The Chronic Consumer

Even if you’re not a chronic consumer like I am, you’re probably still bombarded with advertising claims and slogans throughout the day. How many messages about various products and services do you think you hear or see in a given 24-hour period? 50? 100? It really is that high when you take billboards, radio and TV commercials, magazine ads, and Internet pop-ups into consideration.

What I want to know is, how many of you are actually persuaded by these claims without doing your own research. If you hear a commercial touting a product as the best fat burner or the strongest cold medicine out there, do you automatically assume that the assertion is true? Or do you compare the product with similar items to see which one works better.

I’m betting that very few people go through too many comparisons on small-ticket items, which I think is a mistake. Money is money, whether you’re spending $10 or $100, so I encourage you to investigate advertising claims before you part with your cash.

I’m officially jumping on the Texas Tech bandwagon, and am pulling for the team to go undefeated this season and make it to the BCS championship game. Having watched their last three games from beginning to end, I am overwhelmingly impressed by what QB Graham Harrell, WR Michael Crabtree, and the rest of the Red Raiders can do on the football field.

In order to show my support, I’ve decided to buy some Texas Tech gear. I was hoping to score a Graham Harrell replica jersey, but haven’t been able to find any out there. However, my searches did turn up this awesome Nike Flea Flicker hoody with the big TT logo on the front. I don’t usually get too excited about hooded sweatshirts, but this one is very cool! It even has an iPod pocket on the left sleeve, which will come in handy during my workouts.

This particular Nike Flea Flicker Hoody is pretty expensive at $59.99, so I’m probably going to put it on my Christmas list and hope someone buys it for me!

We’re currently working on remodeling our living room. It’s actually kind of a small project that consists mainly of buying new furniture and rearranging everything to try to get a bit more space in there.

We’re buying a smaller couch, getting rid of a couple of wing chairs that we never use, and are going to buy a flat panel mount to get our TV up on the wall. Once the TV is out of the way, we can remove the entertainment center and hopefully end up with more room to lounge around or play board games.

The new couch is coming in next weekend, and we hope to have someone come in to mount the TV at that time as well. Hopefully the room turns out the way we envision it!

I may be jumping the gun a bit here, but I think I have a good chance of winning one of my fantasy football leagues this year. It’s a college league and I have a huge lead with just a couple weeks left to play. I would basically have to get amnesia and forget to submit my picks in order to lose, so I’m already thinking about the prizes I’m going to receive.

I play in a “donate what you can” league where everyone tries to chip in a prize (no cash) worth at least $20. Most people offer to buy t-shirts or other gear featuring the winner’s favorite team, but a couple of the participants own stores and offer gift certificates. There’s a golfing store, a fishing store, and a motocross store in the mix, which means I can get some pretty good stuff.

I’ll probably walk away from this fantasy football league with several Notre Dame and Wisconsin tees, plus some Cobra golf equipment, a fishing rod, and some MX gloves. Not a bad haul just for picking the right teams to win!

Anyway, I hope I didn’t just jinx myself here! I’ll be sure to post some photos after I get all of my swag in. Until then, wish me luck!

I’m a bit obsessive-compulsive when it comes to germs, so Wireless Wipes seem like the perfect product for me. These are antibacterial wipes that are specifically designed to clean cell phones, iPods, PDAs, handheld game systems, and other electronic gadgets with corroding their surfaces.

I don’t know about you, but I hate letting other people talk on my cell phone because it invariably gets returned to me with makeup, oil residue, or other nasty crap on it. I mean, it’s pretty disgusting!!

Right now, I just wipe down the surfaces with eyeglass cleaner and a soft cloth, but I know that’s not doing anything to the germs. You better believe I’ll be ordering a bunch of Wireless Wipes just as soon as I can!

What’s your favorite kind of souvenir to buy when you go on vacation? When I was younger, I used to love getting t-shirts from nearly every place I went to. But then I discovered that I had a very hard time throwing away my souvenir shirts even after they were clearly worn out, leaving me with overflowing dresser drawers and a closet full of old clothes.

So now I just buy magnets wherever I go, and slap them on my refrigerator when I get home. Magnets are fun to look at, don’t take up much space, and are easy to get rid of if I tire of them.

Problem solved!

I’ve been taking my fitness regimen a lot more seriously this year, and am pleased with the results thus far. I’m thinking of going a step further by purchasing MBT shoes, which are specially designed to help you burn extra calories and alleviate back, knee, ankle, and joint pain associated with walking on hard surfaces.

I’ve been reading about these shoes and have heard some really positive things about them. Apparently, it takes a little while to get used to walking in them because they have a curved sole that keeps you off balance (one of the reasons you burn extra calories is from continually trying to balance yourself), but after that, they’re pretty good.

MBT shoes are a bit more expensive than traditional footwear, but I think the expense would be worth it. I have to start saving now!

I was reading through some blogs today when I came across a post about a new clothing line called W-41. What makes W-41 unique is that the apparel, which the maker refers to as “techfashion”, features barcodes that can be read by cell phones, thereby directing people to a URL that you specify. This could be your personal website, Facebook profile, or anything else.

The idea is to make it easier to exchange information with new people that you meet.

I think this is kinda cool, but there are a few problems with W-41 at this point. For one thing, your new contacts obviously have to have cell phones capable of scanning the barcodes. For another, what’s to stop some random freak standing behind you at Starbuck’s or on the subway from surreptitiously scanning your info and stalking you?

Anyway, right now W-41 has short-sleeve tees, long-sleeve tees, and sweatshirts available. I wonder if anyone is using this stuff and if it works the way it’s supposed to.