Justin Germino Ramblings

Today I woke up feeling quesy and I hope I am not coming down with the stomach bug at all, I am supposed to be going out tonight to see Vayden at a bar called The Sets, and some friends from work will be there as well.  But the way my stomach feels, I could be coming down sick.

I ate some cream of wheat to help something bland settle my stomach, and my wife is preparing Thanksgiving food downstairs I sampled some deviled eggs and now my stomach is really unsettled.  I know there is a stomach flu going around that affected my coworkers and my in-laws.  I hope I am not the latest victim in this sweeping plague of illness, I do not want to be sick with a stomach bug on Thanksgiving unable to enjoy any of the wonderful food.

I hope everyone is taking it light today and is looking foward to Thanksgiving.

-Justin Germino

This has been a trying year in my life and some of my good friends know the bitter details, but I would like to remind everyone that no matter what blows you are dealt in life, always try to think optimistically.  This post I am inspiring those to share what they are thankful for and spread care, love and optimism across the blogging community.

I am not talking about being thankful for material things like your Nikon binoculars that you got for your birthday or anything. I want you to share about who and what you are thankful for and why. Events, people or occasions that help shape you and make you who you are.

I am thankful for my two beautiful children my oldest who turned five last month and my youngest who turned two this month.  They are the greatest things in my life, the oldest is so vocal and open and communicates so well for his age, he can readily engage in conversation and his understanding level is years beyond him.  He is smart, funny, intelligent and super active, bores too quickly, bugs me to play with him every second of every day and I love every minute of it.  My little one is strong willed, stubborn, loves to rough house, beats up on his older brother, loves tickles, hide and seek and getting into everything.

These boys have brought new meaning into my life and I cannot and would never want to imagine my life again without them in it.  This also brings me to thank the beautiful, intelligent and sometimes frustrating woman that is their mother.  This girl and I have spent the last twelve years together facing off against the world and have been there for each other through thick and thin.  I knew from the moment I met her she was going to be someone special in my life, and she will always be the mother of the two best things in my life.  Though we have been through some tough times we hang in there and continue to try and support each other and forge ahead because in the end life is about learning, exploring and sharing it with your best friend, your partner and your soul mate.

So what and who are you thankful for my friends?

-Justin Germino

I decided to write this blog post and turn it into a spark opportunity where people can share some of their favorite holiday gifts they have received over the years. I know that one of my all time favorite gifts was a few years ago when I was looking at digital cameras and added one to my wish list. My wife had bought me the Canon Digital Rebel XT, and this was one of my favorite gifts of all time. I capture pictures of the family, nature and whatever else I can with my camera. It is always reliable, takes fantastic images and though I have not had the pleasure to purchase any it supports many different lenses.

For taking photo’s of my Christmas lights I manually adjust the F-Stop and Shutter speed and play with various manual settings, since the default modes don’t do well for super dark environments, but the camera can do just about anything I need it to. With resolutions up to 8 megapixels it has more than enough for me. I really want to add a telephoto lens at some point, just have to have the spare money to do so.

What makes this gift really special is that my wife saved up and scrimped to purchase it for me, I really appreciated that and it was a big surprise gift since I thought it was way outside of our budgets and didn’t think I would get it.

One other gift of mention was when my wife bought me the PlayStation 2 back in 1999, the first year it was released. It could not be found in any stores, to make sure I had one that year (I was a huge final fantasy fan, and Final Fantasy X released with it) she actually paid over $200 more than retail to purchase it and make sure it was under my Xmas tree that year. That kind of devotion to find the ultimate gift I wanted no matter the price meant a lot to me, the funny thing is on Xmas day when I opened it, the one she bought was defective right from the start, and we had to trade it in to Toys R Us to get a replacement which the store had kept some on reserve just to replace defective ones. That PS2 lasted me 8 years and I have played many games on it over the years, It has a special memory not because of just some game console, but what my wife went through to give it to me and is also one of my favorite presents.

So tell me my readers and fellow bloggers, what are some of your favorite presents and gifts?

-Justin Germino

So had read this post on Postcards From The Funny Farm about Consensual Infidelity and read Damien Riley’s point of view on the subject.  This was a subject that made me want to share my views and opinions on the subject because I do echo Damien Riley’s comments and point of view in many ways here.

Infidelity is absolutely wrong by any right, the act of cheating and lying and hiding information from your spouse or partner is toxic to any relationship and only people with unhealthy self images and poor self confidence would put up with this and endure this repeatedly.  I do feel great empathy for these people and hope that they have enough strength to realize that they should never compromise their values and who they are for fear of not finding someone else as is the most common trap which keeps someone in this type of relationship.

Consensual Infidelity is when both partners are open and honest and agree to share or have an extramarital relationship.  This can be for money as in an offer in the movie Indecent Proposal, or this can be just to experiment or look outside the relationship.  If you are the type of couple that this is something that interests you this is something that can really strain a relationship.  These are called Open Relationships by some, or non-traditional marriages by others.

I myself am a little old fashioned, I hold the physical relationship as sacred as the mental one.  I believe when two people are married and committed they are committed to each other on a mental, spiritual and physical level.  There is no price that can be put on this, and one could agree or disagree with this however they choose.  There is no offer someone could make to be with my wife that I would accept monetarily as that would demean the physical affection we share for one another.

That being said I know people who think sex is just physical pleasure and does not convey the true deeper meanings of love and friendship, they would argue that you can truly love someone and be in love with someone and just have physical relations with other people and they don’t really mean or convey the deep feelings of love.  I respect people for this point of view and know many guys that would kill to be in a relationship with this type of freedom but it is not my cup of tea.

-Justin Germino

So the day before Thanksgiving I am going to see Vayden in the evening and always enjoy their music.  They are a local Arizona rock band that has toured recently with Tantric and you can hear their music on KUPD as well as Sirius Octane.  Their album Children of Our Mistakes is very good and I like virtually every track on the CD.

So low and behold I am just over thirty years old and realize that I have a few acne issues on my forehead, this started happening when I started combing my hair forward instead of backward. Now my hair touches my forehead which causes it to break out a little. I keep my hair washed daily its just that my skin is so sensitive even something brushing up against it causes it to break out. I have to figure out the best easy to use acne treatment to keep this type of issue under control.

It really is embarrassing to have acne when you are an adult, though I don’t have much acne anymore, I still have the occasional breakout on my head or face. It figures that it happens right before you go out, women have it easy actually, they can cover their acne with makeup and diminish its appearance greatly.

Truthfully, I am one of those people who is not happy overall with how I look and constantly battles self image problems.  I do realize and am envious of people who are happy with who they are, whether you are large, small, tall or short, as long as you are happy with who you are you should not be concerned with how other people think.  I can say this and mean it for other people, yet have a hard time following my own words for myself.

-Justin Germino

I actually was surprised when I found information about Pinewood derby trophies. This is because I can see many benefits to ordering trophies as rewards for kids who are in competitive sports, or if you want to reward them for academic achievement. Trophies and awards can be a good motivator for children, if your son or daughter gets straight A’s all semester, it may be worth purchasing a trophy or award that they can keep in their room as a reminder of their achievement.

This simple reward mechanism actually helps kids feel like they achieve something and get rewarded for their efforts, and to be honest I have bought my children action figures or toys as a reward and they play with them, break them and three months later they forget why they got them. A trophy or award is something they will remember for a long time, and they can stare at it in accomplishment. I actually am one of those people who is proud of all the awards and trophies I have one at work, and I keep them and collect them as a symbol of pride.

Not all people react the same way, but you can tell very quickly if your child is someone who responds well to trophies and awards, and if they do, then consider purchasing one for them for some achievement they have accomplished repeatedly, or a big game that they have won. Or offer to sponsor some awards or trophies for your school’s activities, or little league…etc The teams would very much appreciate the donation.

-Justin Germino

There had been weeks of advertising, promoting and work put into the rock show last night at Crabby Dons in Gilbert.  Several people who I knew from Twitter had arrived and it was great to meeting them in person, I wish I had more time to talk and get to know them.  I was however relegating to handling the door and I took peoples cover and gave them wrist bands.

All in all we brought in 63 people who were there for the show and paid cover to get in, there were another 60 or so who were there for a benefit and were only there to drink and not for the show.  These people were allowed to stay on the patio or in the other room where the band wasn’t playing.

There were alot of people sneaking in to see the bands and one couple actually refused to pay and bypassed the cover and then stuck into the show from another door.  The place as 4 entrances into the show room, so it is hard to man and keep tabs of everyone.

The bands only made $3 per head count, so really people who refuse to pay are taking money away from the bands, as it is the bands were paid between $50 and $65 per band so they play and perform and barely make $15 per band member for playing.  The musicians do it for the love of sharing their music, but they deserve to be compensated for performing their art, people shouldn’t stress so much about a $7 cover.

Our company did take a loss of around $115 to perform the show, we brought in enough tickets to cover venue fee, band payments, but were not able to recoup all of our advertising costs (Posters, Flyers, Print ads…etc).

But the turnout was great and we still consider it a success as it was our 2nd show.  My boss was really happy and is already looking to plan the next show in the up and coming months.

-Justin Germino

Doing my final broadcasts and helping my wife with the last minute preparations for the Rock Along Productions 2nd show tonight at Crabby Dons in Gilbert Arizona.  I have to take my son to a friends birthday party in about 15 minutes and then come back and get ready for tonight.  In the meantime it has been a whirlwind day of cleaning, playing with the boys, cleaning and more cleaning.

After being away from home the choreboard had about 20 items on it, but I managed to knock down the vacuuming, mowing the grass and some other minor chores.  Still I have a lot of landscaping and yard trimming to do and the sprinkler system in the yard snapped the valve that connects to the hose bib, so I have to go to home depot later and pick up a new one.

I hope to see some of you at the Rock Show tonight, if you don’t have plans, it is worth coming by, you get to see 4 bands for $7 and the show starts at 9pm.  For details visit Rock Along Productions.

-Justin Germino

This is my personal blog and as such I will use this opportunity to tell you about how my physical health and fitness has reshaped over the years. Now whenever I create a New Years resolution, I do it with the mindset of a project manager. Your fitness goals are a project, and as with any project you need resources to help you complete the project.

I broke down these into four simple steps:

1. Figure Out Goals
2. Research Options To Get There
3. Implementation
4. Testing and Validating
5. Measuring Success and Results

• Figure Out Goals

Almost three years ago I had realized that I had gotten fat and my weight gain was not attributed to genetics, health problems or medical conditions, but due to poor diet and exercise. I was sedidentary and chose to overeat and consume more food than was necessary, I felt the need to eat until I felt full which it took enormous amounts to determine that feeling full and feeling gorged are two completely different things.

I had decided that it was time to change my lifestyle before I became much older, so at twenty nine years old I decided to revamp my way of living. I set my goals and this was to lose 1-2 pounds per month over the next two years. It took me 10 years to gain 40 pounds, so I should be able to work them off in about 2 to 3 years.

• Research Options To Get There

For research you need to determine whether you want to use or include fat burner pills like Leptovox or do you want to try dieting, or exercising, or combinations of all three. When I made my goals I researched all sorts of products and decided that I would try with just dietary modifications and exercise. I was saving the pills and true dieting only as a last resort if I couldn’t achieve my goal with moderate diet adjustments and exercise.

I also found that weight lifting and power training are far better at weight loss than simple cardio and aerobic activities. This is because they increase your lean muscle mass which helps deplete fat. However, if you want to improve your stamina so you don’t get winded so quickly, you need to do cardio aerobic activities as Weight Lifting does not help stamina very much.

• Implementation

Once you choose your method you implement over the length of time you have set. Hopefully you can choose a routine you can stick with, make sure you chose something that isn’t too agressive, but you can also notice results within a few months. My implementation went like this, I bought a weight bench, Wii Fit, and chose to cut my calorie intake to around 2,000 per day maximum. I started slow, like when eating fast food, I chose to only order 2 items on the menu instead of 3 or 4. Then eventually I weaned these back to 1 item, and skip the side items if possible, or substitute for healthier choices.

• Testing and Validation

You test your goals by trying on your clothing, you validate your results by measuring yourself. Don’t do this daily, unless you use Wii Fit which actually does a good job of tracking your goals. Check weekly, and if you see 1 pound is lost consider that a big success. Make sure you weight yourself with almost no clothing on, and at the same time each day. I did weigh myself at 6am and then weighed myself at 6pm and noticed I was 2 pounds different between the times just from daily eating and drinking.

• Measuring Success and Results

At first I didn’t see much right, just one pound loss this month, two pounds this month and I was thinking “is this even worth it?” but, I noticed within three months that my size 40 pants were too lose, I was on the last notch in my belt, by six months my size 38 pants were too loose. One thing after another, and now almost 3 years later, I fit comfortably in a size 34 pant, but I can wear size 32 Jeans for when I go out and can wear them with only very minor discomfort. My belt sizes shrunk considerably. I was really fitting into size 32 and 34 again, after 12 years of being that waist size.

• Summary

Believe me, it is possible to achieve, you just have to find your plan and measure your success. I did no dieting, I did not restrict chocolate, sugar, fat, or anything. I just reduced portions, and it takes time. It took weeks before my body got used to the new portion sizes and I cut out night snacking, don’t eat after 6pm if you can help it, only drink water or another light beverage. Work out alot, if your muscles are not sore the next day then you are not working out hard enough. Increase weights every 8-12 weeks by 5-10 pounds, make sure your muscles are sore and they will grow and you will feel it, and it will help with your metabolism.

I hope this post helps you and encourages you to set your own goals, let me know about your success stories my friends.

After going with some friends and coworkers to NY NY Hotel and having some drinks and playing video poker, we arrived back at The Venetian via taxi just before one in the morning. Only to have my alarm abruptly wake me up at six AM to get my suitcases loaded and dragged to the airport. My wife and I arrived at the airport in plenty of time to make our 8:20am flight and had a little debacle at Starbucks. The first issue is they only serve cold bagels, and have no toaster in the Las Vegas airport Starbucks and the other issue is that my wife ordered a coffee and three times and three attempts there were tons of coffee grounds floating in the coffee which made it non potable.

I spoke to the manager and had our bill refunded and we wound up getting the bagel and coffee at another station. My stomach was feeling a bit sick from the food and drink last night, so I tried to take it easy and just relax and rest on the plane. It is a very short flight being barely an hour from Las Vegas to Phoenix, so I barely had time to boot up my laptop and write up this blog post.

Overall the trip was very good this year, the show could have had more attendance but economic times are tough and companies can’t spend the travel money that they could in previous shows. My own presentation went much better than expected and I am proud that I have done it and come off so strong and represented my company and my own expertise well.

Couldn’t have asked for a more successful CA World this year.

-Justin Germino