Aviously

Postagram

@iAmAviG

October 31, 2014

A few weeks (months?) ago I wanted to send someone a custom postcard, with my own picture and writing on it.

I looked into my options, as a postcard must be specific sizing, and wanted to go with Walgreens.

Walgreens was going to charge me .39 a piece to print…but I couldn’t pick it up from a store. I would have to have it shipped to me…in other words, they would put my postcard in an envelope, and I’d pay shipping on that, and then pay shipping again to send the postcard. And if I sent the package directly, they’d get an envelope with a postcard, instead of a postcard….

So I went looking around, and found a decent app called Postagram. I say decent, because it crashes all the time, but it gets the job done!

For .99 they print and ship my postcard, with my own picture and 140 characters of text, and it’s there just a couple of days later.

So the Walgreens would’ve costed me .39 for printing + XX for shipping + .34 to mail it…so you gotta figure that is around the same .99 total (if not more with Walgreens shipping charges…), and I’d have to deal with it twice.

Now thanks to Postagram, I see something, take the picture, and seconds later I don’t have to think about it anymore.

And just like that I am slowly funding USPS’s deficit.

In Which I speak at an Al Tanger Memorial @BCHillel

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October 30, 2014

A few months ago I wrote about the death of broadcasting great Al Tanger.

And last week Thursday, the Tanger Hillel at Brooklyn College (of which I’m on the Board of Directors for) honored the man who put his name on the building.

In what turned out to be a great little event, attended by many students, a few people spoke about their experiences with the late Mr. Tanger. I was also asked to speak at this event, just about my experiences at the Hillel, and I threw in a few connections that I had with him.

Of course being the third (fourth?) speaker at an event like this, means that everyone before you has already said a lot of what you will…but that’s what improvising is for! And lucky I was able to think quickly and keep it semi-coherent.

This is the script of what I wrote for the speech…of course it changed from what I actually said, but the main points toward the end all stayed. <SPEECH LINK>

It was also really nice that two of Al’s children and one grandchild came to our event (most of them live in the Boston area), the latter of which spoke briefly to the group of us there.

X-Men: Days of Future Past – Review

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October 29, 2014

Finally saw this movie over the weekend, and there is only one word to describe it correctly: INTENSE.

While X-Men: First Class ranked up there in X-Men movies, this one topped it, and in my opinion is one of the best X-Men movies that have been made to date.

With all the favorite X-Men, the list is just great in one’s that appear in this movie…but I’ll still name some of them 🙂 (and I’m biased towards Raven/Mystique (blame that on Jennifer Lawrence)) Wolverine, Xavier, Raven, Storm, Beast, Rogue, Iceman, Quicksilver, Blink, among others of course!

Peter Dinklage in the role of Dr. Trask is great, and J-Law’s Raven took her to a superb whole new level in this trilogy.

For those that have watched past instances of this series, but have yet to see this one…don’t wait! And those that have yet to start the series…well, watch them in the order that they came out, and when you get up to this one, you certainly won’t regret it.

As the movie says:

The future is never truly set.

With that being said…I can’t wait for the 2016 release of X-Men: Apocalypse.

Overall rating: 9.5 out of 10.

NBA Live 15 – Review

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October 28, 2014

EA Sports, puts out their newest NBA Game today, and thanks to EA Access, I had some time with the game over the weekend.

As is the theme in this years games from EA, Presentation is Top Notch.

Teaming up with the NBA on ESPN, the graphics package is superb, with half-time and end-game reports that will remind you of Sports Center, and gives users the best experience you can get.

Gameplay is like one would expect from an NBA game, with no significant issues that I noticed.

I never rate NBA games high, as I feel that they get stale really fast (even the NBA agrees (considering they want to shorten game times)), and this EA launch gets a 7 out of 10.

NHL 15 Review Update and NBA 15

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October 27, 2014

I made a major update to my NHL 15 review from EA (after playing it for a significant time), including a huge jump in its rating (6.5 to 8.5).

Check out the full review here.

Also, stay tuned tomorrow morning for a release day review of EA’s NBA Live 15!

1989 #Review

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October 27, 2014

The much hyped about Taylor Swift album, 1989, is now out, and so is the ever numerous reviews.

As usual Taylor reaches in and pulls out songs and lyrics from the heart, and it comes across wonderfully.

I’m a nightmare dressed like a dream.

As a New Yorker, I am impartial to songs like “Welcome to New York”, where she is prone to tell us that New York…

It’s been waiting for you

She wishes for a hit album, calling it “Pop”, but with the simple definition of “Popular”, some would say that her music has been Pop for a while already. And with a successful pre-order/launch, sales numbers are already high.

In a year where the Frozen soundtrack is the best selling album so far, and nothing has eclipsed the 1-million sales mark, Swifts’ new album can make a huge dent on the market.

I wish we could go back
And remember what we were fighting for
I wish you knew that I miss you too much to be mad anymore.

Overall: 8.5 out of 10.

Terrorist Attack in NYC? #Overshadowed

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October 24, 2014

With all the Ebola news coming out of New York City yesterday, as the first case here took center stage.

But the real story to come out of NYC, the one that got pushed off the front page, is the possible terrorist attack in Queens.

Zale Thompson, as identified by police sources, went up to a group of 4 rookie NYPD officers, and slashed at them with an ax, hitting one cop in the arm, and another in the head. Cops then shot and killed the suspect, ending his hack attack.

Watching video from post-attack, I can say there was significant blood on the scene, as the police officer was taken away.

Thompson is an ex-Navy, who had been discharged for misconduct.

While they have yet to conclude that his attack was terror related, as opposed to a man acting on his own accord, it isn’t good when even the cops are getting randomly attacked.

Let’s hope that we can slowly reign in all the crazies and extremist that wander this country.

Hockey Heart – Stand With Canada

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October 23, 2014

As a Rangers fan it is very difficult to find any love for the heartless Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins. But last night they proved that they may indeed have a little heart (albeit deeper meanings, such as Captain Cindy Canada over on Pittsburgh).

After the terrorist attacks in Canada’s capital yesterday, the NHL rightly cancelled the game between Toronto and Ottawa, as the city was under lock down most of the day.

While any time a Canadian team plays an American one (in any of the major sports in America) both anthems are played, and lest they get confused, neither Pennsylvania team is located near Canada, but to show that they stand with our closest allies, the CONSOL Energy Center played the Canadian Anthem before the game.

Sure they put the lyrics on the board, as we can’t assume that any one who is a fan for those teams would know the lyrics to the American National Anthem, let alone the Canadian. But overall a very nice gesture.

Video and story are here btw: http://www.cbc.ca/1.2809639

And this is another example of why you can’t really schedule posts in advance, as you never know what might happen.

Photo Courtesy: @digitaltincan

The Wild Weird World of Instagram

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October 22, 2014

Instagram is a service that I have never understood.

People take great pictures, and throw filters on them that ruin the true beauty of the shot. Or people take crappy shots, and only a filter can make them look good.

Regardless, it seems pretty pointless to me…why not just continue to post pictures on Facebook or Twitter, like people had been doing before.

But the real thing that boggles my mind are the “Private accounts”, in which you need permission to view their photos.

Some of these people (and the real reason for my bewilderment today) have in their description “Artist” or “Photographer”.

If you want to advertise yourself as an artist or photographer, why would you hide your photos? What if someone (like me) wants to view your work, but doesn’t have an Instagram account?

Peoples security online always baffles me…they don’t really know what they are doing, or why, but they think that clicking certain buttons helps them…the same people can be found with open profiles (to some extent) on Facebook, or just pictures that pop up when you Google their names. Maybe that is a whole ‘nother topic to discuss…internet security and how to protect yourself.

Slow Down NYC – November 7

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October 21, 2014

New York City has slowly been introducing their “Slow Zones” throughout the city, lowering the speed limit in those areas from 30MPH to 25MPH.

But on November 7th, the entire city’s standard speed limit will reduce to 25MPH.

The goal is to reduce the speeds and prevent accidents, or more importantly to the city’s goal, is to prevent pedestrians from getting hit.

The first thing that this city really needs to do, is teach safe crossing…sure we all cross at red lights when their are no cars coming…but some people start crossing too late in the countdown, and don’t make it all the way across before oncoming traffic starts moving again (or for those playing the lights, comes rushing through at the aforementioned 30MPH).

The other is making the mistake that a car will see them if they are crossing…or in the case of taxis, see them and just not care, rather cut them off, leaving them stranded in the middle of crossing, with cars all around them.

Maybe the solution isn’t slowing cars down, but instead adding islands in the middle of larger streets, so that those that do cross late, can stop halfway when they realize they can’t make it…or better, the islands can be used when people don’t look properly before crossing by red and getting caught halfway.

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