ackerman

I <3 new gadgets. Today, the UPS man delivered my new Magic Trackpad. As a giant mac geek, it was inevitable that I’d pick one these up. 

First impression: WEIRD!

When using the thing, gestures are very natural and it’s great to be able to swipe for things like Expose, but I cant help feeling like something isn’t quite right. I feel a bit of strain in my hand as I dangle it over the top of the pad… is this thing ergonomic? Also, the experience is a bit jarring as the trackpad is sitting right next to my keyboard instead of immediately behind it. It makes the transition from keyboard to cursor control a much more drastic motion.

Hoping I get used to it as I really see the benefit of multitouch on my desktop.

Mr. Furley, however, is already a big fan.

Did you guys know you could subscribe to an underwear delivery service? Manpacks.com offers an underwear subscription service that will send 1, 2,or 3 sets of underwear (undershirt, briefs and socks) every 3 months. That’s pretty amazing.

More amazing? While browsing their site, a customer service agent IM’d me and asked if I needed help with anything. 

Kinda genius, right? I’ve never seen this before. Its such an obvious idea, I’m not sure why this is the first time I’ve encountered it. 

Anyway, $39/mo for 3 sets of underwear is a bit steep for me. The only way this ends up being cheap is because it would prevent me from driving to Target for underwear where I would proceed to spend $100+ on rechargeable batteries, a $7 DVD that I’ll never watch and nerf guns…which is what I buy everytime I go to Target.

Even though I work for one of their competitors, I have to confess something: I really do love Amazon.com. Buy practically everything from them. As an Amazon Prime member, I can have anything I purchase shipped to me overnight for $4. That’s insane!

One of my favorite things about Amazon is their MP3 store. Having worked in the digital content space for several years now, I really appreciate how simple and expansive their MP3 site is. They’ve got everything, and they’ve got it cheap.

Every month, Amazon chooses 100 albums to offer for $5 each. Killer deal on some great stuff. I’m going to take this opportunity to recommend some of this month’s albums before the deals end (you’ve got a day and a half as of this writing!).

Arcade Fire - Funeral You don’t have this album yet? I think technically, you’re not allowed to cross the Silverlake/Echo Park border.

Pearl Jam - Ten Best rock debut ever? Old age check- did you know this thing is nearly 20 years old??

Cake - Fashion Nugget A 90’s essential. I saw these guys once and got the distinct feeling that the singer was a total dick. Buuut, he can write some fun songs. Stickshifts and Safetybelts is on of my favorites.

Let’s Get Out of This Country - Camera Obscura I was actually introduced to this album on a roadtrip to Mexico. I guess that was appropriate. Camera Obscura do the whole haunting, reverb heavy ballady thing really well. Come Back Margaret is great fun.

Gish - Smashing Pumpkins Billy Corgan before he decided to start sucking. Gish is, hands down, one of the best indie guitar albums of all time. Great, great riffs and solos. The lyrics are pretty nonsensical, but that doesn’t matter much. There’s so much emotion the music here. Confession: I was *slightly* extremely obsessed with this band and album in high school. Slightly. Extremely.

If you don’t own those 5 albums, I suggest you high-tail it over to Amazon right now and make that happen. Of course, there are many other great albums on sale right now too. Great stuff from Radiohead and The Shins in particular, but these were the albums that really mean something to me.

…if I was smart I’d have an Amazon affiliate thing for these links so I could make money. But no…not that smart.