Aviously

#GivingTuesday – Explained and Some Helpful Links

@iAmAviG

December 2, 2014

After spending a ton of money on Thanksgiving Thursday, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, it’s time for all of you to donate to charity on Giving Tuesday. The point is to take the money you saved on those days and give it back to people and organizations who can use it wisely.

Many organizations are running deals for Giving Tuesday, if you donate to them you can be entered to win products or matched donations.

From Forbes.com

There are websites devoted just to today, such as GivingTuesday.org, and if you read some of the articles they provide, you’ll find pushes to make it a Nationally Recognized Day.

Here are a few ways you can give today and get the most out of your donation:

The Gates Foundation will be matching donations, up to $200K all-day, for the Shot@Life foundation, which helps give immunizations around the world.
LINK
The NASCAR Foundation will be giving free raffle entries for a Dale Earnhardt Sr. Prize Pack to anyone that donates more than $35. This organization is “dedicated to helping children learn how to win, both inside and outside of the classroom, through a variety of educational opportunities.”
LINK
(RED) and Bank Of America are teaming up to triple your donation! For every Dollar you give, BofA will give 2 Dollars. (RED)s goal is raising awareness and funds to help eliminate HIV/AIDS in Africa.
LINK
I will be matching donations today as well, details in a second. My friend Tova Medetsky will be running a half-marathon for charity (Yachad, an organization which provides services for individuals with special needs), and she is raffling off an iPad Mini for charity.
All the details on the raffle are here, and I will be matching all raffles bought today, up to $500!

#Movember Lookback

@iAmAviG

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December 1, 2014

So I successfully completed Movember! (Granted I started and ended a few days off (both early, so I did get a full month!))

Thank you to Brooke Morris, Carissa Kopp, Malka Sabghir, Tova Medetsky and Yelena Azriyel for your donations and helping me exceed $200 on my first try.

Hopefully next year I’ll do it again, and try to double that amount (without donating 50% to myself 😉 )!!!

mobro.co/twitteriamavig

Black Friday Expanded

@iAmAviG

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November 28, 2014

I have never ventured out to stores on Black Friday morning, but I will browse the hundreds of deals online.

These deals started weeks ago and will go all the way through Christmas…but I personally stick to Amazon.

Besides for the obvious charitable reasons (Hello Amazon Smile), I make sure to use my Chase Freedom card.

Besides for the standard 1% cash back on all purchases, this time of year Amazon gets an added 5% cash back.

Tie that together with good deals, you get things you need at great prices.

But notice I said there “Get things you need” which is a very important part of Black Friday and Cyber Monday that people forget.

If you buy something that you don’t really need, just because it was on sale, then you are wasting your money!!! (Regardless how good a deal you got.)

Not to say that I don’t buy them anyways…this is as much a reminder to me as it is to my readers 🙂

Annual Thanksgiving Dinner For The Homeless @BCHillel

@iAmAviG

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November 26, 2014

For the 7th straight year I will be spending the night before Thanksgiving helping to feed the homeless.

Tonight at 6PM at the Tanger Hillel at Brooklyn College will be hosting a Thanksgiving meal for the Homeless.

Joined by the fraternities, sororities, current students and alumni of Brooklyn College, their are usually as many volunteers as “eaters”.

And if you can’t come, that doesn’t mean you can’t do your part.
Feel free to donate directly to this event:
https://www.crowdrise.com/Thanksgivings

The Sad Decline of Mr. Hockey

@iAmAviG

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November 25, 2014

As anyone who follows hockey is sure to have heard in recent weeks, the health of Gordie Howe is not great after suffering a stroke on October 26th.

The man known as “Mr. Hockey” has more than earned that title (among numerous others that he goes by) as his dominance in the NHL is unbelievable.

Howe started playing hockey in the 1940s, and made sure to play at least once a decade into his later years, becoming the only player to ever play in 6 decades (after signing a one-day contract and playing in the IHL, 5 decades in the NHL (1940s-1980s)), and also holds the record for oldest player to play in the NHL at 52 years, 11 days (with 2nd place on that list being 48 years old).

While he never had that strong scoring year (never eclipsing 50 goals in a season) he currently ranks 3rd in Points, but first all time in NHL Regular Season games (1,767), most regular season games with one team (1,687 with the Detroit ) and was the first player to reach 1,500 games.

All those stats come with a fair share of awards, such as 6 Hart Trophies (MVP) and 6 Art Ross’ (Leading scorer).

And lets not forget being named to the All-Star game 23 times!!!

One of the legacies that I enjoy most is the “Gordie Howe hat-trick”. While he himself only reached the milestone twice, it was named after him because of his scoring and fighting skills.
While a regular hat-trick is scoring three goals in a game, the Gordie Howe hat-trick is recording a Goal, an Assist, and a Fight in the same game.

And lastly, Mr. Hockey was the inaugural recipient of the NHL Lifetime Achievement Award.

And no matter what, people should never forget Mr. Hockey and Gordie Howe’s impact on the game.

On Mondays We Wear Blue #AutismSpeaks

@iAmAviG

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November 24, 2014

I’ve talked in the past about giving to different organizations, and I always try to pick ones with good causes to donate to.

A few weeks ago I noticed one of our guests on Fox Business wearing an Autism Speaks puzzle pin. So I went and donated to Autism Speaks, and got myself a pin, and have decided to wear that every week on Mondays, to help raise awareness for the cause.

Of course, the cause has a lot of exposure already in the NASCAR world, with the race at Dover International Speedway being co-sponsored in recent years by Autism Speaks, with 2014 being combined with FedEx.
This has been happening since the first time a race was sponsored by a non-profit, the 2007 Autism Speaks 400, which was sponsored by Visa.

So in summary: #OnMondaysWeWearBlue and #AutismSpeaks are the new way to go 🙂

Talk and Data at the Same Time? We think not. Verizon Wireless #Fail

@iAmAviG

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November 21, 2014

That’s right, I bought a new phone a month ago…it has been out now for two months…and it still can’t do talk and data at the same time.

These days that is a given on almost every phone and plan out there.

It can be something simple, as checking an email for an Order Number while on the phone with Customer Service, or even more likely: Using GPS Maps while on the Phone….Can’t be done on my phone.

Verizon Wireless is updating to HD Phone Calls via Voice Over LTE (VoLTE)…this sounds like a disaster to me, since if the call is started on LTE and you lose that coverage, changing to standard 3G or even just a phone call 1G, it would possibly drop the call.

But in order for the phones to handle HD calling, they need a program called “Advanced Calling 1.0”. Until that point, the phone can’t make an HD call and do data at the same time.

So instead we can now do regular phone calls, or data, but not both at the same time.

When I first got my phone on October 23rd, I called Verizon, and was told it would be available for my phone on October 27th….that date came and passed, and I contacted them again, now being told it was only available for certain phones on that date, but not mine…when I asked when it would be available, I was told “hopefully within a month”.

Well Verizon Wireless, it’s been one month for me, and two months for the phone, and you guys are looking like fools for not having features that other companies have been offering for years (even the customer service rep that I spoke to didn’t believe me when I told him I can’t do both at the same time on a new phone).

Get your stuff together.

And while you’re at it, can I please have a Lollipop?

The Ty Cobb Award

@iAmAviG

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November 20, 2014

What’s that? You’ve never heard of the award that I listed in the title? That’s because it didn’t exist until now.

There is a select group of elite awards handed out in baseball, which includes the Rookie of the Year Award, Coach of the Year Award and Golden Gloves + Silver Sluggers for the best fielders/hitters by position.

In baseball there is an award set aside just for pitchers, known as the Cy Young Award. And it is given to the Best Pitcher in each league.

And finally you have the Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, which is handed out to the player deemed most valuable to his team.

In recent years this has come into controversy, after Justin Verlander won both of the two previous awards in 2011 for the American League, and this year Clayton Kershaw won both of them (Cy Young and MVP) in the National League.

People are upset that a pitcher can be named the most valuable player, when they already have their own designated “Best of” category.

So instead of arguing about it year after year, because let’s face it, a pitcher is just as important as any other player on the field…so why can’t he win MVP?, why not just make an award that can only be won by the leagues best hitter?

Take fielding out of the equation. Take position out of the equation (so yes, Designated Hitters (DHs) are eligible). And just give it to the best HITTER in the league.

And who better to name it after than the great Ty Cobb? American League MVP, a Triple Crown winner (one of only 15 different ones in league history), 12X Batting Champ, and 2nd All-Time in Hits and 1st All-Time in career Batting Average.

Next year, let’s see a Best Pitcher, Best Hitter, and Most Valuable to their team Awards, and end the controversy, once and for all.

Lucky 150

@iAmAviG

3 comments

November 19, 2014

When I first started this blog 6+ months ago, I didn’t have a goal for it.

I was however told by people: If you don’t stick to one theme, you won’t get readers. No one will come to a blog that jumps all over the place.

Well 150 posts later, my stats of viewers is nowhere near what I’d had on other blogs in the past…but on the flip side, I have more followers here than I have ever had before.

Without having that “theme” I was told I needed, I am up to 50+ followers.

So thanks to all of you that have, and continue to read my posts, regardless how off the rails I may get.

Who knows when I’ll get bored of all this and just stop writing, but I am proud to have made it this far.

-Avi

Why Is The Media Afraid of the Terrorists?

@iAmAviG

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November 18, 2014

Clearly most media are afraid of terrorists.

This is the obvious answer as to why most media will not show what really happens in some situations, such as when they wouldn’t show Hamas rockets in Gaza during the war…it’s not like they weren’t there (they clearly had to be, right? they were being shot…just magically can’t vaporize out of thin air and rain down on the land).

But people are going to argue my statements, since that’s what people always do…so instead let me just put some pictures up here, as they do speak a thousand words.

This headline from a few weeks ago, when a driver drove his car onto a light-rail station platform, running people over, before finally being stopped by cops:
Yup, that seems about right.

Now let us fast forward to today, when terrorists walked into a synagogue, the Jewish house of worship, shooting/axing/stabbing people while they prayed, killing 4 (including 3 Americans) and wounding 6 others. As they left the scene, the situation ended in a shootout with police.

The headlines should be pretty simple, right? Let’s check how the CBC handled this:

Jerusalem police fatally shoot 2 after apparent synagogue attack

That is what happened, right? The big story in this “Breaking News” is that Jerusalem police shot 2 people, after an “apparent attack”…I won’t put the pictures here, because they are very graphic. But seeing people still wrapped in their prayer garb, lying there dead, with bloody cleavers next to them, doesn’t seem apparent to me.

But I’m sure CNN handled this better:
Right? That seems like it is correct…except it wasn’t a mosque. Because you can be sure that if it was a mosque, every world leader would’ve come out and condemned the attacks.

I’m sure it was just a mistake banner, right? They’ll fix it…let’s check another from CNN:

You are right, police did indeed shoot and kill two Palestinians. I’m sure those two people were simply on their way to market.

Come on media, get your stuff together, and put the story back into the headlines, instead of cowering in the face of terror.

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