Justin Germino Ramblings

Mira over at Random Thoughts is holding one of the largest Blog Prize Contests I have ever seen this month I have decided to enter the contest with as many entries as possible, you can enter with each blog post on a unique blog as well as by subscribing to RSS feeds and hosting Mira’s 125×125 ads on your blog.  See Random Thoughts blog for all instructions on how to enter and some people have offered some amazing prizes.  I was hoping to sponsor but looks like I didn’t get on the sponsor list quick enough.

1st PRIZE

$25 – c/o Random Thoughts

Customized Blog Layout (blogger platform) c/o My Web-Blog Designs

1 Swarovsky Bracelet c/o Yen’s Handmades [Click here to see the ITEM]

$20 + 2000 EC credits c/o Windmill on the Hill

$10 + 500 EC credits c/o My Life’s Journey to Success

$10 + 500 EC credits c/o Things I Did Not Know Before

$10 + 500 EC credits c/o Unique Ideas For Your Beach Weddings

2000 – EC credits + 1 month 125×125 ad space c/o Night Clicks

1000 – EC credits + 1 month 125×125 ad space c/o NetFreeSource

3000 – EC credits c/o Random Thoughts

1 month 125×125 ad space c/o Dashing Beauty

1 month 125×125 ad space c/o Tales of a Pinay Single Mommy

1 Photo Pop Art Make-over c/o Sweety Tots

2nd PRIZE

$20 – c/o Mira’s Web Journal

2500 – EC credits c/o Mira’s Web Journal

2000 – EC credits c/o A Moment to Exhale

20GB Web Hosting c/o http://angelic-melody.net + 500EC credits

1000 – EC credits + 1 month 125×125 ad space c/o My Countryhome

1000 – EC credits + 1 month 125×125 ad space c/o Live Love Pink

1000 – EC credits + 1 month 125×125 ad space c/o Samantha’s Own

1 month 125×125 ad space c/o 1716 South

1 month 125×125 ad space c/o Garage Sale

1 Photo Pop Art Make-over c/o Sweety Tots

3rd PRIZE

$15 – c/o A Moment to Exhale

3000 – EC credits c/o Big Boys Have Toys Too

2000 – EC credits c/o A Taste of Both Worlds

1000 – EC credits + 1 month 125×125 ad space c/o Kharlota dot Com

1000 – EC credits + 1 month 125×125 ad space c/o A Girl for All Status

1000 – EC credits + 1 month 125×125 ad space c/o A Fil-Am Journey

1 year text link ad c/o http://glamorous-heart.info

1 month 125×125 ad space c/o Symphony of Love

1 month 125×125 ad space c/o Sweepstakes Girl

1 Photo Pop Art Make-over c/o Sweet…Pretty…Naughty

4th PRIZE

$10 – c/o My Barefoot Journey

2000 – EC credits c/o Mommy’s Little Corner

2000 – EC credits c/o My Online Paradise

2000 – EC credits c/o Kinda Life of Mine

1000 – EC credits + 1 month 125×125 ad space c/o Just About Anything

1 month text link ad Thomas Travel Tales

1 month text link ad Great Finds and Deals

5th PRIZE

2000 – EC credits c/o Wife of a Warrior

3000 – EC credits c/o Life’s Sweets and Spices

1000 – EC credits + 1 month 125×125 ad space c/o Simply Irresistible

1000 – EC credits + 1 month 125×125 ad space c/o My Sweet Haven

1 month text link ad Work At Home Jobs

1 month text link ad Erlinda‘s Wandering Thoughts

6th PRIZE

2000 – EC credit c/o The Solitairy Love

1500 – EC credit c/o My Barefoot Journey

1000 – EC credits c/o My Kitchen Table

1000 – EC credits + 1 month 125×125 ad space c/o Kalidadis

1000 – EC credits + 1 month 125×125 ad space c/o Cooking is Fun

1 month text link ad CompTechGadgets.com

1 month text link ad Healthy Living and Lifestyle

7th PRIZE

1000 – EC credits + 1 month 125×125 ad space c/o Simplement Belles

1000 – EC credits + 1 month 125×125 ad space c/o Moi et mon univers!

1000 – EC credit c/o Scrappy Mommy

1000 – EC credits c/o Dashing Smiles

1000 – EC credits c/o Everything Plus the Kitchen Sink

1000 – EC credits c/o One at a Time

1 month text link ad Thomas Web Links

1 month text link ad Bohol Paradise

8th PRIZE

1000 EC + 1 month 125×125 ad space from My Daily Sunset

1000 – EC credits c/o My Kitchen

1000 – EC credits c/o My Life and Family Journey

1000 – EC credits c/o My Whole New World

1000 – EC credits c/o Definitely Maybe

500 – EC credits c/o I Thought So

1 month text link ad Batuananons

9th PRIZE

1000 EC + 1 month 125×125 ad space from Lovely Pink

1000 – EC credits c/o Small Side Bits

1000 – EC credits c/o In His Steps

1000 – EC credits c/o Moments of My Life

1000 – EC credits c/o My Crossroads

1 month text link ad Filipino Online Community

10th PRIZE

1000 EC + 1 month 125×125 ad space from Hobby and Such by Carlota

1000 – EC credits c/o My Life’s Adventure

1000 – EC credits c/o Wonderful Things In Life

1000 – EC credits c/o The Joy of Life Forever

500 – EC credits c/o Life’s Journey

1 month text link ad from Nita’s Random Thoughts

11th PRIZE

1000 – EC credits c/o Medan Daily

1000 – EC credits c/o Wiehanne Lounge

1000 – EC credits c/o Simply WP

1000 – EC credits c/o Everything Under the Sun

1 month text link ad from Nita’s Corner

12th PRIZE

1500 – EC credits c/o A Moment to Exhale

1000 – EC credits c/o My Barefoot Journey

1000 – EC credits c/o EastCoastLife

-Dragon Blogger

Boy I have had a difficult Saturday and so here is my moral for this weekend “Never let a toddler out of your sight for five minutes”, I learned this the hard way when I had to work from home on Friday and was watching my two year old at the same time.  I had to take a quick conference call so I set him up with a movie, snack and drink figuring he would be good for about 1/2 hour by himself.  Little did I realize that while I was working he had gotten into our natural cleaner (Water/Vinegar spray bottle) and sprayed it over various surfaces in the house (Fridge, TV, Floor…etc).

The next day I hadn’t realized he had sprayed our 48″ rear projection TV and I saw horrid dark streak stains covering 70% of the TV Screen, the spray had gotten between the various layers of screens and films for the rear projection TV and there was no way to clean it from the outside.  I had no choice but to dismantle the Mitsubishi WS-48313 manually and clean all 3 screens manually with distilled alcohol, I had called a service place but they wanted between $400 and $500 to do the service job and repair the parts.

It took me almost 2 hours to clean and reverse engineer the TV to put it all back together but I managed to do it and it works as good as it did prior to the spraying incident.  Leaving my two year old to watch TV by himself for a little while almost cost me a $500 TV repair job or worse maybe a new TV.  I wasn’t worried about much else, we have covers on all the outlets, all doors to bathrooms closed (he can’t open them yet) but one little bottle under a sink.  We don’t keep any chemical cleaners under sinks, but water/vinegar was pretty safe, I just didn’t realize it could do so much damage.

So all is good now, I will not let my two year old out of my sight again for sure.

-Justin Germino

So for decades now I have been living with irritable bowel syndrome which mostly is triggered by eating almost any type of food. It is messed up that I can’t eat a normal meal without suffering pain for hours afterward. I have also developed lactose intolerance over the years which means Ice Cream and milk I have never tasted in many years. Cheese which is one of my favorite indulgences is something that is causing more and more grief as I get older.

I am going to have to research new foods that are high in elemental calcium as calcium carbonate which is added to many foods is not as nutritious and absorbed as well. In the meantime I try to limit myself to blander lean foods where I can to limit the amount of pain I endure most of the time.

Seems like Salmon, Chicken and lean grilled beef cause me the least amount of trouble. Plain rice and pasta’s aren’t so bad, but adding tomato sauce always sets off my stomach acids. Meanwhile, I had already tried over the years every type of prescription or over the counter antacid or stomach pill, even lactaid does nothing to help my lactose issues. I tried natural carrot juice and almonds too for my stomach which helps very little but is good for you.

-Justin Germino

Vayden one of our favorite local Arizona Rock Bands is playing at Club Red tonight in Tempe, they are very fun to see live and have a ton of energy on stage.  We have seen them about a half dozen times in the past six months and I always enjoy seeing them rock a show.  Their music is heard on local Arizona rock station 98 KUPD and Sirius / XM Octane radio.

I encourage everyone who likes rock music to check them out, they are more unique and distinctive than the typical rock/pop rehashed stuff that plays on the radio nowadays, they have a unique style and vocals that stands out from the traditional stuff.

-Justin Germino

This is a new series I am creating to help spur readers who are interested in science as it is one of my favorite subjects and hobbies.  I always wondered what was the smallest organ in the human body, and after doing some research I finally received the answer to this question.

The Pineal Gland is the smallest organ in the human body, it is a small gland in the brain that produces melatonin the hormone that regulates your sleeping patterns.  This gland is a small cone shaped organ only 8mm in diameter and can be seen on a regular X-ray.    In animals and to some degree people the Pineal Gland in addition to controlling sleeping patterns the gland also has an effect on seasonal changes, hibernation, puberty and seasonal breeding.

That is my science fact for the day.

-Justin Germino

Several years ago I had wanted to buy a cardio device to help me on my fitness goal and had pursued research on both treadmills and ellipticals. I did wind up buying an elliptical that was a factory refurbished and returned one for a good price, and I used it often at first.

The thing was extremely large and bulky for my office, I had no other space in the house for it and it started squeaking and didn’t provide enough impact for my intention which was to build muscle. However, I do believe that ellipticals are better as you can adjust the setting to get a much greater impact for your leg muscles than you can with just a treadmill. The smooth motion doesn’t cause the knee problems that can be associated with a stair machine, which does the greatest muscle impact, but can be hard on your knee’s if you bend them at too much of an angle.

In the end I donated my elliptical and traded it for a weight bench that can do both arms, chest and 2 types of leg curls. Now I just run up and down the stairs holding weights in my hands for my aerobic exercise. For my house there just wasn’t enough space in my office for both a weight bench and an elliptical and I found a weight bench was better suited toward what I was looking to achieve (upper body strength increase and muscle growth).

For women I imagine that ellipticals are probably much more likely to be used than a weight bench and would think it is a good choice for women looking to work out. Choose one of the newer ones that have stair like movements. The one I had previously was one where the sides would circle and the elliptical would extend the poles out in front and behind as you used it. The ones that look more like stair machines are better in my opinion and are closer to stair machines for growing your leg muscles.

Remember the key to losing weight, the more muscle you gain the faster you lose weight and firm up. Cardio is great for building fitness and endurance, but if you are looking to tone and drop pounds fast, building muscle is more efficient and will give you faster results.

-Justin Germino

I decided to do some reading and research and post some information and facts about our new president from his life, one’s life experiences help create and forge the character one becomes.  Obama’s unique experiences and dealing with many “modern age” issues as a child going through them puts him in touch with people better than some of the presidents from traditional family establishments.  Personally, I hope Obama ushers in a new age of what future leaders of this country will be, every president should have vision and future and be quite in touch with reality and what is going on in society.  Too often presidents have lived cultured, groomed lives and have been raised to be out of touch with the middle class and poor.  Not to say that some people of extraordinary vision, talent and ability shouldn’t be able to take office, but they must at least be able to understand and know what the majority of the country lives through.

Some facts about Obama growing up:

• Barack’s parents met in 1960 and married in 1961, they separated when Obama was 2 years old and divorced in 1964.  Barack Obama Sr. who was born in Nyanza Province in Kenya, only saw his son once more since the divorce before dying in a vehicle accident in 1982.

• Obama’s mother married an Indonesian student after her divorce and during 1967 when Indonesia recalled all students studying aboard both she and Barack moved with Lolo Soetoro back to Indonesia where Barack continued to study in local schools there until he was 10 years old.

• Obama returned to live with his maternal grandparents in Hawaii from 10 years old until graduating high school, his mother returned to Hawaii for 5 years in 1972, but moved back to Indonesia until 1994 when she moved back to Hawaii.  She died of ovarian cancer in 1995.

• Obama admits that during his teenage years he has done marijuana, cocaine and alcohol to deal with life stress and questions at the time.  He declared later on that turning to drugs was one of his greatest moral failures in his early years.

• Obama met many of his paternal family for the first time when visiting Kenya in 1988.

These life experiences make him unique and give him a very honest point of view of what it is like to grow up in non-traditional family architecture, he is not one who has hid any of his wrongs from his past (at least so far it appears that way).  I can only hope that Obama stays true to his word and becomes a president that shows clarity and vision and leads the country toward a better future.  Particularly by aiding the middle class and lower class who need a way to benefit from the system and not be left behind or broken in the process.

-Justin Germino

-Sources from most of this information was found on wikipedia

My poor five year old came down sick with a bad cold on Saturday and is not feeling any better, we had to delay our trip to the Zoo until he is feeling better.  He is really sad and dismayed so I kept the day off of work to spend time with him to ease the disappointment.  In the meantime colds catch like wild fire in families and with the baby sharing bottles and even taking his brother’s tissues and stuffing them in his mouth he is bound to get this cold next, as well as us parents.

I will probably be holding a Twitter poetry contest tomorrow since I will be around the house and try to get some blog posts done while my son naps.  Everyone else have a good Monday and give a silent nod to Martin Luther King who had vision and conscience and was an inspiration for human rights and humanity way ahead of his time.

-Justin Germino

Our family has discussed adding a second Boston Terrier to our household in the near future, and I have seen many breeders and sites that sell puppies from a far and will ship them to you. My family is a little old school here, when you are choosing a family pet you have to go and meet the puppy or adult dog in person and get a feel for its personality, how it looks and acts. I truly believe that people have a “spark” with the pets that they will share their homes with for many years.

I just couldn’t purchase a pet over the Internet and have it delivered to me at my door because It’s not like if you aren’t happy with it you can just pack it in some shipping boxes and send it back to where you got it from. Our dog is almost fully recovered after several weeks, it is strange he had almost total paralysis in his right rear leg 3 weeks ago and now has so much zippy energy and appears to have full use of the same leg again. I don’t think the anti-inflammatory medicine would have made him feel better, he must have just injured his spine (pinched an nerve) and it finally is healing very well. Our dog is back to his old spunky self, but all of this has made the family realize it is only a matter of time and adding a second Boston to our family would be good this year.

One the kids can bond too and soften the blow if the eldest one should get sick again in the next few years, and one that could bond with the kids a bit better. Our older Boston Terrier is my wife’s dog and everybody knows it, him most of all knows who he belongs to. Our oldest dog is always friendly with the boys but doesn’t really play with them, he ignores them mostly or tries to get out of there way but only actively engages and plays with my wife and I. The new puppy would bond with the boys and have a much more “I belong to the whole family” since he would have grown up with the boys since it was a puppy.

So maybe this June for my wife’s birthday we will be picking out a new Boston Terrier, my wife is hoping to fall in love at first sight with one as she did with the one we have. I think lightning will strike again, she has a fondness for the breed now and although she likes other terriers and all dogs really, Boston Terriers have a special place in her heart.

-Justin Germino

I have been with the woman of my dreams for almost twelve years now and we have a family with two small kids, one of the things that people should never forget is that you should forever continue the “woo” phase of the relationship.  Never stop showing what your partner means to you with gestures, words and other ways.  It doesn’t have to be lavishly expensive, I coined the phrase “Woo on a budget” meaning you show expression without spending large sums of money (but if you have the money don’t be cheap either, nobody likes a miser).

One of the things I intend to do far more frequently is to date my wife, take her out on the town at least a few times a month where the kids can be watched by Grandma and we just have private alone time with us to talk and share each others company without the kids running around, the noise and distraction of daily life.  I suggest everyone try this more often, it is easy to date when you are single or in your early years, and gets harder when you have children, jobs and all the stresses that come with it all.

One thing to note, leave cell phones and blackberry’s at home or set them to silent.  Nothing kills a romantic evening like SMS messages flying back and forth and somebody checking their phone constantly while trying to engage in conversation over dinner.  Never forget to show the love in your life just how special they are to you, I know I will never take my woman for granted and I have committed to showing her every chance I get what she means to me and how much I adore her.

Sometimes relationships can become “stale” or “complacent” and it takes some effort to break the monotony of daily routine, show some spark, fire and passion with some gestures that are unexpected and come at random times.  It really will benefit your relationship as a whole.

-Justin Germino