The Chronic Consumer

With spring on its way, Jerry is already counting down the days until he can take the bike out for a few hard laps around the local motocross track. He has also said that he needs a new helmet, and is looking at this Arai VX-Pro3 model in the Akira orange paint scheme. At a price tag of close to $600, it’s very expensive, but then again, safety is very important so a good helmet is a must. I figure better spend that money proactively on a quality piece of protective equipment than reactively on a motorcycle accident lawyer or hospital bills.

Anyway, it will take us a little while to save up this kind of money. We have maybe a third of it right now, so if no other unexpected expenses pop up in the next six weeks, I’m sure he’ll go ahead and buy this Arai helmet!

I was browsing for office furniture last night when I came across this beautiful leather desk chair. I have been searching for the perfect desk chair for a long time, and would love to get something in leather! I’ve tried out leather chairs at stores, and they are just so much more comfortable than the faux stuff that it’s not even funny. But they are expensive! The one in the picture retails for more than $1300, and even the sale price of $739 is still way out of my budget.

Even so, I can’t help but think that I deserve something luxurious like this chair! After all, I spend more than 8 hours a day at my desk. Shouldn’t I be able to do it in style?!

Well, this is pretty ridiculous! Have you seen this product called the Fast Finger Keyboard? It’s a keyboard that features special IM keys that allow you to instantly display commonly used abbreviations such as BRB, L8R, CYA, LOL, THX, IMO, and TTYL.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine spending extra money to get something like this. How hard is it to type the little abbreviations above? Maybe it’s just me…. I don’t exactly spend all day in chat rooms, so what do I know.

I haven’t clipped coupons in forever, but after reading this Wall Street Journal article, I might start up again. The article says that the average savings per manufacturer coupon is $1.44, and since it takes just a minute to clip the thing out and get it ready for use, that translates to a whopping $86.40 per hour — which is what some people pay in monthly car insurance or disability insurance premiums. That’s pretty substantial!

I stopped getting the Sunday newspaper a long time ago, but I plan to buy one this weekend just for the sales circulars and coupons. If I end up with a bunch of useful coupons that add up to great savings at the grocery store, I might make the Sunday Trib a must-have once again!

I usually don’t play video games aimed at adults, as anything featuring Mario is more my speed. But recently my husband convinced me to try Heavy Rain for PS3, since I love mysteries and police procedurals. I did try it, and though I wanted to like the game, I just couldn’t.

Heavy Rain is basically a Choose Your Own Adventure book (remember those) that plays out on the PS3. As with Choose Your Own Adventure, you occasionally come to proverbial forks in the road during this game, and the choices you make can have an impact on how the game ends. These real choices are few and far between, however. Most of the time, the game is so rigid that you go down the same road no matter which choice you make.

The main story is that there’s a serial killer, known as the Origami Killer, on the loose. The Origami Killer snatches kids and then holds them in a storm drain during the heaviest rainfalls of the year so that they’ll drown if someone doesn’t reach them in time.

As the player, your job is to track down clues and rescue Shaun Mars before he drowns. During gameplay, you can control one of four characters: Ethan, Shaun’s dad; Madison Paige, an insomniac who runs into Ethan at a motel; Scott Shelby, a private eye; and Norman Jayden, an FBI profiler sent to help local police with the case. Usually, controlling the characters simply means choosing a specific approach to take during questioning a suspect (aggressive, sympathetic, etc.) or pushing the controller buttons a certain way to do things like start a car, sit down in a chair, etc.

The storyline was frustrating at best. You don’t really have control over where the investigation goes, so you can’t direct your characters to go talk to a certain suspect or check out a certain scene if you think it’s important. In fact (minor spoiler ahead), I don’t think Norman Jayden generated a single usable lead, so what was the effing point of his character???

Also, just when the game gets interesting, there will inevitably be long, drawn out cut-scenes that slow the action down to a crawl. Plus, there are several places where you’re forced to do mundane things like brush your teeth or make a pan of scrambled eggs just because. These things don’t add to the “reality” of the game; they just slowed it way down!

I won’t get into the solution here because I don’t want to ruin the game for those who haven’t played it yet. But let’s just say that there were way too many plot holes that were never explained. For instance, you’ll wonder how the killer killed a certain person when the killer was never alone with the victim to begin with!!! Also, you’ll wonder when the killer had time to send Ethan on his 5 missions and monitor Ethan’s progress.

The bottom line is that Heavy Rain could have been a very good — or even great — game, but it falls well short. Some parts of it were fun and interesting, but on the whole, I wouldn’t recommend this title. There are too many slow spots, too many inconsistencies in the “plot”, and too many other minor annoyances that build up by the time you reach the end. Oh, and the voice acting is absolutely TERRIBLE!!! Save your money and don’t buy this one!

My 7-year-old son is at an age now where he’s almost always playing outside with other kids in the neighborhood. He’s not allowed to wander too far away, of course, but still, he does get on his bike and play out of sight of the house. After getting tired of roaming around trying to track him down to come in for lunch or dinner, I decided to buy a couple of walkie talkies for us to use.

I went with a mid-range Kenwood model that has a stated range of 1.5 miles. But I learned during the research stage that this range applies only to wide open areas like on a ski slope or a big lake. In and around the neighborhood, the range is closer to half a mile — which is still sufficient for our purposes.

These Kenwood walkie talkies are actually pretty good. They cost around $90 each, and work perfectly for putting me in direct touch with my son when he’s out of sight. They are easy to operate, compact, and durable. My son has already dropped his a couple of times (once while running), and the thing still works. It’s scratched up a bit, but it still works perfectly.

I love using these walkie talkies to monitor my son when he’s playing outside. I know they’re not a substitute for adult supervision, but since I can’t be with him 24/7, it’s good to know I can at least call him when needed — all without the contracts and headaches of a cell phone!

I hate to admit it, but my family wastes a lot of food. We always seem to have leftovers, and because no one really likes to eat the same thing two or three days in a row, the leftovers get shoved to the back of the refrigerator, where they’re promptly forgotten until the rot. Yeah, not a great situation.

So I’m thinking of buying this FoodSaver vacuum system that seals food in vacuum-locked bags to help preserve freshness. The food can then be stored in the freezer, where it’ll keep a lot longer than in the fridge. I don’t know if this will actually help us reduce the amount of food we waste (it could just end up cluttering our freezer), it can’t hurt to give it a try. The machine costs about $100, and bags are extra. Maybe I’ll buy this the next time I go shopping!

I just read a fairly interesting article about the longest-lasting consumer batteries on the market. I have to admit that my husband and I occasionally buy generic batteries from the dollar store for toys, flashlights, and other little devices that we don’t use all that often.

That might be fine for low-cost items, but according to the Main Street article, consumers ought to shell out a bit more cash and buy Energizer Ultimate or Energizer rechargeables for things like digital cameras, wireless security systems, and similar gadgets.

We buy Eneloop rechargeables, but I might give Energizer a look after this!