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If you have back pain, and you normally carry your wallet in your back pocket, you have three options.

1. Get a thinner wallet.
2. Carry your wallet in a front pocket. (Or in a European carry-all)
3. Both.

And boy have I got the answer for you. Enter the SlimSlimmy wallet by Koyono. As the name implies, it’s very thin, and it’s designed to be carried in your front pocket.

There are no money clips to waste space. There are no picture holders. There are no tri-fold wallet wings. There is not one tench of an ounce more material than is required to carry your essentials. There are just three slots into which you tuck your valuables.

It makes you reconsider what you take with you every day. That’s a good thing.

Consider what’s in your wallet right now. Do you have any receipts? Any credit cards you haven’t used in a while? More than one credit card, for that matter? Any pictures? Any coupons? Any hard candy? How is any of this helping you in the daily grind?

It’s not helping you one bit. What it is doing, however, is putting your spine off kilter. You may not notice it, but your spine is slightly curved because you’re sitting on a big hunk of leather with half your ass. It’s not good for you. In fact, the American Chiropractic Association says that wallets can cause back pain if kept in the back pocket.

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Today’s review will cover an “interesting” article from Businessweek on the so-called Wal-Mart Effect. The author’s journalistic skill will be shamelessly torn down and mocked. Enjoy.

Essentially, he says that Wal-Mart’s pricing on a single flat-panel TV in the Christmas season has fundamentally and permanently changed the landscape of the electronics market as a whole. A no-name TV, specifically a 42″ Viore, was priced at $988. A similar Panasonic was priced at $1294. Other retailers couldn’t match these prices – or didn’t want to – as their prices had been nearly double that for some time.

Cleary, this was an evil act. I mean, come on, retailers are going out of business.

The fallout is evident: After closing 70 stores in February, Circuit City Stores on Mar. 28 laid off 3,400 employees and put its 800 Canadian stores on the block. Tweeter Home Entertainment Group, the high-end home entertainment store, is shuttering 49 of its 153 stores and dismissed 650 workers. Dallas-based CompUSA is closing 126 of its 229 stores, and regional retailer Rex Stores is boarding up dozens of outlets, as well as selling 94 of its 211 stores. [...] Circuit City shares have fallen 24%, to $18.76, since the end of November, when the price war started. In the same period, Tweeter’s shares declined 32%, to $1.72, near a 52-week low, and Best Buy’s stock is down 9%, to $48.73. Shares of Rex Stores have been flat, down 0.7%, to $16.98. [...] The carnage has one phrase written all over it: the “Wal-Mart effect.”

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He had me at “toaster ovens.”

It came to me in a similar fashion that it now comes to you; as an unobtrusive note on an unassuming webpage. Now, I have a few passions in life. Among them are (not listed in any particular order) interior design, organization, the new house I just purchased, and food. Seeing as how this little gem encompassed all four, I snatched it up.

Before you dismiss what I am about to say because the closest you get to cooking is watching Iron Chef or you saw the words “interior design” and you figure this is most likely some chick-thing, allow me to present the book’s most curious premise: It was written by a man who grew up on a sailboat, and learned to work in a kitchen the size of an outhouse. So discard all that was learned from snobby haute cuisine shows on Food TV or distressed you by reading Bon Appetit magazines, and sit down with a quick read that Rachel Ray probably wishes she had come up with. The book isn’t for the stuck up foodie or the socialite and their extravagant dinner parties, it’s for people who live in real homes and need to eat.

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I sat down intending to write up the news but my “quick” review of Blade the Series got a little out of hand.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been watching a bit more television than I normally do, and I have come to the conclusion that, due to the unbelievable amount of television channels available to the average consumer, networks are desperate for a hit show that will bring good ratings. And I stress the word “desperate”. Over the last few weeks, Spike TV has been heavily promoting their latest creation, Blade the Series. I didn’t want to completely discount the series without watching it first, after all, Joss Whedon recreated Buffy the Vampire Slayer into something above and beyond the comedic-cheese movie that was originally released, and became a huge hit.

It’s a good thing I didn’t go into this with a lot of expectations. We begin the show with the obligatory credits, where it is revealed that our anti-hero is played by a stocky guy with the nickname “Sticky”. Well I’m sorry, Spike TV, but I can’t take any guy seriously whose nickname is “Sticky”. It isn’t very tough, and it brings to mind that someone’s been spending too much time with his one-eyed trouser snake.

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Some of these opinions are long overdue. Since my last review, I have come into delightful contact with many varied areas of consumer culture. The following presents my take, which, of course, you should use as only a part of your research if you are spending your hard-earned and heavily-taxed money.

Sennheiser HD580 headphones

I’ve had a set of these for a few years now and have been nothing but impressed. Music is perfectly clear and full, and has a rich tone that can’t be explained if you’ve only used crappy earbuds or cheapo headphones. There’s a true soundstage – close your eyes and you can position every element of the performance as if you were there. I couldn’t class myself as an audiophile yet, but my HD580′s produce some of the best sound I’ve ever heard. Don’t expect them to block any outside noise, though.

The HD580 is the baby brother to Sennheiser’s HD600 and, more recently, the HD650. That’s a pretty good family to be in, I’d say. All three have a 300 ohm impedance. If you don’t know an ohm from an amp, impedance measures the resistance to your music that the headphones provide. The higher the impedance, the more power your music player needs to put out. For comparison, most earbuds have around a 16 ohm impedance. If you’re going to use real headphones like the HD580′s with a tiny portable mp3 player, you’ll need a headphone amp. (Some mp3 players have a decent output and can put out enough power themselves, but don’t count on it unless you’ve checked.)

That said, the retail price on these bad boys is $200 – $250, though you can get them at most stores for $150. If you’re serious about your music and have a decent source, I’d say it’s worth every penny.

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A couple of years ago, some guys got together and started making a movie inside of the Microsoft game Halo. At first no one cared. But after a while, it gained popularity until it became a huge hit. They have since branched out into other games (Sim City, F.E.A.R.) but are still going strong with their original hit, Red vs. Blue. They have a rolling archive for anyone who is not a sponsor, so if you have any interest, head on over and take a gander at Episodes 1 & 2. You will need to download them and there is a bit of cursing involved so it’s not safe for work. I would definitely suggest that you watch both episodes before you decide whether or not you like them – and they definitely get more funny every time.

Be aware that because this is a rolling archive, if you don’t download them by the end of the week, they will be gone and you’ll have to wait until they rotate through the entire series again.

Tigerblade — Penalty! Offsides on defense, 5 yards!

Here at Halffull, we don’t have a section for other websites that you can link to. Of course, any time I ask redshift to add something to the menu bar, it is met with a steely-eyed glare that says, “You want to make this site look particularly ugly, don’t you?” Of course I don’t but it’s up to our site Nazi to make sure this website looks as clean as possible, in the same way that it’s up to me to ask for eighty million changes. (Speaking of which, what happened to previewing a comment before posting? Huh?) But what can I say? Redshift is an internet-snob and wants to make us as un-blog-like as possible. Besides, most of my posts (especially the news updates) are filled with links anyway.

Due to the barrage of spam we usually get, it’s really hard for me to look through the logs and figure out if we’re being linked or not, since 95% of what is listed is pr0n spam. Either that, or redshift and hulk are lying to me when they say they haven’t been signing halffull up at wwwdotbig-boobs-cheerleaders-kinkymidget-pr0ndotcom. I think they’re lying. You see, I’m addicted to the site stats. I analyze them critically. I make excel charts and bring them to Halffull meetings. And when we dip below 250 visits a day, I freak out. For the past week, our viewings have dipped a bit. I’m not sure where everyone’s gone, but you’re freaking me out, dudes. Is it me? Do I smell? Maybe it’s hulk – I swear that we take him out back and hose him down once in a while. It helps keep the rabid foam around his mouth down to a minimum. Plus, it keeps him going with fresh rants. Never stale, that’s our motto.

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So far, Puff Daddy is 0 and 2 for making anything. But that doesn’t stop him, oh no. That’s because he’s like a mall developer whose biggest attraction is an old, disgusting Sears that no one shops in. Bound and determined, this entrepreneur will go to great lengths to polish up any smelly turd and sell it to the masses.

Let’s recap. There was a Making the Band 1, but King Peen had nothing to do with it. In fact, I barely even remember this show. If I am correct, someone auditioned a bunch of guys and made a boy band. It was a horrible flop. Not that I’m complaining; this boy band sucked and disappeared just as quickly as they had come in.

Perhaps this reality show had great ratings, and that’s what gave someone the bright idea for a Puff Daddy version of the show. Maybe it was even something from Diddy’s own mind. I don’t know, but P. Diddy’s Making the Band was born.

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I purchased a Palm Zire 31 last week, so of course this week Palm released the upgrade, the Z22. I’m not bitter about the timing at all, in case you couldn’t tell. In any case, they’re both great products, and I feel it is my duty to let you, the Halffull public, know what I think of them.

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On Friday, I received an email from Adagio Teas featuring a holiday sampler. The sampler consists of six different looseleaf teas: candy apple, candy cane, chestnut, cranberry, gingerbread, and pumpkin spice — for only $11. I buy! In fact, for that price I bought an extra one as a gift for my dad. After all, the holidays are approaching and I need to think ahead.

Friday was when I bought them, and they arrived today. Gotta love quick service. I didn’t get a chance to try them all, but I did break out the gingerbread tea. My first perception on this sampler was that all of these teas would be really sweet, however the gingerbread was surprisingly not. It has a great mix of spices, and was absolutely delicious. And, funnily enough, quite calming. Adagio also included a free sampler of the gingerbread tea in my box, so anyone who makes an order will get one of the new holiday flavors as a complimentary gift. I have no idea if everyone receives gingerbread or if it’s a random selection from the holiday sampler. At any rate, I was pleasantly surprised by the tea, and I would highly recommend it. So far, anyway. Tonight when I get home, I’m going to try the cranberry.