Items I Love

Over the past few months I have thought about all the items that I use on a daily or near daily basis that I really love. Yeah, it is a very capitalistic whoring thing for me to do, but if I convince someone else to find the joy in Veronica Mars or Shure headphones, it will be worth it.

Here is a quick run down.

1) Shure E4g Headphones. Pricey. But it is just like having the audio beamed into your head. They take a little while to get used to, but once you do, the noise isolating factors are really terrific.

2) KEXP Song of the Day Podcast and Indie Feed They are my new alternatives to radio. One song at a time, exposure to a ton of new artists that -- most of them are available at eMusic.

3) Pear Lyrics. A software widget that automatically downloads the lyrics to songs as they play in the background. I love my music; I love embedding the artwork into the tracks. Pear lyrics almost works like magic and saves the lyrics into the file. Too bad they made him discontinue it.

4) iPod Nano The Nano holds no special love in my heart over the other iPods, but given that I use it almost every single day, it is one of my most beloved gadgets. I have hopes for the video iPods, but I will wait for the non-Cingular version (be it a phone or standalone device).

5) HDTVs1080p goodness. Bright colors. I don't have the cash for plasma TVs but those are pretty amazing. It is nice to see all the TVs (DLPs, LCDs, etc.) all reaching the HD perfection so you pretty much can't go wrong. Combine all that technological crispness with the decline fall of manners in movie theaters and you have my deep, undying love.

6) Under Armour Underwear. I am supremely picky about my underwear. I have even go far as to work up a spreadsheet with variables such as comfort, bunching, durability, etc. Noth much has competed with Under Armour for comfort and durability.

7) Launchbar Command-space is all it takes to get anything at your fingertips. Hard to explain coherently, but it indexes everything and uses predictive abilities to get you from point a to b with no mousing and lightning speed.

8) Synergy is an iTunes control widget that allows you to float the album artwork over your screen and control your music through a menu bar add-on. Simple, but works really well.

9) Veronica Mars is a modern tv sleuth, kind of what you would imagine a sassy Nancy Drew would be if she had pre-marital sex and a taser. The third season has really fallen flat, with a much darker and uncharmingly cranky Veronica, but I am still a die-hard fan. I. Am. So. Gay.

10) Nikon D80 I just got this for Christmas and my photography-fu is weak but I love it. The pictures are amazing and I hope to become a better photographer with it.