Oh Say Can you See

Lady Liberty and all her glory... simply stunning!

Hard to believe it is almost the forth of July. I for one am very happy that summer is finally in full swing and the warm weather is here to stay. Well, at least for a few more months for those of us in the northeast that is.

After such a long and ridiculous winter I am very much looking forward to taking the holiday time to soak up the heat and breathe in the summer air. I will also be performing The National Anthem at a Baseball game, which is really wonderful. I mean what could be more fun than a baseball game and with my being a singer, the opportunity to perform the National Anthem on the day our country won her Independence? Can anyone say happy Greek girl?

The fourth of July is about a new beginning for our nation. Seeing advertisements everywhere for Fourth of July festivities has got me to thinking about new beginnings. I have the beginning of a new habit that I wanted to share… I am taking off my Fitbit for good, there I said it.

No more... not for me.

Why would you do such a silly thing you may be wondering. Well it’s just personally I think we as a society have become way too obsessed with technology. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the benefits of technology and of course it has its place. I just feel it has become far too front and center in our daily lives. Our phones are practically glued to us, and lets not even get into how over reaching Amazon’s “Alexa”and Google’s “Echo” creepy little units are because that would be a whole blog for another day. At first I thought the fitbit was great, and yes I’ll admit it was pretty neat to see how long I slept, and how many times I got up at night, and just how many steps I got in on a particular day.

  

Where it started to lose it’s luster for me was when I started to catch myself being disappointed if I didn’t get as many steps in throughout the week as I did the week before, and so on. I’d find myself looking at it so often then it hit me; this is getting to be on the silly side. I remember not too long ago putting on an old fashioned watch, take a swatch for instance, and going out for a run. The only reason I had it on was to keep track of “how long” I was running for. I was free to enjoy the fresh air, take in the beautiful images of nature and just enjoy the run and endorphin high. As opposed to exercising to see how many steps or calories I could burn each time.

A few of my favorites...

Never mind the fact that I had an entire watch box full of watches that I loved that hadn’t seen the light of day in over a year.  I really love watches too… they are one of my things, like sneakers and flip-flops. For some girls it’s high heels, but for me, it’s watches, sneakers and flip-flops. So the fact that I was wearing the same watch every single day, a little piece of technology that was literally attached to me at all times got me to thinking it was a bit obsessive.

So I decided to kick my Fitbit to the curb. Yes you heard right, this girl is going old school when it comes to watches. My very favorite watches are Android, which have since changed their name to Aragon, check them out at www.aragonwatch.com. Absolutely gorgeous watches, mostly automatic at surprisingly affordable prices too. Each watch is literally a work of art, and all designed by their creator and founder Wing Liang. The Mr. and I met him years back at a fashion trade show and we have been in love with his creations ever since.

So this year when I sing “Oh say can you see” I’ll be sporting a plain old watch on my wrist, and the only time I’ll be looking at it is to check the time. Hope you enjoy the holiday!

Blessings, Love & Music ~
Ava xo
www.avaaston.com

Just Breathe

The holidays are coming. Every year it seems like they arrive faster and faster. Pre Black Friday sales and deals being advertised as early as the first week of November. Ads coming at you from every which way from the TV, laptop, phone, you name it someone is advertising to us on it.

The more connected we become as a society though it can be said that all of this information overload is actually doing more to disconnect us than it does to connect us. I know some people who are so fed up with it that they just disengage from technology all together, or for periods of time to get away from the noise. I mean really, what's the point of a social media feed if it's not going to be the things you like and want to follow and instead be just lots and lots of advertising that some algorithm picked "for" you? Silly if you ask me.

So with the hustle and bustle season about to move into full swing I wanted to take a moment to remind people to take a little time to breathe. Everyone has lists of things that need to be done, goals, dreams, and to do's that at times may never seem to end. At the end of the day though, it's not about the quantity of things we stuff into the twenty-four hours we are all allotted every day, it's the quality that matters.

The Holiday Season starts with Thanksgiving. Which in my humble Greek opinion is a really great way to start. Forget about everything that needs to be done and take the time to reflect on everything you have done and accomplished in the last day, week, month or last year for that matter. Take a moment to consider your victories big and small. Rome wasn't built in a day and too many people don't give themselves kudos for all the little things they do that really add up.

Whether it's helping others at your job, volunteering, or just people in your everyday life. Look around and think about whom you have touched with your actions big and small and I'm guessing you'll have a whole lot to be thankful for. Some people focus more on what isn't going right in their lives instead of looking at the things that are. Then there are people who are never satisfied, and they are always looking to the next project or adventure and so busy moving forward that they never stop to smell the roses or celebrate the fact that they were able to walk the path where the roses bloomed.

I'm thankful for coffee, endorphins, dogs and cats. All kidding aside... I'm thankful for my faith, my health, my gifts and talents and the opportunity to use them to bless others. I'm super thankful for my amazing wonderful, gorgeous superman of a husband. I'm thankful for my family, my victories and my challenges. Because every day is an opportunity to learn something new and grow in ways we never know. My wish for everyone this Thanksgiving Holiday is to have a little time to breathe and just "be" happy.

Blessings, Love & Music ~
Ava xo
www.avaaston.com

What's With All The HashTags

          hashtag, number sign, hashtag...                                                  is this new language or what?

So I was minding my own business over the weekend doing my normal routine, posting a content post on my social media accounts. Something I have been doing daily to promote my music for a while now. Technology and social media change so fast, often it can be hard to keep up with.  

Like any good entrepreneur I try not only to keep up with the changes, but also to utilize them in order to work smart, not hard. I'm an Independent Recording Artist and that means I need to not only build an audience to sell my music to, but also engage it. Back to the story... so I was minding my own business (Music Business that is) when I had a status come up from a friend in my newsfeed about how the next time they saw someone post several hash tags, or @ tags (@ meaning you tag a "page" so your post goes on that page for it's likes to see) that this friend was going to block then unfriend whomever does it.

Of course I had to comment, there was no way I was going to keep my big fat Greek yap trap shut about this topic. A. because I didn't want the person to think I was trying to "spam" anyone. B. because I genuinely wanted to explain why people are doing it. Especially people who admin pages on Facebook like I do for my music. So we went into a message exchange and as best as I could tried to explain that hash tagging and tagging helps posts to come up in news feeds so friends or likes can actually see them. This person totally disagreed, oh well what can you do.

I understand that some people just want to use Facebook to keep up with friends and think it is the way it used to be when it first exploded onto the scene. A place where people could post random thoughts, photos, videos and openly engage in conversations in a natural uncensored way. Unfortunately that is not how Facebook is anymore. As much as we would like it to be, it has gone the way of so many before it myspace included. Where ad revenue and an all powerful algorithm have replaced true conversations.

The changes are basically that Facebook does not show posts from a profile or a page to "all" of it's friends or likes anymore. It only shows to 1% of the friends or likes. For example on my page I have around 15,900 likes. Back in the old days when I posted an update, it would come up in the news feed of all 15,900 likes. There also used to be an option to send a message to all of those likes. Which was fantastic for a business or Independent Recording Artist like my self to engage with those likes. Now when I post an update, Facebook only show that update to approximately 159 people. Unless.... and herein lies the problem, unless I want to "pay" to "boost" the post. The cost to "boost" a post on a page is utter lunacy. It can range depending on what day or time (as they vary that charge by days and times) from $50 - 300 & up for just ONE status update. For a profile to "boost" a post it's only $6.99 (the one with friends not likes).

Don't get me wrong, I'm a capitalist, and I'm all for people making money. What I have the problem with is, in addition to doing advertising all over the layout now, they have stopped the free flow of communication from people. It wasn't enough to have advertising which I'm totally fine with, but they now are actually charging so that friends or likes can actually "See" what you post, that's the problem. I mean what's the post of even being on a "social network" after all if you can't "be social" unless you "pay" to have a conversation? 

This friend whom I was talking with said people who do all the hash tagging are cheapskates because they do not want to spend the dough to advertise. It's not like everyone who has or admins a Page on Facebook is a corporation or has the advertising budget of Beyonce or Katy Perry. The ones it hurts the most are non profits, or animal rescues. Because the the way the algorithm works is... 1st they only show your posts to 1% of likes or friends on a profile. This is a fact, it has been going on for a few years and began to hit everyone in 2013. Unless someone admins a page they probably wouldn't notice. 

The second part of it which is really the killer - is people are not "seeing" your posts... so they do not "engage" in them. Then Facebook begins to show your posts to even less than the 1%. This hurts not only businesses but non profits very hard. Churches and all kinds of people using "Pages" for a cause or business. Someone like me or a animal rescue is a lot different than a company who has the resources to spend on advertising just so Facebook can make a few more billion.

Of course everyone is entitled to his or her view of it, just where I am coming from. So until the next round of changes rolls around, Greek Girl will continue to hashtag and tag away. It's not "spam" it's making sure that my people actually see the content I post. It's that simple. I hope I've shed a little light on why you might be seeing so much hash tagging going on. Hope you have a great week! 

Blessings, Love & Music ~
Ava :D xo
www.avaaston.com 

Get Your Head Out of The Clouds

I was dreaming there were clouds in my coffee

Growing up I was always a bit of day dreamer. That didn't help me much in school, but it sure made my song writing flourish. My Mom and  Dad would say I was their one child who always had their head in the clouds. It is because I was trying to write songs and my little neighborhood friends were playing Barbie Dolls or dress up. Songwriting always has been an escapism for me.

Now I have to pay a lot of money to keep the stuff from my noggin in the clouds. No, I do not mean I need to pay some guy in a white lab coat to extract what is coming out of my noggin. I need to pay my Internet Service Provider to store all of the cobwebby stuff from my noggin and the billions of megabytes  of data that is stored on my Macbook Pro. So who is the Einstein that came up with this whole cloud technology thingy? Better question is, what is this whole cloud technology thingy?

This image at the top of this blog post kind of gives the gist of what a cloud is when speaking about technology. If this Greek girl understands the diagram right, a cloud  is a virtual file cabinet or virtual kitchen junk drawer where all of your electronic documents, photos, videos, blogs, spreadsheets, email, contact lists and music can be stored and then be made accessible from any of your electronic  doohickeys. Oh, great I wonder if this means that whenever I can't find my car keys I will have to start check my freakin' cloud.

I remember one day when my sisters and I were little and I put down my song writing notebook and pencil long enough to spend some little girl time to lay in the grass and stare at the clouds. We were giggling because we thought we saw people's faces on the clouds. We saw our Dad, Aunt Iris and my sister Niki thought she the Easter Bunny. Oh Greek girls can be so silly.

It's funny how somethings in life come full circle. Just recently we were having another rainy day here in New York and we had some really wicked looking storm clouds rolling in. As I stood in my kitchen pretending to cook, I was looking out the window at the meanest, darkest, fiercest cloud I had ever seen. And as I looked at it closer - I swear I saw the image of Mr. Bricks and his lazy eye staring back at me. Time for another coffee. I would much rather have clouds in my coffee than Mr. Bricks lazy eye in my clouds, just sayin'

Blessings,

Ava

xox