Are any of you having trouble viewing reviews via feedreaders? My RSS feed was kind of messed up, like images not appearing, so I did some voodoo and hopefully it’s working now. If you can see this post via a feedreader, please let me know. If you’re having trouble, please click the “RSS Feed (Entries)” link under Subscriptions in the right hand column to re-subscribe to TIB’s feed.

Over the past couple of days, TIB has been having some outages due to its hosting provider. Everything seems like it’s back to normal. If not, I’m going to whine like a spoiled My Super Sweet 16 bitch who’s upset because she got a BMW instead of a Mercedes. TIB reviews will return next week.

Dear TIB,

Today, you turn three years old. Imagine, in eighteen years you can drink legally and have a decent job so that you can move out of the house. In fifteen years, you can vote and watch Rated R movies without a legal guardian. In thirteen years, you can drive a car. In seven years, you’ll lash out at me after I punish you for not doing your homework. In one year, I hope you stop calling me mommy.

I know at the beginning I didn’t really take care of you, putting up whatever crap came to my unemployed mind, but over the years I’ve matured and so have you. It’s no longer about Chinese sweatshop quantity, it’s about Japanese auto plant quality…with a few lemons. I wish I could post more reviews and I wish you could write your own reviews, but if you could write your own reviews, it would probably eventually lead to artificially intelligent cyborgs hell bent on destroying all humans.

I have to admit that you were really ugly when you were first born. I didn’t know much about bringing up a blog. I would change your colors often and make you look like other blogs because we all used the same default theme. Now you’re cute, but you’re definitely going to need braces…and probably glasses…and eventually liposuction.

I honestly can’t believe that you came from my loins. I would’ve expected a blog about my love of The Snorks, whining about my job, or something about kittens, but instead I ended up with you and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Hopefully, someday you’ll grow up to be a Pajiba, an Engadget, a Post Secret, a Kottke, a Go Fug Yourself, or an Icanhascheezburger. But until then, I’ll watch over you, be a little overprotective, ensure you don’t date boys until you’re 14 or 15, and make sure you are never influenced by the MTV show My Super Sweet 16.

I also just want to let you know that I’m p-p-proud of you…

Sorry. I’m getting a little vaclempt.

Talk amongst yourself.

I’ll give you a topic. The orangeroot is neither orange, nor a root.

Discuss.

Okay, I’m fine.

Again, I’m proud of you.

So we’re going to celebrate your birthday by giving away gifts to those who have watched you grow. They say it takes a village to raise a child, or some bullshit like that, so we should thank some of those villagers who helped raise you. We will give away three $25 Threadless gift certificates, three 3-month subscriptions to eMusic, and three $30 gift certificates for iTunes.

To enter the drawing, villagers will have to leave a comment for this post with the words, “Happy Birthday TIB” in their comment because this day is all about you, TIB. They should fill out the email field, because I’ll be emailing the winners their prizes.

We will start accepting entries for the drawing on Thursday, August 9, 2007 and stop accepting entries on Thursday, August 16, 2007 (11:59 Hawaii Standard Time). Only one entry allowed per person. The drawing is open to everyone, but the iTunes gift certificates can only be won by those in the United States.

The winners will be determined in a way that has not been decided. It will probably be messy.

Fine Print: The Impulsive Buy promises your email address will not be used to send you spam about spam. Bribes will not be accepted. The Impulsive Buy will not be responsible for lost mail, the Spice Girls getting back together, or artificially intelligent cyborgs hell bent on destroying all humans.

So TIB, I hope all your birthday wishes come true. If not, I just want to let you know that I will always support you, except I won’t pay for the psychologist sessions you go to because your birthday wishes didn’t come true.

Love,
Papa

I never had the chance to properly introduce myself.

I’m Ace, the new writer here at The Impulsive Buy.

You probably think I came in a mail order package from a gourmet catalog. That’s not exactly true, though I have ended up here through unlikely circumstances.

I grew up in in the part of Orange County that they don’t show you on television. I was a pretty good student as a child, earning great marks in playtime and penmanship. I played with Transformers and stuffed animals and often simulated battle royals in which they would fight to the death. I was voted “Most Likely to Succeed” in junior high, which has sadly been the crowning achievement in my life. As I developed into an angst-ridden teenager, I indulged myself in bad emo poetry and became a lazy shell of a human. I started using words like “broseph” and began to sleepwalk through high school. I ended up skating by with a 2.8 GPA and needed to retake a few classes to graduate.

I am now entering my third year at Cal State Fullerton where I am working towards an English degree. I chose the school because I thought “Tuffy the Titan” was such an adorable name for a mascot. My professors are either maniacally insane or nearly comatose, but it’s generally fun. If you live in the Orange County area, feel free to join me for coffee between my classes. I have grown weary of pretending to read the newspaper.

Am I qualified to write anything suitable for human eyes? No, not really. I have done some journalism in previous years, but nothing groundbreaking. My first gig as a writer was when my friend gave me five bucks to write his article for him, so I don’t exactly have “credentials” or anything. However, I have done pretty well in my writing classes. I am accused of being a snob, though, because I like to correct papers with a giant novelty marker and loudly proclaim “Wrong!” or “You really don’t get it, do you?” as I make every mark.

Anyways, I was a long time fan of The Impulsive Buy before I began writing here. It helped me decide to make my own blog, the generically named Here To Eat, where I wrote food pseudo-reviews for dozens upon dozens of fans. I enjoyed doing it as I was free to interject my own pointless musings while talking about chicken fried steak. I guess Marvo liked it enough to offer me a home here. Since I was already a big fan and can still write freely, it was an easy choice to make.

Anyways, that’s pretty much me in a nutshell. Now that you know me, hopefully you guys will not mistake my reviews for Marvo’s. May all good things in life happen to you and only you.

- Ace

The 18 lucky readers below have each won a pack of Wrigley’s 5 gum. I know.  I know.  It’s not the most exciting thing to win and if I won a pack of gum I would probably just shrug my shoulders, say “meh,” and move on with my life.  But I didn’t win, they did, so they might react differently than I would.  Perhaps they might jump up and down a squeal like a little girl.  Or they might do the robot dance.  People celebrate winning in so many ways.  Anyhoo, congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone who participated.

Comment 6 - Chuck
Comment 22 - Alex
Comment 25 - Fred
Comment 26 - Stephanie
Comment 29 - skibs
Comment 35 - nicole
Comment 47 - Sydnie
Comment 63 - Sky
Comment 81 - webmiztris
Comment 87 - calvin
Comment 90 - Andrew
Comment 93 - Tara
Comment 102 - db cooper
Comment 116 - Kyle
Comment 122 - Cath
Comment 129 - 00000000
Comment 145 - stephanie
Comment 152 - James

Sorry for the lack of reviews this week. I was chillin’ in downtown San Diego in the Gaslamp Quarter. Went to the San Diego Zoo and saw many animals…most of them were sleeping. Got sunburnt. Had Bacon Waffles, which were waffles that were made with bits of actual bacon in the batter. Went to Legoland and saw many Lego structures…that I wanted to steal pieces from, but unfortunately, they glue the pieces together. Got sunburnt again. Didn’t have internet access for several days. Had internet withdrawals. Thought about going to a Starbucks and asking someone if I could borrow their laptop to look at porn.

Reviews and news will return next week!

When a PR firm sent me the Wrigley’s 5 Gum to review, I found out how much gum was too much gum. Thirty packs of it is definitely more gum than I can handle.

If I had an oral fixation, halitosis or wanted to work on my gum sculpting skillz, the three boxes of gum they sent me would’ve lasted me about three weeks. Sure, I could pass the gum to the homeless panhandlers that hangout at the 7-Eleven down the street, but that gum won’t help them buy booze.

Instead, I offer it to you TIB readers via a prize drawing. I’ve got 18 packs of gum left, six in each of the Wrigley’s 5 flavors: Rain (spearmint), Cobalt (peppermint), and Flare (cinnamon). So 18 lucky random readers will each receive a pack of Wrigley’s 5 Gum.

To enter the Wrigley’s 5 Gum prize drawing, just leave a comment for THIS post with the Wrigley’s 5 flavor you want and whatever else you would like to say.

Please fill out the email field, because I’ll be emailing the winners for their mailing addresses. Don’t worry about the shipping, it will be taken care of.

The Impulsive Buy will start accepting entries for the drawing on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 and stop accepting entries on Wednesday, July 4, 2007 (11:59 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time). Only one entry allowed per person. The drawing is open to ALL Impulsive Buy readers.

Sometime after July 4th I’ll randomly select the 18 winners.

Good luck!

Fine Print: The Impulsive Buy promises your email address will not be used to sign up for gay porn. The Impulsive Buy also promises your mailing address will not be used to send you information about speed dating events in your area. Bribes will not be accepted. The Impulsive Buy will not be responsible for lost mail, damaged mail, or you joining Scientology.