Essential Apps

Applications, that is, as in Mobile Applications. Sorry to disappoint you right off the bat; this is not a post about essential appetizers. I would say that I'd be interested in doing a post on that at a later date but, truth be told, that post is three, maybe four items long:

• Buffalo Wings
• Spinach & Artichoke Dip
• Guacamole
• Cheese and Cured Meat Plate (if you fancy, if not stick with the free bread)

 

Sorry, Caesar Salad Endive Spears, you tired. Now take your sad act home.

Now that I've got that out of the way, let's continue this single stone's throw to the death of our second bird: Mobile Apps that I have been finding essential to life in NHV. Granted, all of these are useful in life outside the GSCIA, but my appreciation for them, of course, has been forged through use in these mean streets.

Getting Around:

Parkmobile

Please, take my money, I beg you.

This town just about lost its wad when, 10 years into the 21st Century,  the City went ahead and brought its parking meter game up to 20th Century capability and added the ability to use your credit card. So, it goes without saying that, when they introduced compatibility with the Parkmobile app in 2013, offering the ability to pay, monitor, and add time to a parking meter from our mobile devices, my proverbial shit hit the metaphorical fan. Genius.

TransLoc

It's not common knowledge to everyone outside the Yale community that, if you're under 40 and look anything remotely like someone who could be a college or graduate student, this city (Yale) operates a free public transit system. The Yale shuttles services downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods, carting students/staff/faculty to/from school/work/class, and me and my drunken friends from someone's apartment to whatever bar is closest to Old Campus. TransLoc is a real-time monitoring system that shows you shuttle routes, and where exactly the closest shuttle is in its journey.

Uber

For those of you not into restricting your nightlife to the establishments immediately accessible by shuttle route, we have Uber. We all know what it is by now, and if you haven't taken it, I implore you to do so immediately, even if you don't have anywhere to go. I like the whole not talking to anyone on the phone thing. I like the fact that I don't have to deal with a cab driver claiming he "doesn't take credit cards" even though I can see the damn swipe machine right in front of me. I like the fact that, 9 out of 10 times, the car that shows up is an immaculate Lexus or Infiniti. I just like.

Avoiding Awkward:

Venmo

Restaurant table math. We've all been there. Passing the check around amongst all 17 of us. 3 suggest splitting it evenly between 12 credit cards, 2 people have cash,  1 person has a gift certificate that expired in 2009 but is pretty sure the restaurant will still accept it...please stop the insanity. Venmo does just that. Download the app, place one credit card on the table, let all your friends send you what they owe directly to your bank account, tip your waitstaff. I've heard of some others that do the same thing, and I'm sure they're great. But I've been rocking Venmo now for a bit, and it's been nothing but easy.

Shotify 

You're 30. You don't do "power hour" anymore. Those odd times when you and your friends find yourselves sitting around someone's apartment midway through a boring Saturday, you do what 30-year olds do and strike up a conversation about the Affordable Care Act or whether or not Ray Allen will go to the Cavs. Right? Wrong. You're bored. We're all bored. What better way to grease us through the inevitable dulldrum of life-after-college than to maintain a constant state of denial that we are, in fact, not in college? Shotify is an app that hooks up with your Spotify* account and creates a Power Hour mix out of a your playlists. You're welcome.

*I shouldn't have to tell you to get Spotify. You should have been done that.

Entertainment:

Yelp

New Haven has great restaurants, but after you've lived here one year you're perfectly aware that all 11 of them exist and know that, until something new opens, you're not going to discover anything new. So, don't bother Yelping up a place to eat tonight; stick with what you know. What you can do, though, is open up the Yelp app and cruise some of the hysterical reviews that people have taken the time to write. If you're a fan of satire, which I am, this place is a gold mine.

One of my personal favs is Pasqual P's review of the Sbarro's at the train station:

"Hey, Paz (my nickname)! Whuzzgoodwitit?" said my buddy Rusty. And so an evening of big 'za, cold suds, and intense viewing of sports on Sbarro's 26" TV began.

I've gone to sports bars before, and I generally have a good time. I mean, the constants are usually beer and BUFFALO WINGS. So do I fit in? Heck yeah, I do - I'm a guy, and guys like these things.

So we get to Sbarro, and Rusty and I exchange high fives - Coors Light on draught? IT'S ON. We decide to pair our nectars with a couple of sausage calzones. The calzones were expertly built - flaky dough, ooeygooey cheese, and then BOOM, sausage. This was good, but it was time for more beer and sports. There were at least 6 people already catching the Connecticut Sun game, so it wasn't easy to find seats.

But we did and we had like 4 beers each, called a cab, and then we went home to dream about doing it all again. Top 5 night of 2012.