Category: Consumerism

Part 1.

Part 2.

The summer forest fire season here in British Columbia has been driving me crazy for many years now, and to alleviate some of the nuisance with it all I have tried out many types of consumer products that seemed like they could help. With each of these products I say whether or not I have tried them and I give a subjective rating out of ten.

1. Personal electric air purifier.

A couple months ago I bought a personal electronic air purifier and I think it might actually be useful this summer. 6/10.

Rechargeable Electrical Air Purifier Respirator, Reusable 3 Speeds Fan Modes Air Purifier with HEPA Filter for Outdoor Sports Housework

 

2. Indoor air purification.

i) Low cost solution: box fan with dual Merv 13s. Untested.

Based on tutorials like this: https://marshallhansendesign.com/2012/01/02/studio-operations/

I only just ordered this fan so I can’t give a personal testimony, but these are the parts I’m going to be working with:

PELONIS PFB50A2ABB-V 3-Speed Box Fan for Full-Force Circulation with Air Conditioner, Black, 2020 New Model

FilterBuy 20x20x1 MERV 13 Pleated AC Furnace Air Filter, (Pack of 4 Filters), 20x20x1 – Platinum

 

ii) Moderate cost solution: standard portable air purifier. 6/10.

Bionaire BAP600-CN 99-Percent Permanent HEPA Air Purifier with Night Light

 

ii) Expensive solution: Industrial air purifier. Untested.

EnviroKlenz Home/Office Air Purifier.

 

3. Fireproof document organizer.

ENGPOW File Storage Bags,Fireproof Document Organizer Bag with Money Bag,Home Office Travel Safe Bag with Lock,Multi-Layer Portable Filing Storage for Important File Passport Certificates

 

4. Fire extinguisher.

I cannot personally testify to the performance of this particular fire extinguisher, but it’s similar to mine, and listed at a pretty good price given that it has free shipping. It’s your classic “A:B:C class” extinguisher: “For use on Class A (ordinary combustibles), Class B (Flammable liquid) spills or Fires involving live electrical equipment (Class C)”. Untested.

Amerex B402 ABC Multi-Purpose Fire Extinguisher, 5 lb.

 

5. Personal misting and cooling.

I have tested a number of personal accessories meant to keep you clean and cool, such as: gel masks, cooling headbands, shemaghs, gel hats, cooling patches, neck gaiters, cooling mats, and spray bottles.

i) Ice Eye Mask by FOMI Care. 3/10

ii) Ergodyne Chill Its 6700CT Cooling Bandana, Lined with Evaporative PVA Material. 7/10

iii) Headsweats Protech Hat. 5/10

iv) 20 Pcs Cooling Gel Fever Patches,Cooling Forehead Strips. 1/10

v) Ergodyne Chill-Its 6487 Cooling Neck Gaiter. 4/10

vi) Ergodyne Chill-Its 6602 Evaporative Cooling Towel. 3/10

vii) Migraine Gel Ice Hat by FOMI Care | Cooling Headache Pack | Wearable Cold Therapy Wrap for Tension, Sinus, Pressure Pain Relief. 3/10

viii) Mora Premium Shemagh Scarf: Large 100% Cotton Arab Tactical Military Desert Head Neck Keffiyeh Wrap with Tassels. 4/10

ix) COREGEAR USA Misters Personal Water Mister Pump Spray Bottle. 10/10

 

6. Indoor cooling.

I don’t recommend portable air conditioners like the one I have for the reasons detailed here:

i) Low cost solution: evaporative “swamp cooler”.

Consumers typically find these things to be underwhelming for several reasons: they raise humidity and they need to be replenished enough to be annoying. I have never used one, but I thought I would include the highest rated one I could see on Amazon in case it interests some readers.

Manwe Portable Air Cooler, Small 3 in 1 Air Conditioner Cooler and Humidifier,Mini Evaporative Coolers Purifier, 3 Fan Speeds, Mobile Air Cooling Fan for Home Office Bedroom Outdoor. Untested.

 

ii) Expensive solution: window air conditioner. 

MIDEA MAW05M1BWT Window Air Conditioner, 5000 BTU. Untested.

 

7. Bed cooling.

i) Moderate cost solution: directional attachments for your AC unit. 9/10.

Rather than buy an expensive cooling mattress, I have found it fruitful to jam a rectangular duct connector on to my AC unit and run a hose into my bed or to my laptop dock. 

Imperial Manufacturing Duct End Boot 3-1/4 X 10 X 4In GV0650

POWERTEC 70150 Rectangular Dust Hood for 4-Inch Hose

Hon&Guan 4 inch Air Duct – 32 FT Long

 

ii) Expensive solution: specialized bed cooling unit. Untested.

BedJet 3 Climate Comfort for Beds, Cooling Fan + Heating Air (Single Temp. Zone Any Size Bed or Mattress)

 

8. Other things I would like to try.

i) Cooling shirts.

Sony launched the Reon Pocket but it’s not available in North America yet for some reason.

 

If you want to buy a cooling shirt here in North America, you’ll have to settle for something like this:

Ergodyne Chill-Its 6665 Evaporative Cooling Vest

 

ii) Outdoor misting systems.

IXQ Misting Cooling System(6/9/10/12 Meters) Misting Line + Brass Mist Nozzles + A Brass Adapter(3/4″) Outdoor Mister for Patio Garden Greenhouse Trampoline for Waterpark (10m, Black)

 

iii) Door seals.

Door Draft Stopper, Ohuhu Door Seal Sweeps, Under Door Wind Blocker Strip, Soundproof Under Door Bottom Seal Weather Stripping 39″ L x2 W Black

 

 

Part 1: https://wootcrisp.com/consumerism/2019/08/06/headphone-wear-and-tear/

  

 

 

It’s about that time of year where I check in with my mirror dance progress by dancing to the same music that was in my first videos.

2020 original (bad audio): 

2020 director’s cut: 

Last year’s: https://wootcrisp.com/2019/03/05/three-year-mirror-dance-progress/

At first I wasn’t sure what to think about this dance, but now that I’ve just given these videos my undivided attention, while sitting comfortably in the bath with my new bath shelf, and using some nice new headphones I was given for Christmas, I will indeed say that that the dance has its quality moments.

Also, in exchange for a free battery, I will also say that the particular Bomaker “CA-Dolphin Ⅰ” headphones I just watched the video with were worth doing business with, given that I don’t know anything about how they were made. I really would like to believe the company is wholesome, but in this matter I haven’t got a clue as to how I could actually learn something about the company “Bomaker“.

This kind of endorsement uncertainty reminds me of a website I developed about a decade ago: GreenAds.org. The success of a product submitted to this site was based on a combination vote_count and a green_score to rank products similar to something like Reddit. Individuals were incentivized to submit good products because they could include their affiliate id in the url, and publishers could serve a feed of popular items in their banners, swapping in their own affiliate codes in the product feed:

I recently managed to misplace all the code from GreenAds but that’s okay since it was garbage code anyway [edit: I shouldn’t say it was garbage. It was done appropriately as far as I could tell, just using an older php framework called “smarty templates” which is too much for me to think about, but I love the look of their website]. The project that motivated GreenAds was Vidipedia.org, and there’s a bit more information about both projects at this Patreon I’ve been trying to work on when I have time: https://www.patreon.com/vidipedia

As we all know, I perform an absolutely invaluable service by my looking into things. I don’t ask for much in return; but I do occasionally plug worthwhile products in the hopes of making a little pocket money from my endeavours. Today I ask my loyal audience to consider buying some of my award winning photographs as they are on sale through Fine Art America.

Just think, on Dec 3, you could purchase this beautiful piece as a tapestry to work under at your open plan office desk, for 25% off!

For the full list of sale items and the dates they go on sale, I refer to you this schedule:

 

A few months ago I said I would do a computer accessory inventory affiliate post:

The following products are a more general assortment, but I enjoyed them (the headphones are similarish to what I did buy) enough this year to endorse them a bit. Also, I’m trying to use a plugin from Geni.us to geo-detect the right Amazon affiliate links to use, but it’s not quite working, as it’s just using the .com. If you’re from Canada, click this, before looking for the products on Amazon.ca, so that I can make money off you.

I wanted to do this through GreenAds but I need to fix a few things on that site before I can.

 

 

 

APPIP ERROR: amazon-grid[
TooManyRequests|The request was denied due to request throttling. Please verify the number of requests made per second to the Amazon Product Advertising API.
]

The prices are a bit higher than I’d like but it’s a pretty good looking service. The first set to go up is a selection from my Burnaby Mountain/SFU collections.

 

https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-jordan-barnes.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=756668