The Chronic Consumer

Ok, I just read a Yahoo article about a 24k gold-plated PS3 gaming system that costs $4999! The product is offered by a place called Computer Choppers, and they apparently plate all kinds of tech crap, including iPhones, iPods, and Mac books. Who knew that there was a market for this kind of thing??? Why would anyone want a gold-plated PS3??? Clearly this is for folks with all kinds of money to burn, so it’s not something I’ll ever encounter in my lifetime. Wow, what a waste!

We’re big fans of Mario games in this household. We love Mario Kart, the various Mario sports games, Mario Galaxy, and of course, Super Mario Bros. So when we heard that they were coming out with New Super Mario Bros. Wii, we knew we’d be buying it right away. We did, and we weren’t disappointed!

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a fantastic family game! It is similar enough to the older version to allow you to pick it up right away and start playing, but it has enough new features to make it feel, well, new. Among the best new features is the multiplayer capability. It’s a lot of fun to be able to go through each level with up to three other players in tow. During multiplayer mode, you can either help or hurt each other, which is a blast! It’s hard enough to be on the watch for Goombas and other natural enemies, but when you have to look over your shoulder at Luigi too??? Forget it!

I love the new power-ups as well. Of course you can still turn into Fire Mario with the fire flower, and giant Mario if you get a giant mushroom. But now you can also get an Ice Flower, Propeller Hat, or a Penguin Suit, and you can even ride Yoshi and have him gobble up enemies for you. Oh, and they brought back the classic POW blocks, which is definitely a good thing!

The levels have that different-yet-familiar feeling as well, and this time around, if you get stuck in a particular place and die more than 8 times in a row, Luigi will come in to show you how you’re supposed to navigate that section. Some people call this “cheating”, but I call it convenient. After all, if that feature wasn’t available, you’d just go online and look for help anyway, right??? At least now all the help you need is right there in the game.

Overall, New Super Mario Bros. Wii is an awesome game that everyone in the family will enjoy. I highly recommend it!

After about 10 years of not paying attention to any games, I got back into watching the NHL last season during the playoffs. This year, I’m making a concerted effort to watch more games during the regular season (maybe even attend a few) and just be more of a fan. That includes buying gear to support my favorite team, the Chicago Blackhawks.

Towards that end, I recently purchased two Player Name & Number t-shirts. These are red shirts with the Blackhawks logo and tiny NHL shield on the front, along with a player’s name & number screenprinted on the back. The shirts come in both long- and short-sleeve versions; I bought one of each. I opted for #88 Patrick Kane in long sleeves, and #81 Marian Hossa in short.

I love these shirts! They look good, the name and numbers are printed in some kind of puffy material that feels cool and probably won’t come apart in the wash as quickly as regular screenprinting, and they’re much more affordable than, say, a $150 jersey.

The long-sleeve name & number tee usually costs $24.99 and the short-sleeve version runs for $21.99. But I ordered at a time when shop.nhl.com was having a sale, so I got both shirts plus shipping for a total of $36. Not bad, huh? Go Hawks!!

I know most bloggers are anal about checking their stats, but I have been extremely lax in that area lately. I really need to get on the ball, though, because one of my goals for the new year is to improve my traffic. To get started, I thought it would be helpful to review the most popular search terms that bring readers to my pages. That can help me key in on content that readers are most interested in, which should then make it more enticing for people to keep coming back.

Anyway, here are a handful (not in any kind of order though):

• People are very interested in cutco knives cost.
• They also want to know where to buy ferrero rocher raffaello chocolates.
• The stranger than fiction watch is still a hit, even though the movie is a couple years old already.
• Readers are also looking for cheap hotels new orleans, but they won’t find that info on my site. I’ve written about cheap hotels and New Orleans separately, but for some reason, people are still finding this site when searching for all those terms together.
• And finally, bed bath and beyond bankruptcy is still a hot topic even though it was Linens ‘N’ Things that went out of business.

Ok, now I’ve got to figure out how to SEO my site based on what people are searching for. Any ideas?

A friend of mine is a huge tennis fan, and she loves Andy Roddick in particular. Andy has a website where he sells stuff to benefit his foundation, so I was checking it out today to see if there was anything there that I could get my friend. They have the t-shirt pictured here on sale for $9.99 plus free shipping, which I think is a pretty good deal, so I’m going to order that.

I used to follow tennis myself, but haven’t watched the sport in years. I started checking out some of Roddick’s stats just to see why he’s so popular (since the only guys I ever really hear about are Federer and Nadal). Turns out Roddick has only won one major — the 2003 U.S. Open — though he has been to the Wimbledon finals three times too. He’s known more for his good looks and blistering serve than for winning major championships, I guess!

Speaking of looks, I found this rather unflattering picture of him on some site or other. You’d think a world-class athlete in a sport like tennis would have a six-pack, but this looks like the beginning of a beer gut. Roddick lives in Austin, so I’m going to tell my friend that she probably would have a good chance of running into Roddick if she hangs out at some austin weight loss clinics or gyms. I don’t know when this pic was taken, but if it was recent, you know he’ll want to get back into shape before the tennis season starts up again!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a good coupon code for you, so I thought I’d take a break from writing reviews today and share a freebie instead. Do you have any Redbox movie rental kiosks in your area? If so, then you can use the following Redbox code to get a free rental: SPNSV9.

If you’ve never used one of these kiosks before, you might want to visit the Redbox website to learn more.

Don’t forget to pick up some popcorn too!