[You could do this all day right?]

Everyone has seen people at work sitting on a “exercise ball.” It’s pretty easy to judge them and assume their intentions. Oh they are trying to lose weight or look hip or be different. There are a lot of reasons to choose to sit on a ball vs a chair. But which is truly better?

Here are 5 Legitimate Reasons Why You Should Bounce:

1. Forces proper spine alignment. Because an exercise ball is not stable, your body needs to try to balance itself on it. The perfect spinal posture is coincidently the easiest to balance with. Thus, your body will automatically try to align itself into the proper posture. This helps improve your spinal health, and decrease back pains.

2. Causes you to frequently change positions. An exercise ball causes to you to change your position often to balance. For example, if you turn 45 degrees to face the phone, your body will assume a new position. This helps reduce damage caused by prolonged sitting in the same position.

3. Improve your balance. This one is very understandable. Sitting on an unstable surface all day will improve your sense of balance, as well as the reactions of your muscles. The result? An overall better balance, that can be observed out of the office.

4. Get that 6-pack you’ve been wanting. Your body primarily uses your core (abdominal) muscles to help compensate for changes in balance. Thus, your essentially getting a low-key abdominal workout. This may not sound like a lot, but consider the amount of time you spend on your computer at the office, or at home. Those hours can build up, and result in a strengthening of ab muscles.

5. You’ll feel more energetic. It has been proven that staying in one position, will make you more tired, while moving around and being active with give you more energy. With an exercise ball as a chair, you will feel much more energized after you finish your work.

Here are 5 Legitimate Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Bounce:

1. Health Issues. Not good for those with osteoporosis or balance issues (unless you are looking to improves those..) One article said you shouldn’t use it if you have frequent lower back pain and one said it helps with lower back pain. You may have to test that one.

2. You still slouch. If you think the ball will fix your posture, you’re wrong. If you already have bad posture sitting in a chair, you’ll still have it on the ball without any back support. So plan to sit nice and proper if you want to switch to a ball.

3. You have to bounce to make it worth it. Studies have shown that if you don’t actually bounce or move around you might as well be sitting on a stool. At least it is comfier than a stool? Hopefully you won’t drive your co-workers crazy, bouncing up and down all day.

4. They roll away. You’ll have to make a cage under your desk to contain the ball. Also, it’s hard to sit straight on the ball the first time without it rolling. This makes for lots of squishing and resituating..driving everyone crazy.

5. They look unprofessional. The CEO finally comes to visit your branch, and what are you sitting on? You may even fall trying to stand up to shake his hand, which is not that pretty in a skirt. On the other hand, he may be impressed and actually talk to you for a second.

So what’s the verdict? Do we bounce or not bounce? I agree with many of the experts out there. Bouncing sounds like a great way to stay energetic and alert. You probably shouldn’t bounce the entire day. Rather, switch off between a chair and a ball throughout the day, noting when your back is feeling tired or sore.

Thank you HealthyAlberta, Gear Fire, and BNet for your great advice!

And if the world were perfect, you could bounce on this:

The Giant Retro Hopper
Buy at Play.com.

What do you think? Sit or Bounce?? Or both?

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Summer in the office is never comfortable, it is always one of two extremes. Really hot and stuffy or really cold with a constant wind blowing against your face. The great thing about the two extremes is that they are never consistent. They switch off every other day! The best way to prepare for these varying temperatures is keep a sweater or jacket at the office (preferably a neutral color that goes with everything) and a good ole fan. I remember the fan in my room growing up seemed to weigh 50 pounds and would take up half of my desk. Luckily, the days of those fans are over. Get ready for the heat with these!

Frosty Fan Packs

Use these little guys in addition to your normal fan. And if you are absolutely dying of heat or need to walk away from your desk, stick one in your pocket or maybe to the back of your neck.

Mini Cooling Fan Pen

Yeah, I’m not sure how well these would keep you cool but maybe if you held it close to your face long enough it would dry the sweat dripping on your forehead during that boring, long meeting. Also important is the portability option and very cheery colors.

Hello Kitty Fan

What is it about Hello Kitty that makes her an inspiration for every gadget? You really could have an entire Hello Kitty life if you wanted to. Either way, she’ll keep you nice and cool and be your friend on your desk.

Brando USB Big Fan

Now this is a winner. Great design, great colors, and it’s BIG! Did I mention it plugs into your USB? or runs on batteries? And you can hang it on a wall? And it’s only $11.50? I want it.

Transformers Hand Fans

This is for when you get bored and you decide “Hey I actually don’t care what my boss thinks of me at all.” Remove the top and start cooling down.

Blowit Fans

Made for musicians rocking out too hard, you can use it too! Stick it on that pipe next to your desk or maybe some other cylindrical object. It may even be powerful enough to blow your hair hard enough and make you feel like a rockstar at your desk.

Thanko USB Fan

Okay so the lights aren’t super cool but for a USB fan it is smart. Cool down + get four extra USB slots! (or get the version with the 7 in 1 card reader) I’m always up for plugging more things into my computer at once.

Aqua Fan

It cools you down and allows you to spray yourself in the face for 8 bucks. Gizmodo called a crappy fan and I semi-agree..except for that water feature.

Propello Cageless Fan

Yeah it’s expensive and I don’t know if it works any differently, but a cageless fan? That just sounds cool.

Zippi Fan

Now this looks nice. Sleek design, cloth blades, it packs a lot of punch for a small fan. Plus it’s endorsed by Treehugger..for all you green loving people.

Otto the Fan

This one wins best design for me. It has some sort of retro feel to it that I love love.  It’s pretty expensive, but if you’re trendy office it’s an easy addition.

The UFO Webcam (+ FAN!)

It reminds me of something creepy off of Minority Report or War of the Worlds are something. (Anyone know what I’m talking about?) Anyways, it’s a double whamo. Get both the gadgets you need on one stand, taking up one USB port. Just don’t go to your computer at night and get scared by it’s creepy eye.

Logisys Ergonomic Cool Fan Mouse

They are cheap but a fan that ventilates your hand does sound nice. I’m not sure of the comfort level of the mouse in general but I sure don’t enjoy a sweaty mouse.

The Wi-Fi Hand Fan

Yeah this one is manual but come one! You need some exercise. Plus, could life get any nerdier? You need this fan.

So maybe your boss just wants you to get a normal fan, know crazy stuff. We sell the Number one fan for Summer (based on Amazon’s ratings) on our site. The Holmes 16″ Three-Speed Adjustable Oscillating Floor Fan. Definitely an excellent choice. We’ve got other fans too, check them out here

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I feel inspired to create everything I’ve ever seen out of scotch tape. Inspiration comes from Mark Jenkins (his site HERE) who is so famous that he has his own Wikipedia Page. He was born in Virginia, and apparently lives in DC right now? From an interview: He grew up with a strong music and arts background and graduated with a degree in geology. As a kid he created his first tape sculpture from a pencil in class (don’t waste tape! he was probably told) and he revisited the idea many years later in Rio de Janeiro. He began casting everything his apartment and even made himself sick from the smell. His neighbors hated the sound of the packaging tape ripping over and over again and one neighbor through mud all over his clothes when they were hanging out to dry. He’s done all sorts of different projects.

Here are some of my favorites:

Now it’s your turn! Make your own: (From http://www.tapesculpture.org/)
Here’s how:

Cover baby (or any object you’d like) with plastic or cling wrap.

Cover baby with 2-3 layers of tape.

Cut baby out with scissors or a razor, following the red dotted lines. Carefully pull off the shell.

You should get this.

Match up seams and tape together.

After you know all the steps, you can make stuff like this: (at least other people did..)

Thanks Mark Jenkins for the best use ever of scotch tape

And if you happen to make something cool after reading this post…put a picture online and mention it in the comments!

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[Santa Monica’s Solar Powered Ferris Wheel. Yeah not in your budget, sorry]

Using solar powered items just makes sense. Why not get your own energy for free from the sun? The only issue with solar powered gadgets (and well a lot of the green gadgets out there) is that they can look a little too space-agey for me. With that in mind, here are 8 products that I would actually purchase if I had extra money to do so.

1. Solar Powered Speakers 

It is no mistake that these are first on my list. The first time I saw them on Treehugger I fell in love. They look old school but modern at the same time.  Modeled after the gramophone, they completely fold up for travel.

#2. Voltaic Generator Solar Bag

Okay so this one looks more like a boy bag but if it will charge my laptop on the go, I don’t even care. An hour in the sun will give you 20-45 minutes of running time. So when I go camping or to the beach, this sucker will just sit outside and soak up the sun. I’m not sure at what point the charge maxes out but hopefully it will last through a whole movie.

#3. The SUNNAN Lamp

From Ikea. For 20 bucks you get a really cute lamp that charges itself in the sun. Great great idea.

#4. Solar- Powered Nintento-Emulating MP4 Player

Oh China. You are so great! The Nintendo lover in me would love to play Super Mario for hours on end. It has 2GB built in and you can add up to 2 GBs more. To make it even more great, it has a USB port where you can plug in your electronics to get them all charged up! Thanks BoingBoing

#5.  Solar Powered Water Bottle + Lantern!

When I first saw this I thought wow, really? Do I actually need this? Yes I do. The times you carry around this giant sized water bottle are normally the times you’re out in the hot sun. Think about getting back from a long hike, it’s getting dark, and oh you already have light.  Once it is fully charged, the LED light lasts for 8-10 hours! Found at Gizmodo.

#6. SoCool’s Millenia Air Conditioner

Keep real cool even when the lights are out. Yes it is expensive and yes, as Gizmodo said, it does look like a trash can or maybe even a transformer but really, shouldn’t we all have these? Our air conditioners hang out the window all day long. They should be soaking up the sun to operate during the day and stock piling the energy for the night. Hmm maybe I could make a cover to go over it.

#7. Solar Rolls

If you don’t want the messenger bag, which I don’t know if I do either, this is a great idea. You can charge it up for 5-10 hours of use and, if you are wealthy, buy a bunch and link them together for a ridiculous amount of energy. The SolarRolls are even waterproof so you can roll them out on your lawn or not stress about spilling an entire water bottle over them.

So after my whole solar kick, I had to go on our site, Shoplet.com, to see if we have any solar products. You’ll be really excited to know that we carry a wide selection of solar calculators.

So come to our site for the greatest prices on  solar calculators.  And well go everywhere else for all the other cool gadgets.

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“An agreement between parties”
This phrase listed above has many complex components encompassing a wide range of rules and regulations.
When a typical salesman or saleswoman closes a deal or puts a deal in place this is the first step of cyclical business. As we saw last week in “The Relationship Building” post the deal that was truly in the works from initial contact between salesperson and customer has come to fruition. This is a wonderful time for that salesperson to look back and see how it all began as an initial greeting to a presentation then to a review of content finally to a deal closing ritual known as the old fashioned handshake.

Now let’s take a closer look at this time line of events. Let’s be honest folks everyone develops and maintains relationships in different ways. For instance some sales people are extremely aggressive and they will harass the customer in order to close the deal and others are more relaxed and passive in their deal closing. Both approaches have the same goal in mind as well as a deal to close but which one is truly the best way to do things?

How many times have you been in a situation where an aggressive salesperson has approached you to purchase either a service or a product by suggestive selling? A perfect example is the realm of auto sales, some may refer to these salespeople as animals…But they get the job done!!!
Then we can look at the laid back passive salesperson who is very gentle with the potential customer and suggests a few products or services and backs off. Is this a real salesperson or is this just a body in the store?

Well folks one will never know what closes the deal or what personality is needed to be successful. Everyday deals are closed in all businesses and huge amounts of cash are exchanged but we will never know what goes on in the minds of the final decision maker!!!

All salespeople go out there and close those deals!!!

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