Clever ad. I think this will be a big hit on game day as well. Which given the teams playing, is the only reason I will be watching the Superbowl.

Plus, they are running a contest where they will come to your house with Playmates and be the house band for your party. Click here to enter and for more details [it requires a free registration on the Key Club web site].

As of now, I have and use on a daily basis, 5 email accounts.

Some eight years ago, I had 16 email accounts. I’ve reduced a lot. Granted, I only checked 10 of those 16 accounts on a regular basis, but I had no choice but to carve down.

Why do I need so many? For multiple purposes, to keep some things separate so my one account is not littered with every email I receive. It’s not hard to manage, but it can be a chore to check them all on a regular basis. My iPhone helps me keep on top of 4 of the 5 accounts thanks to the Mail app and the Gmail app.

But is even 5 email accounts too many? Could I parse it down to 4 or even 3…. or *GASP* two accounts? Everyone needs at least two. If you have issues accessing one, you use the other to send recovery information to. Plus it’s just smart to have an account your direct unwanted email to.

So here’s my list of my email accounts and their purpose.

iCloud email

I’ve been using my iCloud email more for various things, which has been very stable – even more so than it’s previous MobileMe incarnation. I’ve got 5gb of shared space (space also used by my iDevice backups) and I doubt I will use anymore than 2gb worth of email space. Plus, it’s available on more than just Apple devices, so it’s always available.

Windows Live

I use this account mostly for 3 things: emailing my daughter, my main notification for my iTunes account and all of my Microsoft communication. The additional function under iOS 5 of native support for Windows Live (and Hotmail accounts) has been wonderful to be able to check this account under something other than a web browser.

AOL

I know, I can hear the drones.. “you still use an AOL account?” Yes, I do. This is my catch all account for all of my blogs like approve comments, admin notices, etc. And for my surveys I do under e-Rewards. Easy to keep clean, this is my easiest account to maintain. Plus I can access it via IMAP or via the web.

Gmail

I get 70% of all my email here for just about all of my personal email needs. Mostly web accessible for using features like the threaded conversation format and the labels option. The iPhone/iPad app supports all of the Gmail features. Plus it’s really good at catching spam.

Chillywilly.org IMAP

My main email account that I use for things like online banking, bills, personal emails with friends and family. I also use it for anything related to my company Penguin Bytes Productions. I recently switched web hosting providers and moving an IMAP account really helps if you have both services online at the same time.

So there you have it. I’m not sure how many others need multiple email accounts, but for me, 5 works well, but I wouldn’t mind parsing it down to 4 or maybe 3 sometime in the future.

The Shins have reformed… completely. New label and a new line up, with the only original member being James Mercer, who has spent the last few years releasing music with his other band Broken Bells, who I love immensely. That project with Danger Mouse cemented itself on my favorite album list quite quickly.

It’s been exactly 5 years this month since the release of their last album “Wincing The Night Away“, which gathered up new fans to their pop sound.

The new album comes out March 20th. Check out more updates from their official site.

I’m sitting in the airport now, blogging my from iPad, heading to Las Vegas for the CES 2012 trade show.

I used to go to trade shows for years. Sometimes I drove, sometimes I flew. For the times I flew before September 11, 2001, flying was an awesome thing. You walked through a metal detector, your bags were checked and you got on the plane in a reasonable amount of time.

Today, it’s a series of undressing yourself based on the reactive rules setup by the TSA. I get nervous each and every time I have to take out my laptop and place it into a separate plastic bin, keeping my eye on it each step of the way until I have it back in my hands and placed back into my backpack. I ensure that I have only my ID with me, leaving my wallet in my carry on luggage until I am out of security.

I treasure my years of positive flying memories each time I approach the TSA security area. It’s the one thing that can calm my nerves, event if it’s a small fraction of how I would love to feel.

I made it through today as I am sitting here with my shoes on, my laptop intact and my nerves much more stable than they were 45 mins ago. Of course, I also have to give proper credit to the gin & tonic I just sucked down.

Vegas, here I come!

Even if Clancy did this, it still wouldn’t be forgiven

However, I will be doing a major theme change over on Banal Leakage before the 5th anniversary in April. I have a few themes I am looking at now and hoping to find one in the next month that I can start tweaking.

So just a quick update. Will be posting more often here and on a regular basis in the next week or so. Stay tuned.

What kind of changes?

A few changes to look forward to on my sites:

• Updated themes on all sites, which for now is this site and Banal Leakage
• The official launch of martymankins.com, which currently points to my Posterous page. Along with the launch, all of my personal pages here on this site will move to that site. Makes sense.

• The official launch of Change Your Commute, my first commercial web venture that covers alternate forms of transportation, other than the gasoline powered vehicle.

There’s a few other things I will be working on as well, but I’ve let the cobwebs and distractions in my life get to me for too long. And while I tend to look back to see what I could have done, this is all about moving forward.

Specific changes to this site are still up in the air, but it will most likely continue to be an alternate blog posting site for a variety of posts I didn’t want to post over on Banal Leakage.

Maybe if I spiff things up a bit, I’ll garner a few more visitors here. Guess we’ll see.