Justin Germino Ramblings

Thank you to my January Top Droppers who have all deserve to be added to everyone’s drop list. In addition to being listed here you get added to my Entrecard Generator on Dragonblogger.com for the month.

I have been an avid fan of NBC Heroes for several years and I wanted to point out something funny that happens when people become fans of anything. They start to research and learn more about things mentioned in the show, movie or game that interests them. For instance Heroes had numerous connections with Odessa, Texas which was where HRG and Claire lived, as well as the paper company Primatech had an operation there. Not knowing much about the geographical location of Texas I decided to map it and learned that Odessa is only a few hours west of Dallas.

But I notice people do that kind of thing all the time, for instance in the Movie Kung-Fu Panda, the Wu-Shi finger of death is mentioned as a joke, and I put the keyword on my KungFu Panda review on my blog only to learn people actually do type in “Wu Shi Finger Hold” or variations and end up on my blog site by some fictitious title of a fake martial arts move.

So people have a curiosity and google whatever they see or hear that interests them and sparks that curiosity, whether it be “real” or “fictitious”.

Just something that I have noticed.

-Justin Germino

This was amazing video that I was shown from CNN of a massive herd of manatee’s huddling together in the Florida waters for warmth. I have never seen so many of the gentle sea cows in a single location like this. I couldn’t help but watch the video in awe. Notice how many of the poor creatures have scars and injuries most commonly from scuffles with propellers or other man related water craft.

Manatee’s have always fascinated me by their simplistic and gentle life style and serene calm they always seem to have. They are actually one of my favorite animals.

-Justin Germino

Yes, my family and I did go to Denny’s this morning promptly after dropping my son off at kindergarten.  The line was long and it was a fourty minute wait, but we had 3 grand slam breakfasts and only paid $4.15 cents for drinks, plus I left a $5 tip.  The restaurant was so busy and by the time we left there were over a hundred people waiting in a line that wrapped around the building.  I don’t know how the restaurants can make money off of giving away free grand slams, but it certainly did a good job in drawing crowds to Denny’s.

The food was fairly good and better than previous times I had attended, the service was decent considering how busy they were and every table was filled and had to be turned over in a minute or so.  They had the food and drinks out fairly quickly as well.  Kudos to Denny’s for running such a massive campaign, that we partook in.

-Justin Germino

Our company Rock Along Productions 3rd Rock Show is being held at Goat Head Saloon in Mesa, Arizona on Saturday February 7th 2009.  This show features 4 excellent local rock bands including Razer, Sectas, Ethan 103 and Tridon who comes up from Tucson to play for the show.  The cost is only $7 dollars, but if you go to Rock Along Productions website, you can print out a $1 Off card which makes it $6 to see almost four hours of live rock music.

We also have the Phoenix Music Awards backing us up and will be showing up bringing some of their bands as guests, this should be a big bash and we are expecting a fantastic turnout.  We would like to see all fans of live music who live in the valley come out.  Also, join our Rock Along Productions Club meetup group where we coordinate monthly shows and get together’s with our fans and friends.

We hope to see as many of our Arizona followers as possible at the show, I will be the doorman and wearing the Rock Along Productions T-shirt.

-Justin Germino

It is really tough to be commercial real estate right now, Casa Grande is a sprawling small city but there are vacant communities everywhere. Home builders who went bankrupt leave dozens of acres of unfinished models, homes and vacant lots littering the city everywhere. There are entire shopping plaza’s complete and vacant with “For Lease” signs all over the windows.

You can actually go down some streets and stare at these things and feel almost as if you are in a Ghost Town, where there are literally dozens of homes with no residents, dozens of commercial buildings with no tenants or stores. All of this wasted building space, some of it is prime property in good well trafficked areas too.

I am sure it is like this all over the country, but in Phoenix since most of the building are established, there isn’t the vast expanse of abandoned buildings and homes like there is in a smaller city. I hope over the next few years more business take the chance and try to pick up in the area. Some do really well, others shut down within 6 months or a year, one such example is that there used to be 2 restaurants that served Greek Style food, and both have shut down in a year or less.

Everywhere feels the economic downturn, but this city it is very visible on the street corners of nearly every street and every residential community.

-Justin Germino

Keeping romance alive in your relationship is essential, what comes naturally early on takes a little more effort and thought when you have been with the same person for many years, live together and share kids together.

Remember that marriages or relationships are work and require upkeep. Complacency ands comfort are great but can be toxic if you and your partner don’t make an effort to keep passion alive.

One simple thing I have done is occasionally, maybe once every week or two is make homemade chocolate covered strawberry and banana kabobs. One of my wife’s favorite treats she appreciates that I take the time to make them instead of just buying them.

The best thing is they are inexpensive and so easy to make, I have simplified and perfected the process into these steps.

For 2 kabobs you need the following:

• 1 banana
• 6-10 medium strawberries
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 bar of chocolate (any type you like, milk chocolate, dark chocolate or even just a Hershey’s bar)

1. Chop the banana’s into pieces about as thick as two fingers. Cut large strawberries into quarters. Alternate banana’s and strawberries as you slide them onto the kabob.
2. Break up chocolate bar and put into microwave safe bowl. Put 2 tablespoons of butter into microwave safe bowl.
3. Microwave chocolate for 20 seconds, test stir with spoon. Repeat in 20 second intervals until chocolate can be stirred with spoon. It will be very thick, take it out of microwave.
4. Microwave butter for 20 seconds and check it, microwave again until butter is melted. Then remove from microwave.
5. Now slowly pour the melted butter into the melted chocolate. You pour very little and then stir. Get the chocolate to a consistency where you can scoop it up with a spoon and drizzle it. It can’t be too thick or thin, so keep checking. I will say approx 1/2 the butter depending on consistency you want.
6. Using the spoon, drizzle chocolate/butter mixture over your strawberry banana kabobs generously. Then stick the dish in the fridge for one hour for the chocolate to set and chill. Or if you want to serve it with warm drizzled chocolate you can serve right away.

Only takes about 5 minutes to make this great dish and my wife loves it.

So take the time to find out some of your wife’s favorite desserts and make it at home for her. Surprise her sometime, it goes a long way to keep romance alive.

-Justin Germino