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Hertz Thoughts

@iAmAviG

January 23, 2018

Hertz thru AAA is the way to book your car, as I’ve said before, but here are a couple of other things I noticed on my recent trip:

I booked my car about 6-7 weeks out, and during the subsequent weeks, the prices fluctuated, even within the AAA discount. Thankfully Hertz lets you “change your reservation” up to two times, so keep a close eye and try to get the best deal you can.
On day 2 of my trip to San Diego I woke up and started driving to SeaWorld. About halfway there I got that dreaded little “low tire pressure” light on my dashboard. I figured it would hold out until I got to a gas station and was able to add some air to my tires…but within two blocks I was thumping along and couldn’t even drive anymore.
I pulled over to the side of the road and called Hertz, asking them for some help. Their answer: We charge for service, even though you just got the car last night.
Thankfully I have AAA and was able to call them. Within 25 minutes I had a tow truck on the scene to help change the tire.
After a quick change, I took the car back to Hertz driving on my doughnut (thankfully located just minutes away from SeaWorld), and they swapped out the car for a new one, at no added costs.

By the way, you should totally check out that trip to SeaWorld, here and here.

Mobile Games – Homescapes, DME Live 2, Mini Metro

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January 22, 2018

Three great games currently grace my phone, for when I’m bored and run out of shows to binge watch.

Homescapes

Homescapes is a simple Match-3 game, similar to the likes of Bejeweled and Candy Crush, and with each level you pass you get a “Star”. Earn enough stars and you can start fixing up your parents’ old house, which is in a state of despair and disarray.

From choosing wall colors, to which table fits best in your kitchen, rebuilding your house will give you purpose to keep playing this fun game.

And unlike some of its competitors, the boards are not repetitive. They continue to add different obstacles to make the levels more difficult, but the other games will do that and give you the same layouts and challenges over and over.

Available for download on Google Play and iOS.

DME Live 2.0

DME Live 2.0 is an airport management game, put out by Domodedovo Airport. That’s right, Moscow’s airport put out a game in which you are the tower manager of the largest airport in Russia/Eastern Europe.

Directing plains to their gates, loading fuel/meals/luggage and people onto the planes, and then taxiing them out to the runway for their next flight.

With your monies from the successful flight, you get to buy perks for your airport, such as auto baggage or fueling services.

Available for download on Google Play and iOS.

Mini Metro

Mini Metro is another simulation/management game, this time in the form of the subway. Working with real cities and obstacles (NYC and its rivers, or Osaka and the Shinkansen) you have to deal with.

But there’s a limit to your resources. Only a select number of lines, bridges, trains, and cars are at your disposal, and if a a station gets too crowded, your system comes to a stop (aka: You lose).

Available for download on Google Play and iOS.

Trailers To Watch

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January 19, 2018

Here are some of the trailers I’m watching and looking forward to this year. I already posted for Tomb Raider the last time I posted trailers, but once again the trailer comes out right before I do a post about them!

Tomb Raider

Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft looks like it’s going to be amazing. March 16th couldn’t come quick enough with this kind of action!!

Ocean’s 8

The all-female version of the Ocean movies, that George Clooney made famous, is coming on June 8th. Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, and of course an appearance by James Corden, who is doing everything these days.

Ready Player One

This movie has me confused. I’m not sure if it’s going to be really good or really bad…but it has the potential to do one of those. I don’t think it’ll be a “middle ground” movie. Ben Mendelsohn, who is everywhere these days (Bloodline, Star Wars), and Mark Rylance both appear in this one, coming out March 30th.

Black Panther

Marvel introduced us to Black Panther in Civil War, and he is just electric. Now Chadwick Boseman gets to tell us more about the Panther and his home stories on February 16th.

Deadpool 2

We know next to nothing about this movie, and the trailer does not help with information. But Ryan Reynolds has turned this character into a hit and leaves us wanting more and more. Thankfully May 18th will help give us more info!

Red Sparrow

Jennifer Lawrence is overused, and for roles that aren’t right for her. She was great in Joy, but she also shouldn’t be playing an older white woman. Red Sparrow looks like a great movie…but J-Law’s Russian accent leaves her something to work on. This will hit theaters March 2nd.

Call of Duty: WWII #Review

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January 18, 2018

I was a little late to this game, but I’m glad I finally ventured back into the Call of Duty series.
I’m a fan of realistic shooters, where a headshot will kill someone and I don’t need to worry about a drone lurking around the next corner with a teleporter gun. So when Call of Duty went into the future, I gave it up.

But now CoD: WWII has gone back to the war that made all these games famous: WWII and the D’Day landing on the beaches of Normandy. Josh Duhamel is your group’s leader as you follow the story of Pvt. “Red” Daniels, although you do foray into other roles as the story progresses, through to the taking of the Rhine. And the epilogue is such an intense story that it would be really hard for a human not to be a little moved by it.

The storyline is great, but the focus that they put into these games is Multiplayer and it doesn’t disappoint. The Multiplayer is stable and realistic, and load times are fairly quick. Add to that a “Headquarters” that provides you challenges and contracts to help boost your characters skills and looks.

CoD: WWII gets itself a 9 out of 10.

Winter 2018 #SOTD

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January 17, 2018

Thanks to the year-end Song of the Day contest it has been over two months since the last SOTD post! That’s just crazy, and you need that song fix. Well don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. Here are some songs of the day to help warm up your winter.

The Champion – Carrie Underwood feat. Ludacris

NBC will be using this as the Super Bowl intro song, as Carrie is their “Sunday Night Football” girl, and this song (and Carrie) is absolute fire.

I am invincible, unbreakable
Unstoppable, unshakeable
They knock me down, I get up again
I am the champion, you’re gon’ know my name
You can’t hurt me now, I can’t feel the pain
I was made for this, yeah, I was born to win
I am the champion

Glorious – Macklemore feat. Skylar Grey

I feel glorious
Got a chance to start again
I was born for this
It’s who I am, how could I forget?
I made it through the darkest part of the night
And now I see the sunrise
Now I feel glorious, glorious

Bad At Love – Halsey

Halsey made my Top 10 list in 2015 and 2016, and she’s finally getting recognition everywhere as she hit Saturday Night Live this week.

I’m bad at love
But you can’t blame me for trying
You know I’d be lying saying
You were the one
That could finally fix me
Lookin’ at my history
I’m bad at love

No Roots – Alice Merton

Merton is an up-and-coming singer who’s song topped the lists in late 2017, and it’s one of those “grow on you” songs.

I like standing still, but that’s just a wishful plan
Ask me where I come from, I’ll say a different land
But I’ve got memories and, travel like gypsies in the night

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie #Review

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January 16, 2018

Dav Pikley’s books, Captain Underpants, have finally made it to the big screen, in its first epic adventure.

With a cereal box Hypno-ring, Harold and George bring their comic books to life, turning their mean principal Mr. Krupp into their imagined superhero: Captain Underpants. With the snap of their fingers, he’s his superhero-y self, but a splash of water will revert him back to his mean old self.

The power of elastic helps Captain Underpants help people in the stupidest ways possible. From tossing old ladies into trees to reunite them with their cats, freeing a mime from his cage, or just flying to the sky in a glass elevator.

Tra-La-La

Yet when a new evil science teacher, Professor P, joins the school and wants to rid the world of laughter, they will need all the help they can get from the Captain to keep him from his goals.

The movie has a great lineup including Kevin Hart, Thomas Middleditch, Ed Helms, Nick Kroll, and Jordan Peele.

This movie snapped to reality really quickly, and while not a total flop, it is only as good as the comic book it was written off of…childish and silly, getting a 6.5 out of 10.

Some @DunkinDonuts Ain’t Like The Other

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January 12, 2018

Living in New York City, it’s tough to not go to Dunkin Donuts once in a while, and most of them have decent service. Some of them (like the ones in the subways) have problems with stale foods, while others service the Kosher market in NYC.

But one in particular, and not gonna name names here (Store# 351643 – 1775 Coney Island Ave), has been absolutely terrible. Here are the last three times I’ve gone there, and you be the judge if this is how a store should be handling business:

I mobile ordered (“On-The-Go”) a sandwich, hash browns, and a hot chocolate. The order went through and my card was charged. When I arrived at the store I found out they only had the sandwich, with the other items out of stock.
I asked for my money back on the items they didn’t have…since, you know, you charged me for an item that was out of stock…and was told that “it’s too much of a hassle to refund my order”.
They then tried to offer me coffee’s and donuts in exchange, none of which I was interested in.
Instead of giving me my money back they told me to come into the store at a later time to get my other items.
I tried to get a refund via the app, and there was no option to do that or leave feedback…whereas Starbucks would’ve given me a refund on the spot.
A week later I went back to get the two items owed to me. While I was there I ordered another sandwich from the cashier. The price was 30 cents higher than what I had paid just six days earlier.
When I asked the cashier about it, they said that the pricing was different in the app then in store…which can seem plausible, except for the fact that the app claims to get the price from whichever store you are ordering from (which they remind you every time you change stores after putting items in your cart).
Regular stores would’ve offered to adjust the price, they just seemed indifferent to all of it, despite me showing the app to them and having the previous receipt in my hand as well.
I went back yesterday, figuring they’d get better…the app wasn’t letting me order On-The-Go to this location at the time, so I went up to the cashier and ordered two Wake Up Wraps and hashbrowns.
When the “server” handed me my completed order it only had the Wraps. When I mentioned it to her, she had to go back to my order and realized that she had never even noticed the hashbrowns.

Usually, the third one isn’t isn’t such a big deal, but coming after the first two it just shows a general incompetence of this location.

The LEGO Batman Movie

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January 11, 2018

The LEGO Movie, despite being way too long was a great movie with really good takeaways.

And now along comes Batman, Robin, Alfred and Commissioner Barbara Gordon, in a battle against all the villains that have been part of the LEGO world, from Joker to Voldemort, and King Kong to the Eye of Sauron.

The movie is full of comedy, even poking fun at itself, and the Batman franchise as a whole, and once again brings along great life lessons about friendships and inclusion.

Come on Robin, watch my back.

Robin is timely and humorous, and the music he creates are some of the funnier moments of the film, including Fly Robin Fly.

The cast list is huge including: Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson, Ralph Fiennes, Zach Galifianakis, Jenny Slate, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Adam DeVine, Ellie Kemper, Mariah Carey Conan O’ Brien, and even Siri!

NYC Needs To Clean Up Their Act #FixNYC

@iAmAviG

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January 10, 2018

I’m so tired of the NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) coming up with excuses for everything. Now I don’t really blame them for this, I think the garbage truly flows downhill, but let’s look at two pressing issues facing the city right now, snow removal and garbage backup.

Let’s look first at that garbage removal, which thanks to last Thursday’s snowstorm has been piling up everywhere. The local ABC 7 affiliate had this to say:

Not only did they have snow to deal with, but also the holidays, with all the Christmas trees and extra household garbage. Having to clean up tons of confetti in Times Square on New Year’s Eve probably didn’t didn’t help either.

They are joking, right? The New Years Eve confetti does NOTHING to the regularly scheduled pickup schedule. For one thing, it happens from 12:30AM-4AM, hours when the city isn’t doing pickup to begin with.
Also, it’s a holiday, when they don’t do trash pickup anyways, and which this year fell a day after a Sunday when they don’t do any pickups either.
Snow removal – Ever since the man himself (BdB) took office he’s been plagued with snow removal troubles, literally on Day 1. The city’s response these days is to “suspend alternate side of the street parking while they continue ongoing snow removal”.
Well, the crosswalks are still full of snow 7-days later, but at least the centers of the streets are clear of snow. Crossing the street includes a good foot into slush moment as you try to push through what the city hasn’t cleaned, and good luck trying to avoid that by walking between parked cars to get into the street.
So instead of suspending the alternate side parking, why don’t they keep (and enforce) it, and while there are no cars in the parking lane, come down the street with the plows and ‘dozers and rid the streets of all the snow.
They did it in Manhattan on the big avenues, so we know it’s doable…they just don’t want to.
In 2010 the DSNY had a budget strike and avoided plowing for a few days. When it was resolved they had tens of unplowed streets to clean, each with 1’+ of snow on it. So they rolled out 10’ high bulldozers and literally scooped up entire blocks at a time and cleaned it up in no time.

With both of these issues, they have the ability. They just don’t have the leadership that will push them to a clean ending.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle #Review

@iAmAviG

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January 9, 2018

Kingsman: The Golden Circle is the second movie in the Kingsman series, and if you haven’t watched the first one you definitely should.

The Kingsman are a younger more modern day version of James Bond, with an equal mix of tech, humor, and general British bad@$$ery.
With a cover as high-class tailors, these men dress to the nines and won’t hesitate before heading into battle to protect the world.

In The Golden Circle, “Poppy” dealer Julianne Moore has unleashed a virus across Earth and is holding everyone at ransom in the hopes of making drugs legal and taxable, along with her henchman played by Mark Strong.

Taron Egerton is back as Eggsy, our lead Kingsman agent, and Colin Firth makes an appearance as well. As for their American counterparts, they are played by Jeff Bridges, Halle Berry, and Channing Tatum.

The surprise character in this one is Elton John, who has more than a minor role to play.

Enjoyable, humorous, and just a fun movie (and series), this one will get an 8.5 out of 10.

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