The other day I was at O’Terrill’s Irish Pub and as I walked into the bathroom, the light came on automatically. I love that! Turns out, it only costs about 5 bucks to have this. This got me thinking about my favorite modern conveniences, and wondering what everyone else’s are. So I wrote down mine and then asked the rest of the crew at DP.

Mine are: Air Conditioning, iPods, Chinese Food Delivery and HBO on Demand.

Jeff, by far the best writer out of all of us (so thank God he’s our copywriter) wrote: “Let’s see… My favorite modern convenience is probably ordering groceries over the Internets. I *hate* going to the grocery store–for necessary shopping, anyway–and it always takes like over an hour, and the people suck, and in LA nobody cares about anyone else, so you actually get cut off in the aisles the same way you do on the freeway. It’s misery. (Now, when it’s optional shopping, then I’m all about heading for Trader Joe’s. I just can’t do supermarket shopping anymore.)”

Antoi, Customer Service Diva Extraordinaire (if any of you have ever called or emailed her, you know she is the best): Convenience — Google Desktop!!! Love it.

Drew, one of the founders of our company, loves TiVO and the internet.

I am starting to notice a trend here; so far, none of us want to leave the house and we love the things that make this possible. So I started to wonder why we don’t want to leave the house, and had everyone make a list of what they did NOT miss back in the good old days.

Becky: Massive SUVs, Telemarketers and Spam (the invaders of my home), being forced to watch commercials for soda and mini-vans at a movie I’ve paid $9 to see (hence my love of HBO on Demand and Netflix), Big Box Retailers (besides Target).

Jeff, who we already know hates the supermarket, says “Those microphones people have for their cell phones now. (I sound like such a cliché, complaining about this.) You know, the ones on cords, so that they hang down sort of near your mouth, if you can arrange the whole thing properly. I don’t really need to hear that much of your conversation, thank you very much. Particularly because of the way you have to yell to make sure your voice actually gets to the microphone. It’s easier for all of us if you just use your damn hands when you’re on the phone.”

Jeff, I couldn’t agree more. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve turned around and said “pardon?” thinking some obnoxious cell yeller was talking to me in a store. My second thought is usually that they are hearing voices. The worst is when they bring the convo into the public restroom. Seriously people, have some sense! And just hang up and drive – most of you are bad drivers anyway; you don’t need any more distractions. Clearly Jeff has hit on a HUGE pet peeve of mine!

Antoi is not a fan of SF MUNI (SF public transportation system). Apparently, it stinks. I bet a lot of people are talking on their cellphone microphones on there, thinking that the rest of the world cares about their TPS reports and invoices for the Penske file.

Drew says SUVs that keep hitting his Vespa and “the increasing levels of autonomy and alienation in our polity.” He had to go all “I went to Harvard, and I have a Vespa” on me. Drew, maybe if you turned off the TiVo, stopped all the fancy talkin’ and got off the net, you wouldn’t feel so alienated.

OK, he does have a point. That is why all of those dorm architects are trying to design so that college students are forced to leave their rooms and actually speak to one another (that is, if they forget to put on their iPods or their cellphone hands-free contraptions). Anyway everyone, stop being so alienated, and post a comment – let us know your favorite modern conveniences and inconveniences.