1. Listen.com‘s Rhapsody application–an online jukebox that allows you to listen to anything you want for as long as you want for a $10/month subscription fee. Great for expanding your appreciation for all kinds of music. You can listen to various radio stations with pre-programmed music. No commercials. Spotlights artists and features new music on the home page. I don’t buy CDs anymore. Try it for free for a few days. You’ll be hooked.
2. Schick’s Intuition razor. Invented by a Schick exec who embedded a razor in a bar of soap. Actually feels like you’re running a bar of soap over your legs.
3. Kiehl‘s facial and body products. What other store so willingly and generously gives you samples to try their products? Inexpensive, good quality. Great for sensitive skin.
4. AG Ferrari specialty Italian deli/grocer. I’m not a fan of Italian food. I’m always the naysayer when someone suggests an Italian restaurant. Why spend money on dollar pasta? But I love AG Ferrari. I go to the one in Laurel Heights whenever I’m working from home and always on the weekends. I worked from home on Friday. Headed there for a Panini sandwich for lunch. Headed back again for dinner–meatballs and green beans. Mmmmggooood. They use the freshest ingredients and everything is really tasty. I’m a fast-food fanatic. I grew up on McDonald’s and spent a lot of time at the Jack-in-the-Box drive-through in my twenties. That said, I’ll take anything from AG Ferrari over a Filet-o-Fish or Oreo Cookie Shake any day!
5. FasTrak. I’ve become one of those snobs who doesn’t want to leave the city. There’s a reason. The traffic has become unbearable. Absolutely unbearable. I hate heading to Berkeley for brunch or hanging with the fam in Alameda then having to deal with mind-boggling traffic to get myself back home. Herein lies the beauty of FasTrak. That’s the mechanism that expedites your toll pass-through. No more digging for change. No more commiserating over another scenario of cars honking while telling the toll attendant that you don’t have enough money. Just zip past all that traffic with your very own FasTrak lane. I still hate leaving the city, but FasTrak makes the ride a bit more copacetic.
6. Google rules the world. Gmail is email perfection. Google maps is navigation perfection. Google Earth takes mapping to a whole new level. Desktop Google improves my work productivity. A key word search on Desktop Google can find the Outlook message I’m looking for in seconds. I love Google.
7. Craigslist. I love Google as much as I love Craigslist. I use Google more now, but I owe my life to Craigslist. I found jobs, apartments, furniture…on that site. I interviewed its founder Craig Newmark for my New Enterprise and Small Business Management class. It’s not surprising that Craigslist–a site people cannot live without and rooted here in San Francisco–is founded on principles of community and social responsibility.
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