Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Friday, September 22, 2023

Product Review: Bonsaii Cross-Cut Paper Shredder

 


I have a lower-end shredder that can handle doing one or two things at a time, for short periods of time (like credit card applications that come nearly every day in the mail), but also had a back-log of paperwork that I did not need any longer, but would take days in that shredder, and would undoubtedly cause it to get stuck and clogged. I was able to get through about half of it in less than an hour using this.

I like that it has a self-contained bin that holds a good amount of shredded paper. It does come with one bag that you can to line the bin, but I found it is easier just to empty the bin into a bag when it is full. This is because if the bin is not pushed in place all the way, it will not shred. The power light will just blink when you turn it on, but it will not do anything until the bin is pushed all the way in, and when you put a bag inside it, it tends to cause the bin not to sit correctly. Plus, I found that as it got more full, the clippings would push the back of the bag down so you would get some in the bag and some between the bag and the bin, and it would cause a big mess trying to get the bag out.

The instructions say that you can feed up to 18 sheets at a time into the shredder, but It did get stuck with a thicker envelope (which I do not think was as thick as 18 sheets of paper) causing me to put it in reverse (which worked just fine) to get it out. So, now I stick to about 3-4 sheets at a time and it has not got stuck since then. I also put a couple of old credit cards through it, and it handled them just fine. One nice feature is that it cross-cuts the paper and does not just spit out long strips which can sometimes stick together and leave information visible to anyone with the patience enough to go through it. So, it is nearly impossible to get anything useful from the shredded remains. And, it is a much more cost-efficient option than bringing a bunch of paper to a company that shreds in bulk. It is a good idea to get some of the shredder lubricating sheets as I have found those help keep this in good working order. I definitely recommend this.

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