Justin Germino Ramblings

I have seen the effects of smoking for forty plus years first hand, my father in law was a heavy smoker and now has COPD and is on an oxygen tank. Every month it seems he becomes weaker and weaker with less energy as he struggles to breath and take in oxygen.

He could barely take a few steps without a tank hooked up now, and he catches pneumonia more frequently and several times a year since he has been on oxygen. One thing he would have had a hard time with is getting in and out of the shower.

Fortunately the house they bought has one of those walk in tubs that also has a shower attachment, so he doesn’t have to struggle to get in and out of the shower, and this was a complete coincidence when they bought the house. Had they not had this, we would have had to pay to install one in the last few years.

It is hard watching your family and/or friends become sick and their health decline rapidly, it is even harder and you can’t help but feel anger when you know the problems could have been avoided or at least risks greatly reduced by decisions made in their life.

If anyone still smokes or is considering smoking I strongly urge you to quit this habit before you end up with damaged lungs and a badly decreased lifestyle, you will live long enough to regret it. Few people have the genetics to withstand 40+ years of smoking without having their lungs corroded and destroyed.

I never did smoke in my life, not a single cigarette, but I also know that eating is just as likely a cause and risk. Overeating and obesity are habits and decisions (in most cases) that lead to the same end result, health problems and decreased lifestyle.

Be healthy my friends and try to make healthy decisions.

-Justin Germino

This morning my family has decided to take the 2 hour drive up to Willow Springs Lake in Northern Arizona do spend the day fishing. We did buy a full year fishing license back in August, we mine as well make the most out of it. The weather is still 98+ degrees here in Casa Grande, so it will be nice to spend a day in the low 70’s and just eat some PB&J while casting hooks into the water. My kids love to catch the crayfish and hunt for bugs while waiting for the trout to bite.

It is good to spend some time in nature way from computers and technology, and just spend some time with the family. I don’t do it as often as I should, but when I do I never regret it.

-Justin Germino

When choosing a web hosting provider or wanting to switch your existing web hosting provider, there are so many choices it could make you dizzy. Depending on your web site needs you may be more interested in price, uptime, performance, throughput, Unix or Windows hosted servers, memory, bandwidth, mail storage and much more.

Consonus offered one of the most interesting things I have seen from an IT Solutions and web hosting provider, they let you choose which datacenter you want your web server located in. I found this to be a unique choice I never considered before when looking at web hosting, but the state you host in can determine its availability and performance based on distance traffic has to travel to reach your site.

All of these are factors you need to consider when choosing a web hosting provider, make sure you do your research and find the list of features and functionality you are looking for. Check with other bloggers and web site owners, ask what they use and if they are happy with their hosting provider.

Nothing is worse than dealing with site outages, performance problems and it can cost you downtime and traffic to have to switch later on.

-Justin Germino

In an effort to reward people who comment on all of my blogs, I have converted this blog to become a DoFollow, KeyWordLuv, CommentLuv, and Top Commentator blog. You can read my primary Dragon Blogger article titled Dragon Blogger is now a DoFollow Blog to learn more about these plug-ins and links to download them.
In summary, now everyone who leaves a comment will get a legitimate link back to their site or blog, as well as the top commenters for the month will be listed in my sidebar widget with a linkback to their site as well.

In reading and consulting with several other bloggers it is my opinion that it is better to be a dofollow blog in the long run, than being a nofollow blog even though your Google PageRank may suffer a little, it is better to foster communication with readers.

-Justin Germino

My nearly three year old has become a terror to electronics everywhere. In the past six months he has single-handedly destroyed my Wii video cables by jamming them in and out of the composite video inputs of the TV, which broke the connector and embedded it in the TV so that I can’t use my front inputs anymore.

Now just yesterday the power button on the TV is missing, it was jammed in and broke off only to fall inside the TV itself. With the power button being the size of a tic tac and no way to recover it, I had to tape up the hole and now only use the remote to power on the TV. Fortunately the TV in the kids room is an old cheap 27″ CRT and it isn’t my 48″ rear projection TV, but still toddlers and electronics don’t mix.

The problem is they have a natural curiosity to plug, unplug, plug again, as well as suffer from the button on, button off syndrome. It reminds me of Homer Simpson every time “Bed goes up, Bed goes Down…”. In the case of televisions (especially old style ones) you often have the set close enough to the floor that the toddler can reach the buttons and poke away.

When they factory test these electronics, they should hire a curious mob of toddlers to come in and stress test all the buttons and plugs before turning them over to sell to consumers.

-Justin Germino

I awoke earlier this morning to my wife ayign “The Internet is down or something” and sure enough there was no online connectivity, all lights showed fine on my cable modem, and my wireless router didn’t seem to have an issue, but as usual a quick unplug and re-plug of cable modem and wireless router resolved the issues.

In general my internet performance has been poor the last few days, I notice web sites in general are loading slower and my office VPN loses connectivity a few times a day, where it was rock solid for several weeks without dropping a connection. I don’t know if my router is starting to flake out or the ISP network is becoming more saturated.

Time will tell, one thing is for certain though: I wish browsing online were even faster than it is now, I mean I need 20 tabs and pages to open instantly, not wait 5-6 seconds per page. It is amazing how patience has dwindled with the internet with broadband so prevalent, I mean I remember just 7 years ago being on 28.8 kbps dial up modem and can’t imagine surfing at that speed anymore, I would rather forsake the internet.

Damn, I have gotten spoiled with broadband.

-Justin Germino

I am not greedy really, I just hope to make enough money so I can live comfortably and not have to worry about all the bills and financial woes that most people deal with. 1 million and I can live comfortably, still keep my job but have peace of mind for my future and have cushion in my financial life.

But, if shooting for the top jobs and salaries then these are positions you may want to pursue because according to an article on AskMen.com the highest ten paying salaried jobs in the United States are as follows:
(note these don’t include bonuses but raw salary positions)

Natural Sciences Major

This position manages and oversees other scientists and requires an MBA or Doctorate with a minimum 6 years of higher education.

Salary: $97,560

Marketing Manager

The highest level marketing managers oversee advertisement for Fortune 500 companies and oversee teams who help companies get their brand and image promoted. Minimum training is four to six years, MBA in business finance and marketing also very helpful.

Salary: $100,020

Computer and Information Systems Manager

Even with a tough economy IT Managers can command some serious salaries, with 4-8 years experience and a degree in Computer Science or Information Technology you can work your way toward this salary level.

Salary: $100,110

Air Traffic Controller

Nearly all Air Traffic Controller positions are hired by the FAA and are essential for the safe lift off and landings of commercial and private planes. It tkaes nearly nine years of training including a four year degree.

Salary: $100,430

Lawyer

Yep, you always hear your parents say you should have been a lawyer.  Lawyers on average command the fifth highest salary job in the United States and requires a combined 7 years of education and training.

Salary: $110,590

Dentist

Cleaning teeth is a lucrative business, and the average dentist brings in a sizeable Salary. With 8 years of education and training, you might have to spend a few years paying off the Student Loan before you can really realize the earning potential though.

Salary: $132,660

Airline Pilot

Ironically the people who transport hundreds of lives to safety every day get paid an average of a little more than someone who cleans teeth for a living. Pilots can require between 5 to 10 years of education and training depending on the types of planes they fly and earn a top notch salary.

Salary: $134,090

Engineering Manager

Responsible for plans, coordination, research of large technical or scientific projects nad goals. Engineering managers are the ones who plan out entire real estate communities or components manufacturing and processing. It takes 6-7 years of education and training to reach a position of this stature.

Salary: $140,210

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Lets face it, many CEO’s make millions of dollars in salary with giant bonuses, but factoring in the CEO’s of the thousands of smaller companies out there rounds out a CEO’s salary to almost one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year. It takes anywhere from eight to ten years of education and training to become a CEO of a company, less time for a smaller company and greater time for a larger corporation, some people work for fifteen to twenty years to reach a position of this magnitude.

Salary: $140,880

Surgeon

On average the top salary earner by profession is a Surgeon, responsible for saving the lives of patients and performing the most crucial of procedures. Surgeons require 10-15 years of education, internship and training to reach a position of this salary level, but if you have the commitment and means this is one of your best bets for a successful financial life.

Salary: $181,850

So there you have it, the top ten highest paying salaries in the United States, you can visit the original article for more detail about each position, but this about sums it up. The article does go on to note that more medical profession positions earn six figures than any other career type, another reason why you may want a career in the medical field.

-Justin Germino

I enjoy the benefits of telecommuting enormously, but sometimes you can feel isolated from your peers and be out of touch with the “human” element of working beside your coworkers. One benefit of my current office location is they have a lake on site and when the weather gets cooler, it is really nice to have a lunch setting at one of the benches overlooking the ducks and water.

I don’t know if the lake is treated or stocked with fish, I do see some people try to fish it and I wonder what kind of pond supplies are necessary to prevent such a small lake in Arizona from becoming completely green with mold. Either way it is one of the nicer cosmetic features of working onsite, and I see many a coworker take a break and jog or walk around the small lake to relax.

-Justin Germino

I find myself in a variety of struggles every day in life like most people. These struggles include everything from meeting my deadlines at work, making time for my family, making ends meet, carving out time for my wife and working on our relationship to keep things healthy and happy and keeping up with my blogging and poetry. I sometimes reflect on how much simpler my life was 10 years ago, but at the time I was just as stressed and felt pretty much the same way.

So my ability to absorb and adapt to increased responsibility, roles and duties in my various functions in life keeps growing every year. I am one of those people who really wants to try and accomplish as much as possible in this short life time I have on the planet, and would prefer to end life with a list of accomplishments and a completed bucket list a mile long. One thing I try not to do is get to hung up or stressed over an individual struggle, because this can impact your ability on all other focus areas.

If you are stressed about money or work, you will see your time with the family suffer and so forth and if you are stressed out at home, it will impact your job as well. Finding balance to all of life’s struggles is probably the most important thing to keeping ones sanity and healthy state of mind. Some people use relaxation, yoga, or even exercise, dancing or another activity to help channel their energy and set their emotional compass right again.

-Justin Germino

While my kids have been using an assortment of foam furniture that has decayed to the point of requiring replacement, I will be looking around for new preschool furniture for the kids play room. I really want to find a smaller couch like sofa that the kids can sit on and setup in their room, which would be ideal.

Children can be pretty brutal to furniture, and the lounge they have in there has been subject to juice spills, crayons, marker, diaper overflow and worse. When you buy furniture for kids play areas, it must be either very durable or very cheap and easily replaceable.

-Justin Germino