of no more ice cream stops.  Either way you're the superior, the Alpha if you will, in this situation.  You say what goes.  But what do you do when it's just the "two of you", no kids, and the hours in the car start to take their toll?  Usually, about 3 hours into the trip, idiosyncrasies start to pollute the environment.  Whether it's a marriage, partnership, or we-don't-do-labels-ship this phenomenon will occur.  In this case you are both equals, both adults, there is no way an authoritarian tone or threat will go over well with either party.  Allowing any of this to happen could bring impending doom to your relationship.  I'm certain that there have been plenty of relationships that crumbled halfway through a road trip.  But fear not, as we have a secret weapon.

As the old Benjamin Franklin adage goes, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".  In this case the prevention is the ReVIVE DualFLUX DC Car Charge, weighing in at 1.6 ounces.  Here's the secret to prevention part, the DualFLUX can quickly charge both a smart phone and a tablet at the same time from your car's DC outlet.  In this era of handheld technology and constant connectivity what do we do when we want to avoid a confrontation?  We start scrolling through our Facebook notifications, play an urgent game of Draw Something, or have that overdue face time chat with mom.  And this is where the secret weapon comes in handy.  Now neither of you have to worry about your battery dying, leaving you with no digital armor.  And because the DualFLUX has two charging ports you'll completely avoid the chances of a lover's quarrel over whose turn it is to use the charger. 

Flex Alert!

In perpetually sunny southern California we have a summertime phenomenon know as the "Flex Alert".  You see the funny thing about the sun is that it makes the end of summer days intolerably hot.  This causes everyone on the power grid to crank up the AC so as not to become an uncomfortably, and in the worst case scenario, an offensively, sweaty mess.  Along with the AC running you have the fans, lights, refrigerators, computers, washing machines (for your sweat soaked clothing), dryers, flat irons, etc. all running constantly.  This seasonal increase in electricity usage causes a tremendous strain on the power grids.  The result of which is a rolling blackout.  

In order to prevent blackouts from occurring the California Independent System Operator (ISO) monitors the cosmos, the weather, the earth's core and just for good measure asks a magic eight ball "Will it be hot today?" If everything, especially the magic eight ball, says "yes, it will in fact be hot today", the ISO then imposes a Flex Alert.  Which is essentially a plea to all consumers of energy to tone down their use and do what we should all be doing anyway.  Which is turning of  all unnecessary, lights, appliances, electronics, pinball machines, kegerators, hadron colliders, etc.  At least until after 6:00 p.m. which is the official conclusion of peak hours.  Of course there are certain things that need to be plugged in during peak hours for life to continue.  For example, cellphones, smart phones, laptops, tablets, and ultra books to name the more important ones. 

So how, you might ask, can we have our electric slice of cake and eat it too?  The answer to this dilemma is what is causing the problem to begin with, the sun.  Flip the script on this paradox by using solar back-up batteries that harness the suns rays and power just about any device that's USB enabled.  The Solar ReStore XL will charge a smart phone 3 times over, which is perfect after Angry Birds eats your battery life.  Even more impressive is the new ReStore 9200 which can simultaneously charge a smart phone and a tablet.  It doubles as a viewing stand and has an emergency LED flashlight which can run for 150 continuous hours to light up your surroundings in case there is a blackout.  Both back-up battery packs can be charged during off-peak hours through any USB output.  The Solar ReStore XL charges via direct sunlight through the front solar panel and the 9200 can be linked with a chain of add-on solar panels to transform it into a solar charger.  So do your part and opt for solar when charging your devices, or else!

Grand Opening of our Facebook Store

Guess what we did?  We made getting your hands-on our favorite and best selling products even easier!  No we didn't figure a teleportation shipping service, but we did open a store on Facebook.  So now when you're waiting to see if anyone has commented on your most recent crazy cat post you can kill those two minutes by shopping our storefront on the Payvment shopping mall.  Or to take full advantage of your two minute shopping spree just go to our Facebook page and click on the green shopping cart to be transported directly to our carefully curated selections.  As a welcome gift we giving everyone an additional discount to the already slashed prices on our site.  Just enter promo code AGSHOPNOW in the shopping cart to receive your discount.  Happy shopping!

Curiosity about life on Mars?

Good news everyone, we will soon know what kind of clothing to pack for our colonization of Mars. Yep, you read that right but please feel free to read it again.  In what should be front page news, the Mars rover by the name of Curiosity has made some absolutely incredible discoveries about Mars and it's still road trippin' to our red neighbor.   But before you start packing let me catch you up on some facts about this amazing little spacecraft.

Curiosity launched on November 26, 2011 from Cape Canaveral, FL.  It is scheduled to make a horribly terrifying entry into Mars' atmosphere where the descent module will go from 13,200 mph to a dead stop in a little under seven minutes.  This will hopefully end in a safe landing on the 6th of August, 2012.  Once it lands, Curiosity is scheduled to spend two years studying abroad on Mars. This is the seventh American mission to Mars.  All six previous rovers completed their missions successfully and with a $2.5 billion dollar investment into this mission, NASA and all of us rover lovers are keeping fingers crossed that Curiosity will not only be successful but the most successful mission to Mars to date.  The "X" marking the landing spot will be in the Gale Crater which billions of years ago was the martian equivalent of a Great Lake.  This is super important because unlike its predecessors, Curiosity is going to specialize its studies in Astrobiology, the study of past, present and future extraterrestrial life.  This doesn't mean that Curiosity will be searching for Martians, rather it will search for carbon-based compounds to see if there was previously life on Mars.  Of course the outfitting of this newest Rover has to be up to snuff.  Curiosity is equipped with twice as many instruments as its predecessors and has been beefed up to 10 times the weight with the equivalent of monster rover tires so that it can climb mountains.  Last but not least the Curiosity can make its own decisions.  It's not equipped with artificial intelligence but it can gather and measure data, therefore making an educated decision based on it's own conclusions.  So if Curiosity becomes a sentient rover and decides that it likes the chilly -100 degree nights on Mars it can choose to stay up to 10 years on Mars before its battery runs out.

Now that your curiosity of Curiosity has been satisfied here is the front page news.  On its way to Mars, the rover has been gathering data about its surroundings.  Particularly about the radiation types and levels both on the way to Mars and on the surface of the red planet itself.  This is huge news because with the information gathered scientists will know what types of materials, construction and engineering to use for future manned spacecraft to Mars!!  Hence future colonization!  In the mean time we can daydream about what we would pack for a Martian spring.  Maybe a Pal Bot as a peace offering in case there is life on Mars.
Note: Listening to David Bowie's Life On Mars? on repeat while writing this.