By this point, if you don’t know what Thursday means, you really haven’t been paying attention. It appears as if Things I Love Thursday is picking up more and more steam with more and more people participating and writing their own TILT posts! More and more people are taking at least one day out of their week to focus on the positive, to share their loves and passions, and discuss their own specific loves every Thursday. I can’t imagine anything better. If you’re not writing a Things I Love Thursday post on your blog yet, I highly recommend starting. No better day than today. It’s Thursday. Get cracking!

And now, on with the Things I Love this Thursday!

Twitterrific for the Mac: On both my iPhone and my iPad, I use the official Twitter application to access Twitter. But on my home computer, I use Twitterrific. And I honestly can’t see myself changing any time soon. I’ve got it set up to suit my needs perfectly. It runs out of the menu bar rather than the dock, so it doesn’t take up valuable dock space. It runs in the background, displaying new tweets as growl notifications. And if I want to make a quick update, no matter what I’m doing, I can just click the little bird icon in the menu bar (or hit ⌘/) and I can just type whatever I want, shoot it off to Twitter, and continue what I’m doing. It’s perfect.

Neighborhood Changes: At this point, I’ve been living in my same neighborhood in Brooklyn for almost three years, and have been working in the same neighborhood in Manhattan for around that same amount of time. It brings me great joy to be stable in a place long enough to notice changes. In my neighborhood in Brooklyn, I’ve slowly seen new races moving into the neighborhood, more families, subway improvements, and numerous little things. Alternately, on Broadway, I’ve seen a wonderful Subway/31 Flavors turn into a used cell phone store, and bring with it unwanted criminals and drug addicts. Sure, not all the changes can be positive, but it brings me a lot of joy be able to sit back and say, “I remember when…” It means I have staying power. It means I outlasted other people, in one way or another. It brings me joy.

My Job: This is something that not everyone can put on their TILT list, but I’m proud to say that I can. I absolutely love my job. I love the people that I work with, I love (most of) the customers I get to meet, I love being a part of a community that I’ve always had such a strong attraction towards. I love that I work alongside people that I not only like, but also respect. Sure, there are moments of frustration and the like, but in the end, I have the highest level of job satisfaction than I’ve ever had with any other job. And I know that no matter where my life takes me in the future, I’ll always be able to look back at this time period in my life with a fondness and nostalgia, where everything was just so good.

The iPad: I know, I know, many people roll their eyes when they even hear the mention of an iPad. And other people ask, “does Apple pay you?” whenever I talk about mine. But screw it. I love my iPad. It’s absolutely no surprise to me that the iPad has one of the highest consumer satisfaction ratings out there. When the iPad was first announced, I was definitely a skeptic. I wasn’t really sure what niche it would fill, what need it would satiate. But Apple was smart, and released their iPad shortly after I received my tax refund, so I decided to give it a two week trial (Apple has a 14 day return policy). My first reactions weren’t that great…at least for the first few days. But after that, I began using it more and more. I agree that it’s not for everyone, but it certainly plays a great roll in my lifestyle. It’s always in my bag, where ever I go, and is perfect for when I need a bit more computing power than my phone. Hell, right now, I’ve got my iPad sitting on my coffee table and I’m laying back on my sofa, a wireless keyboard in my lap, typing this entry. Sure, I guess I could do the same with my laptop, but then it wouldn’t be playing videos in the background on my big monitor, and it would be a lot heavier and super hot in my lap. The iPad does exactly what a machine should do: make life easier. Again, I don’t think the iPad is for everyone, and I won’t try to sell you one. But, for me, it plays a much larger roll in my life than I thought it would, and I’ve grown to love it dearly. And I know I have numerous friends with Angry Birds addictions that also love that I have an iPad.

Kleenex with Lotion: No, this is not a masturbation joke (masturbation joke are just so cheap, aren’t they?). This is really an entry in praise of the proper use of tissues! Kleenex with lotion might just be the best thing ever. This week I found myself with a bit of a runny nose, and I headed off to the grocery store to grab some tissues (all I had were paper towels). I opted to pay the extra $0.60 to get the kleenex with lotion, and I’m so glad that I did! One of the worst parts about having a runny nose is how your nose just aches and burns after a few hours of steady blowing. The chaffing is just unbearable, and eventually you just give up blowing your nose in favor of stuffing paper in your nostrils and just giving up. But not with this new kleenex with lotion! This stuff is great! I’m all about the little luxuries, and this is definitely one worth indulging.

The rest: Not getting hit by cars, the New York forum, French Vanilla Almond Crunch cereal, smartwater, Le Basket, NYSC, steamrooms, cold medicine, bluetooth keyboards, Chrome bags, ING Direct’s Twitter, Penn and Teller’s Bullshit, movie night with Kristen, hookah, being invited to things, having high self esteem, feeling like I know what I’m talking about, being a source of information, kitten cuddles, naps, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Futurama, coming up with great ideas, acting on those great ideas, TED, seeing TILT becoming more and more prolific.

Related Posts:

• Things I Love Thursday, September 2nd
• Things I Love Thursday, September 9th
• Things I Love Thursday, October 7th