Justin Germino Ramblings

My friend Tim Southernwood over at BlogNetAwards had read a post that I wrote about how I love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with a variety of unique jellies to change up the experience. Tim asked if I have ever tried choke cherry jelly, which I haven’t so he offered to send me a fresh made batch that he made and put in a mason jar.

I enjoy trying new stuff and the jelly arrived this afternoon, it was a bit liquidy from transporting through AZ heat, I like my jellies cold so I tossed it in the fridge and will try it tomorrow at lunch.

Thanks Tim for sending me some choke cherry jelly.

-Justin Germino

Last night started the Bands and Booze rock show for my wife’s company Rock Along Productions at a music bar in Glendale, Arizona.  We had seven live bands playing and music started at 8pm and went all the way until 2am.  Exhaustion sets in even when live music is blasting all around you and I had to intake about 3 vitamin energy drinks to survive the night.

Considering I live about a one hour drive from the venue it took me until after 3am to arrive home, and I am just tired all day long.  Top that with the fact that I have to drive my son to a friends birthday party later this afternoon and I am in for one rough day today.

This was Rock Along Productions fourth music event in Arizona and each and every one is getting bigger and better all the time.  The next show will be at Goat Head Saloon in Mesa, Arizona and hopes to be just as challenging and fun, whats cooler is that it is only 2 weeks way on April 3rd.  We had 2 shows within two weeks of each other, just shows how much this company is growing.

In the meantime I need to rest and take care of myself and family today, I doubt I will have the energy to do my Entrecard drops tonight.

-Justin Germino

I watched Fantasia 2000 with my kid the other night and I realized just how much I enjoy an artistic story told through music. Disney should release more artistic films such as Fantasia 2000 that showcase musical compositions with stories told around the music.

It is just amazing what the animators come up with and the timing of the animation on screen to the tempo and instruments is simply stunning and beautiful to behold. Truly an artistic film and if you haven’t seen it even though it is nine years old I highly recommend you see the updated Fantasia 2000.

Rhapsody in Blue is one of the best animated features inside the movie, but there are so many great ones, almost all of them are astounding and beautiful to watch and listen to. Without a single spoken word in any of the animation the entire stories are told through the musical compositions alone and it really makes me smile while I watch it.

-Justin Germino

Spring Break is tough on parents, with kids not being in school and working from home I have kids who are constantly battling with each other during the day which makes it hard to keep your calm and stay focused. It is very easy to get stressed about the little things like work piling up, keeping a house clean, paying your bills, and this can cause you to feel mentally and physically exhausted and stressed.

Everyone should learn about some self help ideas to help keep themselves balanced with their stress levels, some people can withstand the same torture of daily life struggles and not seem to be as stressed, yet others can have physical ailments, I for one used to vomit if under extreme stress levels.

For more inputs concerning self help ideas and healthy self improvement, listen as Chris Butler speaks the word of encouragement and wisdom. You can also find the profile of Chris Butler here.

Everyone should try and be healthy and start by becoming healthy in mind and spirit, because just being physically healthy is not enough.

-Justin Germino

I was reading the Casa Grande Dispatch newspaper this week and the city’s paper still posts the police incidents that are recorded each and every day. It is a good way to know what is happening around the community, but it is sometimes frightening when you see how much criminal activity actually occurs within a 10-15 mile radius of where you live.

One thing I noticed this week as the number of shoplifting and underage incidents skyrocketed and was up like 200% from weeks where kids are in school. Seventeen shoplifting cases by kids under 17 occurred this week in the paper, and many more underage drinking and curfew violation incidents. A few were even flat out robberies by younger teenagers which is astounding.

All of this makes me wonder one simple question: Where are the parents?

I understand that many single working parents have to do something with their children during spring break, but children cannot be left home alone unattended even if they are fifteen or sixteen and it is legal for the most part they will still get into trouble.

Children and Teens need to be enrolled in activities to keep them busy, there are affordable activities out there through local YMCA, Boys & Girls Club and others. Even if you have to drop them off and pick them up several hours later, you should keep them busy and focused.

Children often are worse in groups where just one child with a bad idea can quickly convince or gain confidence to perform some activity they may regret later. It is safer to have children in the company of an adult whether it is at your house or another parents house, but keeping them supervised and nearby is better than leaving them to their own devices.

Just one of my opinions.

-Justin Germino

With the business market becoming tougher and tougher I notice some small retail shops here in Casa Grande are suffering really bad and doing creative things to cut costs, one place which has pottery painting actually broke their lease on a building to move to a cheaper building in downtown which costs much less per square foot. They are willing to take the risk of being sued just to try and cut costs for their business to survive.

For people who want to open their own service oriented businesses like Karate Schools, Arcades, Hobby Shops or the like it is getting harder and harder to find Funding for Businesses. I still wanted to open up a Hobby shop someday, where I would sell role playing and other related gaming material, but also have a rentable gaming environment where people could pay and play Wii, PS3, or Online games for a small fee per hour.

I think there is a market for these types of media entertainment places where people can come and play multiplayer games face to face in crowds, host tournaments and the like. Would you play Guitar Hero at home by yourself, or prefer to meet at a hobby shop and play with dozens of other people for a few hours per day for only a few bucks an hour. Think about it, I just don’t have the capital or guts to take the risk for such an investment, but I think its a good idea.

For questions on funding for businesses, Jon M Queen can help in giving enlightenment over the pressing issues. Know more about Jon Queen’s background here.

-Justin Germino

I don’t know very many people personally who use the site, but so far I have had two articles offered up front payments of $3 and $2.67 respectively, which are very low but the fact is I post on my blog for free, and these are articles that I at least get paid for. So this made me wonder, if you wrote an average of 2 articles in an hour that were submission worthy, and you were paid an average of $2.50 per article, you could easily make an extra $25 per week ($100 per month) just submitting original content to Associated Content.

I wonder how many people are just writing content for Associated Content or other sites like it instead of blogging, it seems you could build up a following and earn several hundred bucks a month by putting in about 5 to 10 hours per week on the site. Does anybody else subscribe and submit content to Associated Content?

-Justin Germino

Sometimes I wonder if I suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or some other ailments, I go to bet at 9pm some evenings waking up at 6am and still feel exhausted throughout the entire day. I often have to drink a half gallon of tea or more just to keep myself caffeinated enough to stay awake throughout the day. I have spent numerous hours researching the web on how to determine if I really have an issue, or this is just the consequence of having a full time job, 4 blogs and a family with two little kids.

I was researching how to cure ailments and notice that many cures for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome involve B12 injections, sleep aids, or even anti-depressants. For me however I notice that I feel worse on days where I don’t work out, I didn’t make time to work out yesterday and I tend to feel lethargic when I don’t make time to really push myself.

Nobody knows what causes Chronic Fatigue Syndrome because many different ailments can cause the same symptoms, you could be eating a poor diet, not exercising enough, be depressed, have a chemical or hormonal imbalance, not sleeping enough. These may all cause you to feel tired and fatigued, or you could just be drinking so much caffeine that when your intake decreases you are having a “down” period similar to coming off of stronger stimulants.

Either way take care of yourself and if you feel tired all the time like I do, try everything you can naturally before you resort to taking medication. Unless of course you are falling asleep while driving or operating machinery like you have narcolepsy.

Improve your health and learn how to cure ailments from Dr Daniel Amen, the founder of the Amen Clinics. Check out Dr. Amen’s profile here.

-Justin Germino

Just to let everyone know I was tired of paying $21 per month for a local phone line just to have for business purposes, I never make any calls except work related, I never receive incoming calls. So I have decided to try the highly advertised Magic Jack, which supposedly you plug your land line phone into a device that plugs into your USB port and makes calls over the internet. You even get assigned a local phone number and can receive calls, since I don’t need to receive calls and I only use my land phone for work, I have decided to try the 30 day free trial.

I will keep both my land line and the Magic Jack for 2 months to see if it compares well, if it works as advertised, then it only costs $39.95 per year, which equates to $3.50 cents per month approximately which is about 75% cheaper than paying my current local phone bill.

I will let everyone know how the product works, one thing is that PC Magazine endorsed the product and this company typically has a good endorsement rating, they don’t endorse junky stuff from what I have seen previously.

-Justin Germino

My condolences to Liam Neeson who recently lost his wife Natasha Richardson due to a tragic skiing accident. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to lose a loved one especially for it to happen so suddenly with no length of time to prepare yourself mentally and emotionally for such a tragic event. My heart goes out the all the friends and families of Liam and Natasha and to anyone else who has experienced the loss of a loved one, especially in a tragic freak accident.

One thing that people should take from this is that when you are injured and especially when you suffer a head or abdomen injury, even if you have only the slightest signs of pain or injury you should go to a doctor immediately to get checked out. Natasha had only a headache and she may have been able to received treatment that might have saved her life had she went to the ER or Urgent Care immediately after her injury. This same thing happens with kids, I read a story a few weeks ago about a child who fell and bashed his head on a coffee table, the child had complained he was tired and had a headache about fifteen minutes later and went to bed. The mother found her son dead in bed less than two hours later due to a brain injury that bled.

Please take injuries seriously and don’t assume the frail human body doesn’t have anything serious as a result from a head or abdomen wound, also I would highly recommend you wear protective head gear when performing any activity that could result in a fall or collision. Regardless, for someone to die in this fashion is really unfortunate and bad luck or if you believe in a higher power, it was “time” or “meant” to be at that moment, either way it is no less tragic or sad.

Here is a tribute poem I wrote a few weeks ago on my poetry blog that I am reposting here:

Memories of You

As I stare at this photograph
One of our twenty fifth Anniversary
My eyes fill with tears
My heart wrenches in my chest
Thoughts dwell on what happened
It was more than just inconvenient
It forever altered my life
Worse
Ripped my life away
My soul was shattered

We have been together through thick and thin
When the gloves were off
Living on Welfare and food stamps
One inch away from losing everything
We stood by and triumphed
All of that ripped away
One miserable twist of fate
A cruel misnomer of the universe

The best of times between us
Holding hands and kissing your mouth
The occasional Friday morning copulation
No cares in the word, you were my love
You are my love and always will be
I am now but an empty shell
How could life be this cruel
All I have now are a collection of memories of you

-Justin Germino