Justin Germino Ramblings

My wife and I will be at Goat Head Saloon in Mesa (Country Club and the US 60) where her company put together the Halloween Metal Mayhem show, where 6 local Metal bands will entertain crowds for five hours. She is giving away various free prizes including free shots, free dvd’s, free T-shirts and more to people who come and enter the raffle. We are hoping for a good turnout, and with lots of competition for Halloween activities, Rock Along Productions has some of the best local AZ Metal bands in the valley including: Skeletal Secrets, Embers Rise, Depraved Heretic, Vile Existence, One Body Too Many and Frozen by Fire.

If you are into Metal music or live music at all and are looking for a good time to hang out join us at the Goat Head Saloon in Mesa tonight. If you wear a Halloween Costume you get a discount at the door.

-Justin Germino

Jaypee is hosting one of the largest prize contests I have seen from a blogger over at JayPee Online which features over $1500 in prize packages.  There will be 3 main winners with 2 bonus prizes given out to everyone who enters the contest.  Visit Jaypee’s site for full rules, but here is a high level overview of the steps to enter the contest:

#1 – Subscribe to his RSS feed via email
#2 – Write a 100+ word blog post linking back to his site about the contest
#3 – Leave a comment on his blog post (click link to Jaypee Online at top of this post to get there)

PRIZES AT STAKE:
1st Prize
Pro Plus All-Theme Package from StudioPress ($199.95)
Single Theme License from Pro Theme Design ($79)
Single Theme License from Press75 ($75)
Single Theme License from WP Zoom ($49)
1 Year Theme Club Membership from Elegant Themes ($19.95)
1 Year Hosting w/ Free Domain from DreamHost courtesy of Jehzeel Laurente
$50 Cash via PayPal from Jehzeel Laurente

2nd Prize
Single Theme License from Pro Theme Design ($79)
Single Theme License from Press75 ($75)
Single Theme Package from StudioPress ($59.95)
Single Theme License from WP Zoom ($49)
1 Year Freedom Plan Hosting from WP Web Host ($80)
$25 Cash via PayPal from JaypeeOnline

3rd Prize
Single Theme License from Pro Theme Design ($79)
Single Theme Package from StudioPress ($59.95)
Single Theme License from WP Zoom ($49)
Single Theme Licenses from WP Now ($29)
1 Year Freedom Plan Hosting from WP Web Host ($80)
$10 Cash via PayPal from JaypeeOnline

Consolation Prizes
Single Theme Package from StudioPress ($59.95)
Single Theme Licenses from WP Now ($29)

Congrats JayPee on the awesome contest.

-Justin Germino

I had contacted Microsoft several weeks ago asking if I could get a media version of Windows 7, since I would be starting a new category with featured articles about Windows 7 on my DragonBlogger.com site. Microsoft had told me they would let me know if they can send me a copy and I waited patiently. Windows 7 meanwhile was released on October 22nd 2009 and I hadn’t heard back from Microsoft, so I assumed they weren’t planning on sending me a copy. I bought a full version of Windows 7 Home Premiere and paid full retail price for it, upgrading my system and writing my first Windows 7 related blog posts.

A week later a FedEx package arrives with a full media license version of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition from Microsoft saying they have granted me the media copy. Had I received this just one week prior I would have saved $220 dollars out of my own pocket, and now I have 2 versions of Windows 7. I will be using the Media version of Windows 7 Ultimate and probably save my store bought Home Premium until I need it for another computer in my household at a later date.

I still would like to thank Microsoft for sending me a fully licensed media copy of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition both 64bit and 32bit versions, this was very generous of them.

-Justin Germino

I have been focusing on using my Tension Band more when working out these last few days, especially since I snapped my Torso Tiger after using it for two years. I also went through three pairs of hand grips (to strengthen your wrist, hand and forearm muscles) and the latest pair is more comfortable to use, but doesn’t give as much resistance as the previous pair.

I have not actually used Kettlebells before, though it is a celebrity trend and you can find them in fitness stores everywhere. I still use my free weights as much as possible, but somehow I injured my right arm just past the shoulder and I have a sharp pain that seems deeper than muscle when lifting. It hasn’t recovered on its own so I may have to see my Chiropractor and have him adjust my arm and spine to make sure its in proper alignment.

Resistance weights are really good for toning, and I find that doing fifteen minutes of strenuous activity twice a day keeps my heart pumping faster longer, and appears to be more beneficial to my metabolism than just working out in one thirty minute stretch. This could of course just be an illusion, I have no real science to back this up.

In the meantime I still work toward my fitness goals and try to vary up my routine to prevent muscle plateauing, which has happened to me before, but I seem to be able to get around it by doing something completely different every once and a while.

-Justin Germino

I realized this week that I basically spent double what I had in my budget for food, it is the one area where I constantly fail in my budget is to keep my food expenses down.  The reasons are simple:

Too much going out to eat

Yet this cycle is very hard to break, and when you eat out with a family of four you are paying a tremendous amount of money at a sit down restaurant, even for breakfast it costs over $30 to have an IHOP or Mimi’s Cafe breakfast these days.

Yet because of tight schedules and being cooped up in the house all day long, you tend to want to get out of the house, and when we go out it is usually to eat somewhere.  My goals are to tighten down on going out to eat, though I have attempted this before I really need to build up the willpower.

-Justin Germino

One of the great thing about the Internet is that there are so many options when looking for jobs, you can not only browser jobs in your local state, but can browse jobs around the world and even find some that allow you to work remotely without having to relocate or move in this day and age. You also can find specific job sites that search and list only jobs in specific fields like if you were looking only for Information Technology Jobs, or Jobs that Pay only 100k or higher. If you worked in Healthcare and wanted to find perform an Insurance Job Search to find a new position in your state or another location you can do just that.

There will always be room for the giant Job sites out there, but the smaller niche job sites also have a place and are worth checking out, just do a search on google for your “career + jobs” and you may find specific job sites out there for whatever field you are looking to work in. Just remember, make sure your resume is up to date and make sure you tailor it specifically for each job you request, make it look like the resume was made just for that job, the more specific it is for the position you apply far the more notice it will grab.

-Justin Germino

Image Credit: Rebecca Dominguez

I saw someone posting a picture about the Coconut Crab on twitter and decided to do a little research into the critters and share with my readers.

According to Wikipedia, the Giant Coconut crab is the largest land-living arthropod in the world and it inhabits the coastal forest regions of several Indo-Pacific islands. The crab is a type of hermit crab and is famous for its ability to crack coconuts with its strong pincers to eat the contents.

It is the only species in the Birgus genus and is also known as the robber crab or palm thief due to rumors about it stealing shiny objects like pots and pans.

The coconut crab starts off being born in a water environment and loses its ability to breathe water, and they have to find a suitable shell to inhabit and migrate into larger shells as they migrate to land. It is said that coconut crabs can even use broken coconut pieces as temporary shells until they develop a hardened abdomen.

Coconut crabs primary eat coconut, but are omnivorous and will eat tortoise hatchlings and dead animals. They will also steal food from each other and drag their food into burrows where they can eat safely.

Coconut crabs reportedly commony reach body lengths of 16 inches with 3 foot leg spans and weight around nine pounds, in some literature specimens were reported measuring 6 feet across and weighing 30 pounds. Coconut crabs are believed to be able to live more than thirty years.

This makes Coconut crabs one of the most interesting crabs in my opinion? What do you think?

-Justin Germino

A friend and I were discussing one side effect to losing weight which is the sagging of skin around the mid section, some of it tightens with exercise and time, but unfortunately once skin stretches from gaining weight and you lose the weight, whether it be from diet pills or exercise, you will be left with excess skin that hangs like a flap around the areas where your fat was stored.

As my friend and I discussed about potential solutions, the only solution I could see is some sort of plastic surgery to remove the excess skin, there just isn’t any other way to completely firm up when you have lost enough weight to have a flap of skin left over. Who could afford the thousands of dollars for such surgery or want to take the risks?

Really though if this happens to you, you should be happy with your weight loss and be thankful you are getting healthier. If it is excessive, like 100+ pounds of weight loss and there is so much excessive skin then I feel it is perfectly justified to get the surgery if you can afford it and save up for it.

-Justin Germino

Finding another 3 scorpions in the last week in my house has me confirming with what was reported in the Arizona local news. Scorpions are multiplying and this is one of the worst years for scorpions around the valley. The reason is simple, foreclosed homes become breeding grounds for crickets which are food for scorpions. They setup nests and spread out across communities where there are lots of abandoned homes.

There were three abandoned homes on my street alone, one right across from the street where the weeds and yard ran amuck with 5 foot grass and various grotesque weeds. I mowed them when I could but it was barely enough to do much damage against the “sore thumb” appearance of the property.

Bark scorpions the most common kind found in Casa Grande, are very small some as little as 5cm in size and they hide under chairs, table legs, kids toys, weave in and out of the carpet and are small enough to fit in your light sockets and get in an out of there. They crawl up from drains, they are excellent swimmers and can swim up and climb out of your toilets and sinks.

Fortunately nobody in the family has been stung by one yet, but we continue to find at least 2-3 a week in the house. If we are finding that many, there must be dozens of others lurking in the walls and in places we can’t see. At least there isn’t a single cockroach to be found anywhere in my place.

-Justin Germino

I find myself suffering problems again with my stomach where I start off the morning with a stomach ache that gradually gets worse throughout the day until I find myself vomiting around 2-3pm every other day, or sometimes two days in a row. These are the same type of stomach issues I was having last year and the year before and come and go in my life. It seems that my mind creates unnecessary stress that causes anxiety which causes me to have severe stomach problems and acidity issues which leads to throwing up.

The stupid thing is I can’t pinpoint what is causing the stress that would be making me feel this miserable last week?
Is it going to the fair last weekend?
Is it that I may be a speaker/presenter at CA World again in April 2010?
Is it that I have to put together a presentation for upper management in a few weeks?
Is it home stress?
Is it worry about my wife’s Halloween Show and hope that it succeeds and does well for her company?

I tend to have no reason for suffering the physical stomach ailments, yet I know they are anxiety and stress related. Sometimes food triggers them, but in other cases they are just because I don’t have a good way to just relax emotionally and just “Hakuna Matata”. Yet I tell myself there is no need to fret on anything and I believe it, but my internal mind just tightens up like a knotted ball.

I may be needing to seek out some meditation techniques soon if I can’t seem to figure out how to solve my stress issues, or at least find the causes.

-Justin Germino