The Chronic Consumer

When I was growing up, I knew a girl who took horseback riding lessons in Lake Forest. She had lessons every Saturday, and was even good enough to enter competitions by the time we got to high school. One year the school’s yearbook staff decided to do a profile on her, so there’s a huge two-page layout in the book with pictures of Sheila out at the stables in her horse riding apparel, which I thought was pretty cool.

Looking at the pictures now, I can’t help but wonder Sheila’s equestrian clothes came from. There certainly weren’t any local stores that she could have gotten them from, so I guess she had to purchase them out by the stables.

Of course, these days you can buy equestrian clothes and equipment online, which I’m sure makes the whole experience a lot more convenient. I guess it’s just odd to think that there ever was a time when I didn’t know how or where to buy something. I’m just so used to looking everything up on the Internet first now!

I bought the first generation PlayStation Portable from Sony for Christmas a couple years ago. Even though I know there’s a new generation of PSPs available on the market today, I figured I’d go ahead and review my old one because you can still buy this style at used/refurbished prices and because there’s probably not a significant performance difference between the two versions.

The Sony PSP is a very sleek device that looks good and delivers excellent gaming qualities. It has two sets of control buttons (one on each end of the device) that mimic the buttons on a standard PS2 controller. There’s also a small joystick under the directional buttons, and an L and R button up at the top of the device.

I’ve found that the buttons are easy enough to use, but was never really able to get accustomed to the joystick. As a result, I avoid playing games that feature heavy joystick usage and just stick to easier games.

The best part of the PSP, in my opinion, is its nice, wide 4.3-inch LCD display. The colors and graphics are very sharp, and the screen size is bigger than any other handheld out there, which makes for a better overall playing experience.

The PSP can also play videos, which is an awesome feature. Of course, the files have to be in MP4 format, which requires some tweaking and converting, but I’ve gotten used to the process and can now rip any DVD in my collection into something that can play on my PSP. Very cool!

Games for the PSP aren’t as family-friendly as the ones available for Nintendo DS, so I don’t recommend this device for children under the age of, say, 7, but other than that, I think the PSP is a quality product that is well worth purchasing.