Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...

Since I'm sort of exhausted from the whole political scene as we approach super Tuesday, I thought I'd take a break and have some fun. So, with many apologies to Rogers and Hammerstein - these are a few of my favorite things...

1. Facebook - I've spoken about this before, but it bears repeating here. For my money, pretty much epitomizes Web 2.0 applications. The decision to open it up to developers to extend in the form of quirky/fun/functional applications has been an amazing one. This is spawning an entire ecosystem of startup organizations that build Facebook apps supported by advertising. The applications are viral, in that they encourage your friends to get you add the applications as well, which sort of leads to a geometric propagation. I will have to say, however, that lately the quality/silliness of the applications seems to be a bit annoying. For every iLike, there's a Hug Me application that's pure fluff, and your Facebook inbox can get cluttered pretty quickly with invitations from your friends to join/install the apps as well. Things start to get cluttered/messy quickly, but I haven't yet figured out the etiquette with respect to declining to install some of these. This is a minor criticism; it's still the best social network site for my money.
2. Netvibes - It's kinda hard to describe netvibes. I guess I think of it as a portal, but it's really more than that. Think of it like Google's personal home page. You create different "tabs", each of which can host widgets that perform various functions. What I use it for mostly, is to collect and organize my favorite RSS feeds. As an example, I have a Sports tab that hosts Bill Simmons' Sports Guy feed from ESPN, a Cleveland Browns newsfeed, and other ESPN feeds. You can make Netvibes your default location for adding newsfeeds. But there are other types of widgets as well (weather, bookmarks, tons of others). I like it so much that I've made it my homepage. Check it out - but be prepared to invest some time in it to make it truly useful.
3. ESPN Page 2 - Where the Sports Guy (Bill Simmons) publishes his blog and other stuff (like his articles for ESPN the magazine). He's probably my favorite sports writer, although he's unabashedly pro-Boston. I hate the Patriots, so this can be frustrating, and the guy has forgotten more than I'll ever know about sports, so some of the salary-cap/trade columns are over my head, but his pop-culture references are amazingly funny. He's a really great writer, and, if you like sports, he's an absolute must-read every week. Page 2 has other columnists as well, and they're all pretty great - highly recommended.
4. My Volkswagen GTI - I think this is the most fun (and most car) you can get for $27K. It's the latest incarnation of the venerable 2.0 turbo-charged 4-cylinder engine. Tons of standard features, great handling, acceleration that rivals a bimmer. Just a great little car. Downsides are the annoying little rattles that seem to pop up after about 12K miles, and the way it handles in the snow, but other than that, it's just great.
5. Swaptree - This is a site with a great idea - basically, it's a giant online swap-meet for books, DVDs, video games and othter things. You register the item you're willing to trade and a bunch of things you'd like to have (you can import your Amazon wish-list to make it easy). Swaptree will then show you items that are available for the items you have, or it will arrange trades on your behalf, which can be 2 or 3-way trades. You can use Swaptree to print shipping labels for the items you're trading. It's a pretty great idea, but two downsides. Swaptree rarely seems to hit on items I want, but does so with enough frequency to keep me happy. Also, it doesn't seem to preserve your preference for hardback books over paperback - it seems to treat the two types the same. So, if you registered a hardback as an "I want" item, and someone else offers the paperback version in trade, Swaptree will sometimes treat the two the same and arrange a trade. You need to be careful if you really want/favor hardbacks.
6. Audible audiobooks - The best site I know of for audiobooks. It works on a subscription model (sorta like Netflix), but with audiobooks. For a given level of subscription, you're allowed to purchase x number of books per month for free (you can always buy others at a membership discount). Now, I love this idea, and they have quite a selection, plus, if you've ever priced an audiobook on CD at your friendly neighborhood Barnes and Noble, the prices are really reasonable. You download the books to your computer (PC or Mac), and then you can load them onto your iPod, Smart-phone, or other MP3 player. You can register up to (I believe) 5 devices (including the PCs to which you download), and you can burn the books to CD as well. All-in-all, it's a great way to get at audiobook content. Now, here are the downsides. First, it's a massive DRM play; you can't just play these puppies anywhere - only on the devices you've registered. This is OK, except for the fact that not every car has an interface for your MP3 player or iPod, so to listen to books in the car (which is where I do 80% of my listening), you need to burn the books to CD. This is OK, but for a long fantasy novel, you could be talking about 40+ CDs. If you've got a slow burner, life gets bad pretty quickly. This could be ameliorated somewhat if they would allow you to burn MP3 CDs, but of course you can't. Last bitch (I really do like the site remember), the site itself isn't that great - in fact it hasn't changed much in the last 5 years. Contrast it with something like Netflix, which has one of the top use-experiences going, and it gets tiring pretty quickly. I have accumulated 100+ books in my library, but I can't see them all at once - same with my 300+ book wish-list. Broadband is pretty universal; give me the option of seeing everything in one screen - it's a simple database query - make it happen. Allow me the Netflix-like ability to drill down to a book's details by hovering over it - get your Ajax on!
7. Apple computers - I've been using an Apple PowerBook at home for the past 3 years. My lovely wife uses an iBook that I bought her 5 years ago. The bundled software, the OSX operating system, combined with the new Intel platform's ability to co-host Windows, makes the Mac computing series the best machines out there. And, if you really look at the whole package, you'll see that they're competing quite nicely on price with the commodity Windows boxes you see out there. I think you're probably still paying a small premium, but it's not as bad as it used to be, and it really is a phenomenal user experience. iLife alone is worth $200-300, and you get it for free! Give one a spin and stick with it for a couple of weeks, I'm betting you won't go back.
8. LibraryThing - Really great idea - catalog all of your books online. I think I've registered 700+ so far, with a bunch that I still haven't gotten to. You pay for the privilege, but it's nominal, and it supports a fantastic bibliophile community. By the way, the link takes you to my public library, check it out.
9. Amazon - my favorite e-commerce site. It's grown a ton over the last decade, and now you can find just about anything there that you want, if not from Amazon itself, from one of its numerous 3rd-party vendors. Amazon is my first stop if I need something, and I rarely go anywhere else. The used-goods dealers alone are worth joining the site, especially if you're looking for technical books, which can be notoriously expensive. You can find them here at discounts up to 75%, even though they're only slightly used. The Amazon Prime membership is amazingly cool if you're a frequent purchaser; for about $80, you get free 2-day shipping on every Amazon purchase. Sadly it does not extend to 3rd-party vendors.
10. Petfinder - I have three incredibly silly adopted dogs - I love them all like they're my kids. The last two I found through canine rescue organizations that are hosted on Petfinder. Nothing cheers you up (and breaks your heart) like going up and browsing through the list of puppies available for adoption in your area. I implore you to please, please look at adoption should you be in the market for a new pet (dog or cat). These dogs are amazing, and while not pedigreed, certainly have all of the smarts, intelligence (not borne out by mine of course), and affection that any ponce of a purebred might offer. The adoption fees are generally $250-300, and, when compared to the $1500-2000 that you're gonna pay to a reputable dealer, it's a bargain. If you must have a purebred dog, please, for God's sake, go to a local breeder - don't patronize the chain pet-stores at the mall. These are horrible places - stay away.

I think this is enough for now. Obviously, I have more than 10 favorite things. I'm gonna come back from time-to-time and update/add new items. Please check in and add your own favorites so I can check 'em out! Thanks for indulging me in this somewhat whimsical exercise. Go Giants!!!!