Using

I don’t smoke — or drink. Or dance — but I hate having hotel matches lying around for candle lighting (or, worse, one of those red BBQ “torches” from CVS).

Elegant in the economy of its lines, this Porsche Design PD5 lighter looks so lush on my nightstand, next an equally minimalist Jimmyjane massage candle…

Wanting

A simple twist of this coin-sized LaCie CurrenKey USB flash drive reveals a USB plug the plays nice with Macs and PCs…

Hating

Just like LaCie iamaKey USB flash drive, this LaCie itsaKey USB flash drive slips onto your keychain to tote 4GB or 8GB of Mac- and PC-friendly data.

So why am I hating one and not the other?

I’d love to justify my hatred with some way that the LaCIe itsaKey USB flash drive is technologically inferior, but really, I just hate the shape…

Using

For the most part, I hate keychains: keychain charms are useless cheese. The only thing I’ve got hanging off my key set is banana-yellow mace.

And now this LaCie iamaKey USB flash drive.

Like the taco spray dangling off my keychain, this LaCie iamaKey USB flash drive has some purpose: it holds 4GB or 8GB of memory, it plays well with Macs and PC, and despite its minimalist pretty, it’s both water- and scratch-resistant…

Hating

Edith Wharton was an early motorist who’d tool around obscure villages in New England on the weekend. Ethan Frome was inspired by her visits to these tiny towns, along with an accident she witnessed near her Massachusetts home.

Ethan Frome is a man in a meaningless marriage, who falls in love with his wife’s orphaned cousin, Mattie, when she comes to live with Ethan and his wife as a caretaker. Ethan and Mattie make an impromptu suicide pact that warps into a living death for both of them. Written as well as only Edith Wharton can –

Ethan Frome’s the feel-good ebook of the summer…

Wanting

Edith Wharton is one of my top three writers — she was a real master of the novel, and understood better than anyone how to stylize fiction to reveal more truth than journalism.

The Glimpses of the Moon highlights her other great skill: creating characters alive with moral questions. A novel about a couple who marries to live off honeymoon presents, you’ll note a timeless tension, you may –

Remember The Glimpses of the Moon making a guest appearance on Entourage, as a script Vinny Chase’s girlfriend-agent wanted him to take on.

Vinny didn’t read it — how could he? — but you should…

Reading

I’ve been reading ebooks from ManyBooks.net since high school. ManyBooks.net is a site full of free, public domain ebooks downloadable in all formats — a Treo when I was in high school and Kindle downloads for my iPhone now.

The Age of Innocence is one of those (e)books I read at least once a year — Edith Wharton was so elegant a writer that you need to read each of her stories at least three times before you realize how rich her work was with moral tension and scenery that reflects the living souls of characters.

If you watch The Age of Innocence — with Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer directed by Scorsese — you’ll note that the drawing room’s fire sparks during high points of quiet conversation between unrequited lovers. Then you’ll reread the book — going on five times? Five hundred? — , and wonder how you ever missed that…

Using

Most ecards taste too saccharine or read like an ironic T. And while I prefer to swing between extremes, famed photog Patrick McMullan’s ecards work because they’re neither hip nor square — just chic.

Make someone’s day, and send a little love e-note to yourself…

Hating

For a matcha green tea soy latte a month ($4.99), 3jam will do half the work that Google Voice does for free. Try it if you’re worried about Big Brother Google knowing where you’re getting coffee, who you’re dating, and why you get V1AgRa spam, but using 3jam for privacy reasons is like moving into a gated community: you’re not really any more safe, comrade…

Using

You need to sign up for Google Voice .

I signed up last week, received my invite email, and snagged a great Google Voice number. The most basic, boss thing about Google Voice? Google Voice lets you pick one number that’ll ring all your phones: your Blackberry, iPhone, home phone, that home-no-one-knows-about phone, and your office. But it gets better than that: Google Voice screens all your calls discretely, lets you set up different outgoing messages for different callers (”Maybe you’ll get lucky and I’ll call you back, toots,” to “You’ve reach the office of Me, Incorporated,” and even “The number you have dialed has been disconnected”).

But the best part of Google Voice? Voicemail. All of your messages are automatically transcribed, emailed or texted to you, and saved online, forever. You can mark voicemail as spam and block callers that way. Or you can listen into your voicemail messages live, and interrupt a message if the call’s worthy of your immediate attention.

How much trouble is Google Voice going to help you avoid?

I’ll give you my new number — it’s good — but since I can so carefully screen my calls now, I’m not sure I’d pick up.

You know, because you give such good voicemail.

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