The Chronic Consumer

I’m not the kind of person to buy aftermarket auto parts for my vehicles, but my husband is. He doesn’t go crazy and put chrome on everything or modify the engine to get additional horsepower. He just sticks to the basics like rear spoilers, mufflers, and wheels.

He’s currently working on setting up his new van, and I have to say that it actually looks a lot better with these changes. The best part are the black wheels that offset the silver body. Sure, we spent $1200 on the wheels, but now our ride looks very cool!

Anyway, for those of you that do indulge in aftermarket auto parts, where do you usually get them from? Is there a shop near you that you frequent? Do you order them from a catalog? From a website?

Let me know!

I run several blogs and websites that serve as my primary source of income. As such, it’s very important for me to stay connected — even on weekends when I’d rather be out doing something else. But of course, this essentially means that I work 7 days/week and never get a chance to spend time with my family without worrying about updating my sites and answering emails.

I desperately want to change that situation without impacting my income too much. So after doing a lot of checking around, I’m thinking of purchasing a Nokia Portable Internet Tablet.

Specifically, I looked at the Nokia N810 and think that it would be perfect for my needs. It’s small and compact, has a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard, and features a 4.1-inch LCD screen. In other words, it’s more portable than a laptop, but bigger and easier to use for Internet browsing than a cell phone would be.

The only drawback to this product is the price, which is currently around $420. That’s a lot to pay for something that I’d only use, say, every other weekend, so I’ll definitely have to think about it some more.