Justin Germino Ramblings

This weekend my wife and I had a fairly large list of chores to do including going through all of our five year and two year olds clothes sorting what can be transfered from the older boy to the younger one, and what goes into storage because its too small for my toddler to wear.  It is amazing how fast children grow, I wonder why I ever bought more then five or six pairs of clothes as we had thirty or fourty shirts and pants that were outgrown within a year.  This took about an hour to complete including redoing the bookshelf in my son’s room, but before we took on this chore I took on one of the most difficult chores I didn’t anticipate.

We had some of the caulk between our kitchen counter and wall coming apart so we figured buy a tube of caulk, caulk gun and recaulk the entire kitchen countertop and bathroom shower ourselves. This appeared to be much easier said then done. In stripping the old caulk and applying the new caulk we quickly learned that spreading the caulk evenly and smooth is very difficult and when you press it to smooth it, it leaks out and smears over the wall and countertop.

Needless to say we stripped the whole first layer and redid it, wetting your finger prior to spreading helps smooth the caulk, but the smear spread on the countertop and wall are hard to prevent. I wound up having to use a razer and trim the caulk after it all dried and was painted over. This whole task took nearly two and a half hours and was extremely frustrating.

I did read after the fact that using painter’s tape can help keep the caulk to specific area’s you want to caulk, but for the future I think I will buy the caulk and just pay a professional to apply it, it is worth the cost of labor to have the caulk applied by someone with experience. Unless you are extremely patient and willing to try and try again, do not attempt to do this yourself. In fact, I would practice for at least 1/2 hour on wooden boards in the garage before trying it for real.

I am literally exhausted now and have turned to blogging while my wife went out to get a pedicure and manicure to relax a little bit after today’s chore fest.

-Justin Germino

I like many people were trying to find ways of making money on the side at home besides my full time day job. I didn’t want to take on a full second job where I would be spending even more time away from my kids, so I was looking for part time stuff that I can do from home online at night while the kids were asleep. Something that would allow me not to lose time with my family yet still bring in something on the side. Last year I was introduced to Inbox dollars by a blog site about making money online. I decided to sign up and try it, this site will pay you for reading (acknowledging) emails, completing surveys, signing up for free offers and sometimes for playing certain games.

Can you make money from it? The answer is yes but again this is something that will not make you rich quickly, you only get paid about 2 cents per Inbox dollar email you get sent, so this takes a long time to add up. You also get the most money by signing up for free stuff, and for doing surveys. The surveys can be 30 minutes long and pay you $1 – $3 dollars on average per survey, so realistically you average somewhere between $3 and $5 per hour of dedicated work on InboxDollars.

Now if you truly spend time doing all the things in the system you can make some money, they cut you a check by mail when you reach $30. I wish they used Paypal and made payments in $10 increments, I have between $15 and $20 in my inboxdollars account now, but I don’t do any surveys or sign up for any free things. I just do the email thing, so that is just from occasionally clicking on the follow through link of an email to get the credit.

I have seen some people claim they can make $50 – $100 per month leveraging inbox dollars, and I can see how this is possible. You have to be real good about signing up for free stuff, and remembering to cancel so your credit card doesn’t get charged later. Those kind of free trial things give you the big bonus amounts, and you can easily get $40 or $50 in one week by doing those type of sign ups. At the risk and inconvenience of filling out forms and having to cancel it later, or if you find legitimate stuff like if you were going to order a credit report anyway, why not get the extra $8 refunded via inbox dollars…etc

Being the fact that I make only about $1.20 per hour blogging, InboxDollars can equal or exceed that if you are looking to try and make a small increment of money from your own home. For me, I prefer blogging because I can share my opinion, my voice, build interaction with an audience. InboxDollars is a lot of effort for a little bit of money but you can do it from your own home and after hours and it may be useful for some people. If you are interested, click on the link at the top of this email to give them a try. They do give you $5 in your account just to start out, but remember you have to reach $30 to get this payout, so don’t think you can just sign up and get the $5. It takes some effort. Honestly some people make more from Inbox dollars than google Adsense easily, I earn about $1 per month just from clicking on email links. Which is about 60 seconds of effort a day at most.

If you are already using Inbox dollars, I want you to share your opinion of it, do you find it more or less useful than I described?

-Justin Germino

I can tell you from personal experience and from my heart that “The Arts” in all their form “Music, Theater, Paintings, Crafts, Games…etc” are vital in a child’s life. Exposing children to arts and creativity unlocks potential and mental ways of thinking you wouldn’t believe. Music especially helps children socially, logically, intellectually and emotionally in ways that forever shape the way they think in the future. My son for instance is only five and is only his 2nd week of drum lessons, he can know the difference between a quarter note, eighth and sixteenth notes. He can hit his snare drum in a pattern to those notes, he can read in silent notes and know when to pause his hits. His counting has always been very good but his grasp of timing and mathematics behind musical notes astounds me at how fast he can pick it up and learn.

Every child in this country should be encouraged to learn how to play a musical instrument, any musical instrument. They should be taught to read sheet music and experiment with a few instruments (Guitar, Flute, Drums, Trombone) whatever they want. The younger the age the better as they will develop that sense of creativity and understanding that will make it easier for them in the future. There are studies that show that music students are much better at mathematics, testing and even in problem solving. Kids who are creative with music have less stress, less depression, less tendency to turn to drug use, (don’t let the rock music folks fool you). Not just music but art in general, let them paint with oils or acrylics, let them sculpt in clay. Buy them a pack of high quality modeling clay that you can bake and make their creation a permanent decoration for their bedroom. Expose them to local museums and art shows if you are able, especially go out and see free live local music bands for all ages audiences.

The more things you expose your kids to the more “Worldly” they will become and more educated, creative and open minded they will become. The less they are exposed to the more rigid and closed their world will be, and it is harder as an adult to open your mind than to have it open as a kid and let it stay that way throughout your entire life. I like all sorts of gaming, but some games are better than others, I can justify Role Playing games for children more than hackem/killem games. Role playing games they have hit points, magic points, skills, points, numbers…etc

My five year old goes around pretending his toys are certain levels and he will tell me one has between 10 and 20 hit points and another does 6-15 points of damage. He understands ranges of numbers, and at 5 he can count to one hundred almost flawlessly. I mentioned before we rudimentary role play where I roll dice during a story to see if he hits or misses, or does whatever and he has to read me the numbers or add them together. This type of role playing and rolling leads to him learning to count faster, and numbers come very easily to him.

Children need hobbies, passions and encouragement for anything artistic and creative, if they are the lazy type, then help push them along a bit. Convince them to give something new a try, one free class for an instrument, try it for 4 weeks, then you can try something else. Don’t ever force to where they are unhappy, crying or just miserable, but don’t let laziness get them out of trying something new and different. The more you experiment and try to expose them, some of it will stick and later in life they will thank you for exposing them to it.

You will hear “Yeah my mom had me try drumming, guitar, clay modeling, painting, soccer, volleyball, swimming classes…etc” and today I like and enjoy doing those things as a result of my mom exposing me to it, or getting me to try it as a kid.

You shape your children s future and you want it to be filled with open creativity and happiness, because they will find what they “want” to do faster and easier if you expose them to as much that is out there as possible.

Just some of my parental opinions.

-Justin Germino

In experimenting with my screencasting software CamStudio and people always asking “how do I vote or use BlogNetAwards?” I have decided to create my first audio/video screencast of how to vote on BlogNetAwards.  Hopefully you will vote for my personal blog for my efforts in presenting you with this video demonstration.

You can VOTE for Justin Germino on BlogNetAwards after watching this video.  I will also send you 500 entrecredits for voting if you are an Entrecard user, just leave me a blog message or entrecard message after you vote and I will transfer you the credits.

Tell me what you think of my video presentation, there was no cuts and outtakes, it was recorded live and unedited, so I did stutter a little bit (ironically I got a little nervous like I was giving a speech).

-Justin Germino

Did you know that there is a whole field of study on kissing called Philematology? Yes, there are courses and scientists who study kissing and its effect on human society. Kissing which is a form of affection that has existed pretty much since mankind was created is also somewhat practiced in the animal kingdom by higher primates. Kissing has been proven to reduce and relieve stress on both partners as the transfer of hormones in the saliva both increases testosterone (which causes desire and bonding/attachment) and reduces oxytocin which is the stress hormone.

A scientific study by Rutgers University showed that fifteen minutes of kissing greatly reduces the amount of stress on an individual and increases the feelings of affection, bonding, nurturing and attraction between couples. It is the exchange of testosterone in the saliva which increases tenderness, romantic interest and promotes that sense of bonding at a primitive level. MRI studies of human brains while kissing have shown wild increases in brain activity just from the act of kissing in various regions of the brain.

One other fact I found was that kissing once was highly hidden in public back in Roman-era times due to a highly contagious facial skin disease but was still widely practiced discreetly. Many paintings and artwork from this time period were discouraged to show kissing as to not promote it at the time.

Some interesting science facts for you.

-Justin Germino

My wife was a goddess when she came out of the bedroom fully dressed for the evening and my gaze was transfixed. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her as we drove to McCormick & Schmick Restaurant in Phoenix for a nice seafood dinner. The restaurant food as not as good as previous years in my opinion, I had a very delicious Crab Louis Salad as my appetizer, but my entrée which was Mahi Mahi with an orange shitake glaze was not very good.

My wife wanted live main lobster, but the selection was relatively poor on the menu, so she asked the waiter if they could just serve the whole lobster. The waiter had told us the cook only had 1 pound lobsters and they could be served. So she ordered two whole 1lb lobsters on a plate and I can tell you when the plate arrived with 2 fully boiled lobsters on it, most of the tables around us had people staring and I received many smiles.

The waiter was also extremly slow, we waited almost 10 minutes for our beverages, the appetizers and he would take forever for refills and to bring us our bill. We had never had poor service or food before at the restaurant, so this was a shock. Next year I will be finding a new seafood place I think.

So dinner was my reservation and plans for the evening, I was wondering what she had planned. It turns out she had bought tickets to see Patton Oswalt (King of Queens, Ratattouie) at the Tempe Improv. The show was fantastic, the comedian just before him (I can’t remember his name) was very funny as well. Patton has a dry witty nerdy sense of humor which appealed to us greatly.

We spent the romantic evening feasting on seafood and laughing for two hours at the Tempe Improv and all I thought on the drive back to Casa Grande at midnight was that this was the woman of my life and I was lucky to have her.

Here is a pic of us:

-Justin Germino

My blogging doesn’t make a lot of money on the side, but it does make some money.  I was able to take my wife, kids and in-laws out to breakfast on Valentines Day and pay for the whole $60 IHOP meal with blog earnings.  The night before I bought cold stone ice cream for my wife, kids and myself with blog money as well.  Sure, I basically sucked up 2 weeks of blog earnings in 1 meal and 1 dessert, but it felt nice that blogging earned me a little extra on the side and that my regular Checking account didn’t feel the impact of those two treats.

My blog money is purposed specifically for two things:

Invest back into blogging to try and grow my blogs  – This is where I will actually purchase links, buy posts or sponsorships, or sponsor contests.

Fun Money – This is the real best part, my blog money is separate from my day job, so all of my blog money can be used for little things like meals, small treats and presents…etc

If you spend some of your blog earnings on luxury or fun things, it makes you feel better about blogging and that your earnings are for your enjoyment.

Just something that I would share,

-Justin Germino

I want to begin this post by talking about love in general and that Valentines Day is over commercialized to death. If you only spend one day or two days a year getting your love flowers, or taking them out on a date, or going out of your way to make them feel loved and appreciated then your relationship is probably stale to one or both of you. Take time out often to recognize love for your partner after all they are with you and you with them. Find something to express your love, if money is an issue make small things and provide them from your heart.

My love and I go back almost a dozen years now and throughout the years I have tried to keep romance alive in whatever ways I could. When we were teenagers, I had very little money I used to pick local flowers from tree’s locally and give them to her. I used to tear leaves off of tree’s and then use little scissors to cut them into shapes and designs just to give her something to know I was thinking of her.

At some points I bought her flowers often and arranged them myself (cheaper than buying from a flower shop) and I would do this weekly or biweekly. I always wanted her to have fresh flowers in the house at any time. But some of the most important things are intangible and not monetary, I mostly make my own Valentines Day cards and holiday cards to give to her, I rarely buy them. They mean more, the effort and time and words that I put in them are far better than any store bought card (at least in my opinion).

So if you aren’t showing love often enough but you are doing something special this Valentines day, don’t let it stop today. Make biweekly dates, routine expressions of affection and love. Show your companion how much you care about them each and every day.

Valentines Day is just a reminder, and if you expressed your love often, then the day itself wouldn’t be so over commercialized and have so much meaning. If your partner is expecting something big for Valentines Day, or looking forward to that magic day, check and see if they are feeling like that every day or as often as possible.

Love doesn’t begin and end with a holiday.

Just some of my thoughts, and I would like to end the post saying this:

Forever I could not express just how much my lady means to me, she is the inspiration of my soul, the queen of my heart, the goddess of my dreams and my whole reason for being who I am today. Though I have made many mistakes in this rough road of life together, somehow we have mended the potholes, repaired the bridges and continue to be the shining light in each others heart.

I silently and openly thank whatever deity there may be for bringing her into my life and for her patience and forgiveness over the many years with me.

I could never do enough for her.

-Justin Germino

These are my thoughts on the St. Johns boy accused of murdering his father and another man at his home. This boy is charged with premeditated murder and it very well may have been deliberate, but unlike the minds of adults and teenagers old enough to be adults a 9 year old cannot have the comprehension skills to fully understand consequences and long term effects. This is a tragic case and only shows how our society is collapsing both morally, ethically and legally.

The 9 year old should have had no access to any gun or rifle in the house in the first place, every parent and owner of a gun whether you have kids or not should keep the gun locked in a safe. If not the gun itself then it should never have bullets in the gun and the bullets should be locked away. Either way the weapon should not be usable without having to unlock and open something in order to arm it or use it.

Second if you choose to own a gun in your family you must be honest with your children about its presence and its danger. I am not opposed to explaining what the gun is, what its purpose is and exposing children to it at a young age. Not ever letting them use it until they are old enough (this is subject to discretion of parents and what is appropriate) but not lie and leave the curiosity factor either.

But obviously locking the gun away from the kid was only the first problem with society, the second problem is that too often these days violence and aggression is seen as the norm. People blame violent video games, movies…etc.. but this isn’t true, violence has always existed. Long ago when there was no violence people including children used to crowd around executions watching criminals be beheaded, tortured, hung or shot in public executions. These were just as if not more violent than anything in a game on TV.

The difference is in education, awareness and keeping track of what your kids are doing and how they are behaving. This society of “Let TV raise the kids” or let a daycare raise the kids is causing people to lose touch with simply knowing who their child is. If you are around your child enough and “know” them you can pick up on subtle shifts in behavior, attitude and tendencies. If you aren’t around them that much then you are not as likely to notice these subtle changes.

The child in this case should not be prosecuted like an adult, nor should he be sent to Juvie until he is 18. The kid should be raised by a relative but should be getting mental treatment first at an inpatient facility and then have counseling probably for the rest of his life. Even if the kid would never do this again, the psychological damage of such an action will only cause the child to suffer depression, withdrawals and guilt to possibly be a suicidal alcoholic later in life. This is assuming the kid will be a person who feels remorse and regret, if the child truly has no empathy and develops into someone without such a skill then they could become more prone to violence, crime and other behaviors as an adult. Therapy is the only solution here, not prison which will just enforce the kid will live a brutal life of violence whether they are released or not.

Sadly, this case is only one of many where young kids are killing friends or parents, some by accident where they are showing off their family gun, others on purpose because a kid has a tantrum or gets frustrated and imitates what he or she sees. Kids have wild imaginations and have a hard time distinguishing fantasy from reality, they also cannot get a hold of their emotions easily without learning how.

This is a wake up call to everyone to be more vigilant with keeping open communication with your children, and learning to see if there are changes in their behavior. This is also a wake up call to people who own guns to keep them locked away, no child should have access to a gun ever. Even a teenager should not have access to a gun unattended, I am for training a teenager to hunt if your family is into that.

I am not against a right to bear arms at all actually, I believe that the world is getting less safe and people should have a means of defending their home. Police cannot respond fast enough if someone should break in and wish to do your family harm. Everyone should have a dog as a warning system (or a big one as an actually deterrent and defense), and with proper warning you can go and unlock your weapon to defend yourself. But you need to be careful and you need to be real about this.

-Justin Germino

Today our new Boston Terrier was taken to the vet to be fixed, since we never did plan on breeding him this was the obvious choice.  I dropped him off early before work and had some breakfast at IHOP, I can’t tell you how much I enjoy their sampler breakfast, I always ask for the Cinnamon Apple compote on the pancakes and I don’t use syrup.  I share my entree with my 2 year old, so its the right amount of food for me.  (Still too many calories though).

I have had a minor cold the last few days coughing a bit, and a scratchy throat.  It is a very minor one, I can’t really complain though.  As far as lung conditions go its very minor, at least I don’t need a Mesothelioma lawyer or anything.

Been very busy with my day job, and working for Rock Along Productions where there are 2 music shows now lined up. Working on posters for the shows in my spare time.
Gonna watch some TV tonight, The Office is on, and ER, so will curl up with my lady and just enjoy some quiet time after the kids go to bed.

On another note, I noticed 7 people have voted for my personal blog on BlogNetAwards, and I appreciate it.

Thank you so much for voting for me.

-Justin Germino