The Chronic Consumer

I have an ongoing argument with one of my friends that was revisited earlier today when we had lunch together. This person travels a lot for business, and always gets to stay in pretty nice hotels. When she stays at these places, she thinks it’s perfectly ok to take things out of the room as “souvenirs”, but I think this is actually stealing.

I mean, I can understand keeping the little bottles of shampoo and conditioner, and maybe the branded notepad and pen that are put out on the desk, but my friend doesn’t stop there. Going through her house is like taking a cross-country trip, as she has towels, bathrobes, glasses, mugs, and ashtrays from the various Orlando, New York, Chicago, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and laughlin hotels that she’s stayed at. It’s kind of weird, if you ask me.

Anyway, I’d like to know what other people think. Is it ok to swipe these kinds of goodies from your hotel room, or is it straight-up stealing? Let me know your opinion!

The Body Shop is having another great sale right now on facial skin care products. If you buy any two selected facial skin care products, you get one free. This includes their special Tea Tree line of washes, scrubs, and exfoliators that help combat and control blemishes, as well as their Seaweed, Vitamin E, Wise Woman, Aloe, and Men’s line.

Most of the skin care products featured in the sale range from $9-$19, and though the campaign doesn’t specify, I’m assuming that you’d get the lowest priced product as your free one (that’s how the sales usually work). No end date for this campaign was listed in any of the materials I read.

This is a great time to stock up on moisturizers and toners to combat the effects of harsh winter weather, so get shopping now!

You’ve all seen those Heely shoes, right? They’re the ones with a wheel in the heel, and have been around for several years now. Well, the 9-year-old kid who lives next door has a pair and tirelessly cruises up and down the block doing tricks or whatever. Of course, my son thinks this is the coolest thing in the world, so he’s been bugging us for a pair of Heelys for a few months now.

The thing is, I think he’s a bit too young for the shoes. He’s 5 1/2 right now, but he’s small for his size and not coordinated enough for shoes like these. I can already see all the skinned knees — or worse — that would result if I bought these.

Unfortunately, the “debate” part of my title comes in because my husband thinks we should at least let our boy try the shoes. He’ll never learn coordination, balance, etc. if we keep him off scooters and skateboards until we think he’s ready.

In other words, it’s two against one here, so I’m probably going to lose this battle. Sigh.

Season 3 of the comedy How I Met Your Mother was released on DVD a couple days ago, and this is something I definitely want for my collection. I don’t watch too many comedies these days, but HIMYM is one of my favorites. Although the gimmick of Future Ted telling his kids all about his love life is creepy in so many ways, the issues that 30-something Ted deals with are fun. Plus, there’s Barney to look forward to… ’nuff said!

Anyway, the S3 DVD box set contains all 20 episodes (it was a strike-shortened season, remember?), as well as lots of bonus features, including cast commentary, a gag reel, and a Robin Sparkles video for “Sandcastles in the Sand” — awesome!

Unfortunately, the box set costs $25.99 right now, which is a bit too expensive for just 20 eps. I’m sure it will come down in the future, so let the monitoring begin.

Is it just me, or is there far more advertising all around us these days? I’m not just talking about the usual billboards and magazine ads; I’m talking about an increased number of digital signage displays in places like the mall, restaurants, the airport, and even busy city streets or major intersections.

Usually, I’m not a big fan of advertising (I routinely fast-forward through all commercials while watching TiVo and skip previews on DVDs), but I have to admit that most of the digital stuff I’ve seen is very cool and eye-catching. I’ve even “discovered” a couple of great new products from digital advertising that I never would have learned of otherwise, so that’s another point in its favor.

Anyway, what do you think? Is there too much advertising these days? Does it bother you or do you like being made aware of new products and services?

I can’t believe that this is the 500th post here at The Chronic Consumer! In all honesty, when I first began this blog, I didn’t know how long I’d be able to sustain it with new material. Although I think I shop a lot, I certainly don’t buy something new every single day, so I was worried that I’d quickly run out of things to post about.

Fortunately, that hasn’t happened thus far. I’ve been writing here since May 11, 2007, and have made it to 500 posts already. I’m pretty happy with that!

I’m a total Diet Coke addict, and have been for the last 15 years or so. I grew up drinking regular Coca-Cola, but as I got older, I found regular Coke to be far too sweet for my tastes. Now I can only drink regular Coke if it comes from a fountain, and I drink Diet Coke all other times that a soft drink is in order. Nevertheless, I decided to try Coke Zero for the first time a little while ago, mostly because of the huge marketing push this drink has been getting from Coca-Cola. What a mistake that was!

Coke Zero is absolutely disgusting! It has that same overly sweet taste of regular Coke — and yet something is missing. The aftertaste is pretty nasty as well, leaving me feeling like I just ingested something medicinal. I couldn’t even finish half of the 16-oz. bottle before dumping the rest down the drain. It was a waste of time and money.

Consider this experiment over. I will never, EVER drink Coke Zero again. I’ll go off soda altogether before making this my regular drink!

I freely admit that I make a lot of purchases simply for the sake of nostalgia. This started happening especially frequently after my son was born, because I was suddenly going to toy stores more often than ever. Whenever I saw a toy that I had as a child, or, more likely, that I wanted but never received, I would end up buying it for my boy. That urge hasn’t let up, even though it’s been almost six years already.

My latest nostalgia-fueled purchase was the Mattel Classic Football 2 handheld game. This is something that I did have as a kid, and I remember spending hours playing this thing. Of course, the Mattel football game came out way, way before Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable, so even though it’s simplistic by today’s standards, it was the bomb 25 years ago!

Anyway, Mattel Classic Football 2 is a remake of the original that came out in 1978 or 1979. The “men” are simple red LCD lines that move up and down the field via four directional buttons. Gameplay is equally simple, as you have only “men” on your team, the QB and a receiver. You can either run, pass, or kick on each play, with the object being to try to slip past the six defenders that oppose you. The defenders are controlled by the computer and move randomly, so most of the time, you’re just waiting for a passing or running lane to open up.

Just like in real football, you can get a first down after 10 yards to keep your drive alive. You can also hit the “Kick” button on fourth down, which will result in either a punt or a field goal attempt (the computer determines which kick is called for), or you can score a touchdown, which counts as 7 points.

There’s a kickoff to start the game, and one after each score. But unlike the original version, there’s no kickoff to start the third quarter. In fact, when time runs out in the second quarter, you just continue with the same drive, which is sorta strange.

The game is for one or two players, but even in one player mode, there’s no computer team. The computer is always on defense, and a human always needs to control the offense, so in a one player game, you essentially have to play both sides.

And finally, there are two difficulty levels, Pro 1 and Pro 2, with two additional “Easter egg” difficulty levels of Pro 3 and Pro 4, obtained by holding down the “Kick” button as you turn the game on.

Overall, Mattel Classic Football 2 is still fun to play on occasion. I keep it in my desk drawer and pull it out for a few minutes whenever I need a break from work. It’s not a game that’s likely to keep today’s kids occupied for very long, but it’s a nice throwback for Gen X’ers like myself.

A couple days ago, I posted about a new test that can help determine whether or not someone is a shopaholic. I mentioned in my post something about not using shopping as a crutch to help get me through “emotionally tough times”, a phrase that apparently didn’t sit well with some readers. I got several e-mails telling me that this is a serious subject and that shopaholics need professional help just as much as heavy drinkers need alcohol rehab.

First of all, I apologize if I offended anyone, but I didn’t think I was making light of the subject at all. Friends and strangers alike really have made comments to me about possibly being a shopaholic. You have to remember that the products I write about on this blog represent just a small portion of what I actually buy, so that’s where the concern comes in.

Second, I do realize that shopping can become just as addictive for some people as controlled substances. I’ve read and seen many stories about shopaholics running up massive credit card debt, ruining their credit rating, and basically destroying their lives. But while those with substance abuse problems can go to a drug treatment center for help, shopaholics don’t have the same options.

I thought I was doing a good thing by pointing out the existence of that test and letting you know that now there’s a means of evaluating your level of shopping addiction. Again, I’m sorry if I offended anyone. That certainly was not my intent.

As a huge fan of the FOX television series The X-Files, I had been looking for a complete DVD collection of all 9 seasons for some time. As expected, however, purchasing a complete set would be an expensive venture since so many DVDs were involved. I had my eye on two different collections: The Special Edition DVD Box Set that came in a nifty briefcase, and The Complete Collector’s Edition that came in a more standard cardboard box.

The first collection retailed for more than $500, which I’d never be able to justify spending on DVDs. The second was a more reasonable $329, and when the price for that one was slashed to $164.99 during a special sale, I jumped at my chance to own the entire series.

The X-Files: The Complete Collector’s Edition contains a whopping 61 discs that feature every single episode from the show’s incredible 9-year run on FOX. In addition, the full-length 1998 film, Fight the Future is included in the set. A pull-out drawer holds an X-Files graphic novel (comic book), trading cards, movie poster, and guidebook. (Click photo to enlarge.)

Each season’s DVDs are housed in their own boxes, and the helpful guide makes it a snap to find particular episodes. I’ve had no problems at all navigating through this massive collection — which isn’t always the case with huge box sets like this!

The main reason I wanted to buy this Collector’s Edition was for the bonus features that are included with every season. The features in this set consist mostly of interviews with Chris Carter and other producers, as well as behind-the-scenes glimpses of filming some of the episodes. For the record, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson hardly appear in the extras at all, and when they do, their interviews and comments are from 10 years ago when The X-Files was still in production. From what I’ve seen thus far (and I by no means have watched everything yet), there are no recent interviews with David and Gillian in this set.

Speaking of the bonus features, I have to say that I’ve actually been a bit disappointed with them. Most are very short, most consist of only Chris Carter talking about special production notes, and a lot of the stuff is repetitive, with the same commentary cropping up in two or more different special features segments. I’m not sure why they chose to go this way with the features, but it got kind of annoying after a while.

Nevertheless, that wasn’t enough to dampen my enjoyment of The X-Files: The Complete Collector’s Edition. It’s great to be able to see my favorite episodes anytime I want, and to relive the most memorable moments from The X-Files’ awesome run. I highly recommend this collection to any true X-Files fan out there — especially at the sale price of $164.99. You just can’t go wrong with that!