JFG Nation, Semi-Nerdy Rant Alert! I am amazed and baffled at how technology changes just enough to make my wallet open and for dollar bills to just go FLYING out of it. LOOK, THERE IT GOES! MY MONEY! INTO CORPORATE POCKETS! And my latest focus has been on component systems vs. all-in-ones. Which is a super nerdy topic. I’ll break it down for you:

When I was a kid, I had a Walkman that played cassette tapes. Oh, how I loved that Walkman. Then I had a clock radio where I could listen to the radio. And, later in life, I had a Discman for CDs. YES I TRULY HAD A SILVER SPOON IN MY MOUTH. Anyways, around my 9th grade-10th grade age, combo stereo systems were HUGE. a crappy $99 all-in-one system from AIWA or TECHTRONIC or some other made-up-company? That was the ISH. 100-disc changers were like spinning rims – if you had it you were KEWL.

The only problem with these $99 crappy sound systems was that they were CRAPPY.  All of sudden the CD player would skip like an earthquake was going on, and the whole thing was shot. After the cassette players began to shred everything in sight, my nearly-hundred-buck sound machine became a radio the size of a Ottoman. WTF.

So then, all the rage was component systems. “Dude, you’re such an amateur with that Magnavox stereo – you need to spend $150 EACH on separate Pioneer CD player, record player, and AUX box.” WHAT? Sigh…ok, it made sense. That way, if one part broke, you could just upgrade and replace easily. But it was REALLY expensive. Still, I bought into it, and I became engrained into the culture of cords – cords running all over my room, apartment, house, connecting speakers here to component boxes there, audio here to audio sources there. “Hey do you wanna grab a beer?” “No thanks, I’m going to be installing my CD player for the next four hours. HAVE FUN!”

And so that mentality became etched in my brain. Combo-printer/scanner/copier? PIECE OF CRAP JUST WAIT TIL THE SCANNER BREAKS THEN YOU’LL BE SCREWED. Combo-searing-pan-crockpot-broiler? WHAT DO YOU THINK I’M A MORON WAIT TIL THE NONSTICK COMES OFF THEN YOU’LL BE EFFED. I remember distinctly when the Motorola ROKR came out, I *think* the first MP3/phone combo, I snarked, “MUSIC ON MY *PHONE*??? What  a stupid diea; the iPod is here to STAY.” Then I went back to blaring matchbox 20 into my ears. Sigh.

But combo all-in-one systems are back and better than ever, now, right? My last job had a combo copier/scanner/fax machine that I wanted to marry it was so good. My best friend swears by his combo coffee grinder/coffee maker. The iPhone combines my music, phone, calendar, address book, car service, weather man, and portable Sportscenter all-in-one, while turning my cognitive abilities into mush! YAY!

So yes – technology, you win again. I am all-in on combo systems. Just take all my money, and send me a Twitter alert once they figure out how to combine Apple TV with Nest with DVR with Chipotle. I want to watch a movie that turns down the house temp to mimic the scenes I’m seeing on the screen…and that delivers me Chipotle. Get on that, Google.

What do you think, JFG Nation? Did you used to have one of those big awful sound systems back in the day? Do you still have them? Does only one tape deck on it work? And do you prefer combo systems or component systems? Or, is this too nerdy of a topic? Let me know in the comments below.

MEANWHILE: EPISODE 65 OF THE NOSH SHOW IS HERE!

For you new arrivals, The Nosh Show is a podcast started by Marvo from The Impulsive Buy, featuring Ryan from GrubGrade, Dubba from On Second Scoop, and, of course, me, your friendly neighborhood JFG. Today marks the release of The Nosh Show, Episode 65: Aftermath.

I wasn’t on the show this week, but Maria from Sometimes Foodie weighed in, and they discussed a new Chips Ahoy flavor, another Oreo flavor, another Taco Bell item, another Ben & Jerry’s flavor, and poop. Yes, that’s right. You can listen embedded here:

You can subscribe to The Nosh Show using various services: iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, RSS, or, you can also download the episode.

TODAY’S JUNK FOOD: New Cinnamon Twist Sweet Potato Pop Chips!!

Along with the Boardwalk Kettle Corn variety, reviewed last Friday, Pop Chips also sent me some of their New Cinnamon Twist Sweet Potato Pop Chips. As soon as I saw these, my mind went to, “I hope these taste like a churro.” I showed them to the Junk Food Gal, and she vocalized, “These are gonna taste like a churro.” But did they taste like a churro?

New Cinnamon Twist Sweet Potato Pop Chips are, according to the PR blurb, “a satisfyingly sweet snack, with only half the fat of fried sweet potato chips. The new flavor combines a tantalizing balance of sugar, cinnamon and a hint of tangy apple on a sweet potato chip.” Wait, apple? WHA? 

New Cinnamon Twist Sweet Potato Pop Chips won’t end up on my buns. Well, that’s good. I need to maintain my girlish figure.

New Cinnamon Twist Sweet Potato Pop Chips have 130 calories per serving, which is 23 chips. They also have fewer ingredients than most chips, something I know I like. No trans fat, no saturated fat. But how is sweet potato the THIRD ingredient after rice flour? HMMMMM.

I opened and smelled this bag of New Cinnamon Twist Sweet Potato Pop Chips, and…holy moly, it sort of does smell like apple! Actually, I lied – it doesn’t SORT OF smell like apple, it DOES smell like apple. And cinnamon. And sugar. It smells like apple pie! THESE POP CHIPS SMELL LIKE A DAMN APPLE PIE! I LOVE IT.

The spice smell was amped up, so I was excited. I crammed a bunch of these New Cinnamon Twist Sweet Potato Pop Chips into my mouth, and chewed – MMMMMMM. These were really tasty. Whoa.

I want to say I could taste the sweet potato, but I couldn’t. I think the sweet potato was just used to help ease the chip platform from savory into the sweet realm. Like all the previous Pop Chips I’d had, these were light, crispy, and full of pop. But unlike other Pop Chips, these did NOT have an overly potato-ey flavor – obviously because of the used of sweet potato. Honestly, these sort of felt like rice crisps to me with a bit more starchiness.

But enough about the chip itself – let’s get to the flavor. Amazingly, despite the generous dousing of cinnamon and sugar I could see, these were SUPER well-balanced chips – not overly cloying or anything! The first flavor I got, actually, was the crisp pop and tang of that apple flavor – it didn’t taste artificial at all, primarily because the focus was on the tang of the fruit flavor and not the fruit flavor itself. As I chewed through that apple flavor, the cinnamon spice and sugar came out and mixed in, such that the resultant flavor was apple pie through and through. If these had been called Apple Pie Pop Chips, I wouldn’t have batted an eye. These were awesome – almost like crispy pieces of apple pie crust. GREAT spice flavor, really adding complexity to the chip.

To be honest, I liked these even better than the Boardwalk Kettle Corn Pop Chips. These will be a re-buy for me, for sure.  Thank you for letting me try them, Pop Chips!

PURCHASED AT: sent to me

COST: I can usually find Pop Chips for $2.50-$3.00

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy