Mini Review: Office Depot Chair

So back in May I purchased the RS To Go Sporty Mid-Back Vinyl Chair from Office Depot for about $120. At the time I was replacing my Jake Office Chair, which was highly recommended, but broke on me after 1.5 years (one of the wheel casters broke and later on one of the steel legs snapped off). I'm glad the chair broke 'cause it was uncomfortable and rigid. I would never recommend it.

So I was pretty excited to get my RS chair. Not only was it cheaper than my Jake chair ($120 vs $169), but it had gotten some good reviews by Office Depot customers and a few good reviews on some random threads I managed to find online. Assembly was easy and my first week I thought it was pretty comfortable. I've now had it for 3 months and I'm not too wild about it. Some background information. I'm 6' 2" and weigh 250 lbs. (well within the chair's weight limit) and I use the chair when I work from home (about 9 hours a day, 2-3x a week). I also use it on weekends and whenever I'm on my computer. Essentially, it's my "everyday" chair. Here's what I hate about it:

1)It feels cheap. It has a very thin layer of vinyl that "pads" the chair, but in reality, it's not that comfortable. On parts of the chair (the arm rests) you can feel the underlying plastic beneath the vinyl. Not cool.

2)You can't adjust the arm rests. Not a horrible thing, but it'd be nice if you could.

3)Not only is the vinyl thin, but it's hot. I don't mind that so much 'cause I always have my AC on, but keep in mind that vinyl padding makes for a hot chair.

4)No back support. The RS has no back support and kinda encourages you to slump/hunch when you're sitting. The Jake chair was stiff, but at least it kept my back straight. The RS chair also wobbles a bit. (Then again, I have been wanting to drop 5 lbs.)

I do prefer the RS over my old Jake Chair, but if you're looking for an everyday home office chair, I would recommend spending a little bit of money and buying a quality chair. I've never owned a Herman Miller Aeron chair, so I can't vouch for those, but I have a feeling most of the RS / Office Depot chairs will suffer from the same traits. As for the Jake Chair, it was a huge disappointment. Room & Board immediately sent me replacement parts, BUT the chair required servicing (which was handled by a 3rd party vendor) and that cost $75 just for the visit.

So if you're looking for a home office chair, I recommend splurging a bit on a solid, sturdy one.

How I save money buying wines

So last month I mentioned how I'm addicted to my Breville juicer. My follow up post is about my other "addiction." Wine. I was never a big wine fan (I would always drink riesling or chardonnay because all reds tasted the same to me), but awhile back I went to this Argentinean restaurant in New York and had a malbec that I fell in love with. So I started drinking malbecs. Then a wine store owner suggested I try a Chilean carmenere. I did. Again, I loved it. Before I knew it, malbecs and carmeneres had become my wines of choice. Slowly I expanded from South American wines to Spanish wines (almost anything from Ribera del Duero is great), Portuguese wines (they're very cheap and taste amazing), and now I'm slowly making my way to France and Italy. Along the way I've tried and collected a good number of bottles and this here is how I save money doing so.

1) Don't buy in-store (unless it's a wine warehouse)
The mark ups you pay when you buy wine in-store are insane. Especially if you're buying in a major city like New York. (Trust me, I learned this the hard way.) Go to the stores for recommendations, but that's it. When you get home, buy your wines online. Even with shipping costs, you'll still save money.

However, like I said, stores are good for recommendations. (You should always try new wines.) In New York, I'm a huge fan of Manor House Cellar and BottleRocket. Their prices are high, but their staff is awesome and have made some great recommendations. If you must buy in-store, buy from a wine warehouse. In central New Jersey, I'm a huge fan of Wine Library and Shopper's Wine, two wine warehouses with excellent prices.

2) Make a list of the wines you like
I like keeping a few spare bottles of my favorite wines stored up. In particular, I love Achaval Ferrer malbecs, Bodegas Muga riojas, and Bogle Vineyard's Phantom (a blend of Petite Sirah, Zinfandel, and Mourvedre). Make your own list and once you have your shopping agenda, it's time for a little research.

3) Search online
Wine-Searcher.com is like Google for wines. I always start my searches here. Just type in the name of your wine, the vintage (this helps narrow your search), and wine-searcher will spit out a list of stores with prices and ordering info. If you've never heard of a particular store, look it up on the Better Business Bureau website. My Achaval Ferrer Malbec 2007 goes for $16.95 at Shopper's Wine. Cheapest price by far. In contrast, Manor House Cellar sells it for $25. Wine.com is sold out of that vintage.

4) Just 'cause you buy online, doesn't mean you're saving money
I'm not a fan of Wine.com. A lot of people flock to them thinking they're getting a discount, but you're not. If you have a coupon code and Wine.com is having a sale, you might save money. (Assuming they have your wine in stock, they're always sold out of the wines I like.) Otherwise, I'd steer clear of them. Example: A bottle of Achaval Ferrer malbec 2008 sells for $30 at Wine.com. Via wine-searcher I can buy it for $18 at Wine Anthology, another Central NJ warehouse store with excellent prices.

5) Stay away from pricey wines
$15. That's what it takes to make a bottle of wine. (According to an article in the May 2009 issue of Wine Spectator.) Pay anything over that and you're essentially lining someone else's wallet with your hard-earned cash. That's why I hate paying over $20 for a bottle of wine. It's like going to Best Buy and paying full price for an HDTV that you can get for 40% less online. As a result, I only buy bottles under $20. (Occasionally I'll do $25 if I really like the wine.) Don't get me wrong, pricey wines taste great. But you'll be surprised at how many bottles of wine taste just as good and yet cost under $20.

6) Use coupon codes
Shipping can turn a great deal into an ok deal. So just before I click "purchase" I like to scour the Web for coupon codes. Also look for online merchants that offer free shipping deals. (Wine Library, for example, has frequent free shipping offers.) Google around before you make your final order.

And that's how I try to keep my wine budget tight and in check. Any other tips, sound off below!

Why I hate the record labels

The other day I was looking to buy the new Franz Ferdinand song, "No You Girls." I like it, it's pretty catchy. I went to my default store — the Amazon MP3 Store — and found out it was selling for $1.29. Bummer. I was hoping for 99 cents. So I checked Lala.com. Same price. iTunes. Same price. Now, $1.29 is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things. The NYC subway costs more than that. But something about paying $1.29 for a single made me angry. Back in the day (early 90s), I used to pay $3 for a CD single which included the song I wanted along with 3 other songs. But today, $1.29 for *one* digital single just doesn't feel right.

And then I read this NYT article. (Summary: the record labels want to charge night clubs, restaurants, and even fitness clubs a royalty fee for playing music in public. They're already doing this in Australia and looking to expand to China, Italy, and U.S.) And that's when I decided I am never paying over $99 cents for a song. Ever. In fact, I'm taking a break. Unless a friend lends me an album, I'm just not buying new music (or attending any shows). Stupid, greedy record labels.

Mini Review: Breville Juicer JE95XL

I have two new addictions to talk about. The first (which I'll dedicate this post to) started last month after seeing this Jack LaLanne infommercial. Perhaps I was just sleepy, but it convinced me I needed a juicer for my kitchen. So a few weeks later my dad gave me the Breville Juice Fountain Plus JE95XL. I can't speak for the quality of the Jack LaLanne juicer, but I love my Breville. (Amazon currently has the lowest price btw).

So for the past month I've been juicing about 5x a week. I've juiced everything from apples to turnips to celery. (My current favorite mix is broccoli, apples, and carrots). I can honestly say it has given me extra energy at the gym and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to give it a try.

Clean up isn't fun (the first time particularly felt very tedious), but after a week you get used to it. There are four parts you have to clean including the stainless steel blades/mesh filter, cover, and spout container.

The machine itself is sturdy and features two motor levels for juicing hard or soft fruits/veggies. It has a generous-sized feed chute which fits a whole apple, but I usually dice my fruits and veggies before chucking them in. The remaining pulp is usually very dry which leads me to believe it extracts as much juice as possible.

Overall, I give it a 4/5 stars. My only complaint is that it's a bit loud under the fast setting (not obnoxious loud, but still loud).

Overstock Nightstand

So I bought this nightstand from Overstock.com last week. I used one of these coupons to snag free shipping and it arrived a few days later. I wasn't 100% sold on it, but every other nightstand I had seen was ugly (or too pricey) and I liked the whole black and metal handle design. Assembly was pretty easy (and I'm not the type that likes to sit down and assemble furniture), but sadly Overstock forgot to drill holes on one of the pieces of wood. Annoying, but luckily I was still able to assemble it w/o having to drill any holes.

The build quality is pretty sturdy — a lot sturdier than it looks in the photo. The wood feels nice and heavy — not like some piece of Balsa wood. The drawer doesn't open/close as smooth as I would like, but that's a small nitpick on my part. Overall, I like it a lot. I had never bought anything from Overstock before, but now I would definitely order from them again. For my next purchase I need to find a floor lamp.

Pac-Man Mini Arcade

I used to play a lot of video games as a kid. In fact, my first ever video game was a Coleco Ms. Pac-Man mini arcade. A few months later I got the original Pac-Man mini arcade along with Nintendo's Mario's Cement Factory (this was before the release of the 8-bit Nintendo console.)

I remember being addicted to these mini arcades and I had completely forgotten about them until my girlfriend bought one for me last week. She managed to track down a Coleco Pac-Man mini arcade — complete with the box and manual — and it works like new!! All the beeps and bops are exactly how I remembered them, but sadly, I'm no longer as good as I used to be. I struggled to get to level 2. I could blame the controls and say they're a little stiff (which they are), but I think I just need practice.

I have to admit, playing Pac-Man has left me a little nostalgic for some video game action, but I'm so out of the loop. Maybe this weekend I'll try to see what's out there. I might even give Left 4k Dead a whirl. After I beat level 2 on Pac-Man, of course.

CES Highlights: Palm Pre

Without a doubt, the biggest news story out of CES was the announcement of the Palm Pre and Palm's new operating system, webOS. The glossy phone is Palm's answer to the iPhone. It features a slider form factor along with a 3.1" LCD with a 320x480 resolution. It also has a QWERTY keyboard and a 3-megapixel camera with an LED flash and autofocus. The phone will be a Sprint exclusive before makes its way to the GSM market (Palm wouldn't comment where it would land after Sprint.) It's expected to come out 6 months from now.


I'm honestly not impressed by the hardware. It's nothing revolutionary. It's just another slider phone with a touch screen and built-in keyboard. Sure, it has an 3.5mm jack, but there's no way to expand the unit's 8GB storage and the keyboard looks a little tight. As much as I disliked the BlackBerry Storm, at least it brought a few new features to the table. The Palm Pre, like I said, is just another phone.

What did impress me was the Pre's new OS. This is what I think will make (or break) the Pre. Palm has essentially created a new OS for the Pre. It's like the iPhone on steroids. You navigate through the OS using the Pre's "gesture area," a small area that lets you pinch, zoom, and expand windows to your heart's content. The Pre's built-in accelerometer didn't lag once. It was very smooth and like the iPhone's OS, it displays inertia, so when you slide to a new page or window, items on the screen glide or bounce around. Animations are smooth rather than rigid.

The cool thing about webOS is the way it organizes information. You can perform a search on the phone and if the word doesn't show up, a new Google page will come up asking you if you want to search the Web for that term. Similarly impressive is the way the phone can display your contacts. For example, a typical address book entry will contain updates you that contact's Facebook page, AIM messages, Google messages, and more. It makes it easier for you to be abreast of that person's information.

Palm didn't utter a word on the Pre's price. Rumor has it the price could range from as little as $149 to $399. Price is anyone's guess. But one thing is for sure, this new mobile OS will put the pressure on Android, the iPhone, and the BlackBerry. Stay tuned for an updated smartphone comparo as more information comes out.