Justin Germino Ramblings

After having another two hour outage on my hosting provider I had enough this weekend, I was paying about $400 per year for a Virtual Private Hosting plan that was giving me between 30 minute and 2 hour outages every week, with rampant CPU usage and constant frustration. Tickets to support often went hours without resolution and there is no such thing as a phone number to call to speak with a live technician for support. As a result I have decided to switch my blogs to the same hosting provider that my wife uses which is Hostmonster.

I helped move my wife’s 3 blogs over to Hostmonster, so I knew the process and was very familiar with it. I also knew that my wife had suffered only 1 small outage in three months in comparison to my fifteen or so outages over the same length of time. I spent MLK day converting two of my three blogs over to Hostmonster and will do DragonBlogger.com probably in a few weeks when I have some time to dedicate, I am hesitant to bring my flagship over as it gets enough traffic I really can’t afford a large hiccup.

The transition was seamless and I enjoy everything about Hostmonster except that you still use FTP to upload files instead of the more secure SFTP or SCP. They should make those standard now, since there are so many free clients that support the secure file transfer protocol, there is no reason to be using the less secure FTP anymore.

-Justin Germino

Chandler police arrested Laurie Basset last week and brought charges of Embezzlement on her for embezzling $20,000 from a Chandler charter school. She had worked in the finance department for the school and was writing checks to herself and her husband claiming they were Janitorial supplies. The school noticed after an annual audit found a 300% increase in janitorial supply ordering. My question is, why did it take a year to find the problem? Schools should be doing monthly or quarterly audits of the books, and there should always be someone to check over finances, a single person should never be solely accountable for finances in a school (or a business unless it is the owner and a solely owned business).

With schools struggling for funds this is always a tragedy when people have stolen funds that could have been used for the education and care of students, this is a particularly heinous crime and the person should be punished appropriately. Her husband is also wanted for conspiracy but has disappeared and is not to be found anywhere.

It is unlikely that Dobson Academy will be able to recover the money, hopefully some sort of insurance would cover this theft.

-Justin Germino

I was pleasantly surprised to find that a new episode of USA’s White Collar starts tonight but almost missed it if it wasn’t for my trusty DVR finding all new episodes. The show was moved from Friday nights to Tuesday nights apparently and it no longer conflicts with Medium so I can watch it live without taping and watching it the next day. For those who haven’t seen White Collar it is a spectacular show about an art thief who is on work release for the FBI to help catch other white collar criminals. Neil Caffrey is the rogue and is a classy guy chasing after the mystery of what happened to his fiance while he was locked away in prison.

You can’t just dive right in tonight because the last episode was a cliff hanger, and you really should take the time to watch the first six episodes so you can get acquainted with the show before you start following it.

-Justin Germino

I am not opposed to Police doing demonstration in schools about the gear they use which includes the Taser which I think is a highly effective non-lethal weapon. Even though the Taser has killed some people and there are some risks and unique scenario’s I still think the Taser is an effective tool to disable rather than kill or permanently injure an offender who is threatening, hostile or dangerous. A Policy officer in Kankakee, Illinois performed an unauthorized Taser demonstration and used three 12 year old students as volunteers then you have to call into question the common sense thinking of the officer.

Why would you think to Taser kids at that age as a demonstration of how a Taser works, if you really wanted to do a proper demonstration you would always use an adult volunteer. Why would an officer be giving an unauthorized demonstration of the Taser to a public Junior High school?

The officer is on administrative leave, and lawsuits are being filed by the parents of the students who are also seeking to have the officer fired and criminal charges filed as well.

Seriously, where is common sense here?

-Justin Germino

So my three year old son who after one week of potty training has had very few accidents and successfully knows to “use the potty” when he has to pee did something quite original the other day. He is constantly trying to pee standing up like his six year old brother and his dad (moi) do, and in doing so he learned very quickly that he has his own personal fire hose. He was caught in the backyard with his pants down filling the dogs water dish with pee and when my wife caught him he said “Feeding Porky” (our dog’s name). Seriously, imagine the expression on someones face when you see your three year old naked form the waist down filling your dogs water dish with pee in the yard.

These are the moments you remember for life as a parent, and wait until we tell his wife or girlfriends about the time he filled the dogs dish with pee when he was little. That’s right kid, you are just creating ammunition for the embarrassing story marathon that will follow you your whole life.

I have said it four times already this week, Potty Training is one of the toughest jobs parents have to do with toddlers. Though we are mostly successful, our three year old would still rather not use the toilet for #2 which is quite disgusting and makes me gag and wretch whenever I have to deal with the aftermath.

Joys of being a father, why couldn’t I afford a full time nanny?

-Justin Germino

As a kid I always enjoyed the original Clash of the Titans, it was a campy and fun movie. When I saw the trailer for the remake of Clash of the Titans while seeing Avatar, I was floored at how awesome the movie looks. No campiness at all, but a full action flick where the monsters look meticulously crafted and the movie has a much darker and creepier tone than the original. You can see the trailer here if you haven’t yet.

What do you think? Will the Clash of the Titans remake be great, or should they have not bothered to remake a classic?

PS, the Kraken is one wicked looking beast in the new Clash of the Titans.

Bonus: Did you know the creature used in the original Clash of the Titans, was the exact claymation beast used in 10,000,000 miles to Venus (a much older film)?

-Justin Germino

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hiltons of Branson. All opinions are 100% mine.

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If you are looking for a quick vacation there are many options and packages available at the Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing and my favorite one would be the Romance Package where you and your partner can arrive to in room sparkling wine, enjoy full breakfast for two (which can be exchanged for lunch or dinner discount) and have access to the health club, pool and whirlpool spa.

Other specials include early discounts, 25% of savings when using your Visa and the Bed & Breakfast package.

You can also find the same specials at the Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel as well, and both hotels are located close to the Payne Stewart Golf Club if you want to kill some time and just relax.

If you enjoy fishing you could go and enter the Master’s Trout Championship which is on January 30th, and a two man team can go out and see if they have what it takes to catch the biggest trout. Since I love fishing this would be one of my must do activities while staying in Branson, though I would want to spend at least one day visiting Silver Dollar City and riding on the new Tom and Huck’s RiverBlast ride as well as checking out Marvel Cave and all the other attractions.

This is the Wildfire ride in Silver Dollar City and is one of many rides and attractions.

This is Marvel Cave, and is a popular attraction at Silver Dollar City

You can also visit the Branson Auto Museum at the strip with over 100+ auto’s to look at as you shop around the surrounding stores. In may at the White House Theater, The Legend of Kung Fu performance with over 50 cast members looks to be quite interesting. This touring show has done performances in Beijing, London, Vancouver and Australia and is coming to Branson in May.

If you are looking for a getaway or vacation you can easily spend weekend enjoying the local attractions and activities in Branson at one of the Hilton hotels. They have great specials right now, and there are events and deals throughout the year.

-Justin Germino

I was in the car with my son the other day and he asked me a barrage of questions like he always does in car rides.  I was able to answer most of them but I came up with an “I Don’t Know” for one of his more obscure questions, and rather than fabricate an answer I would rather tell him that I didn’t know.  He responds “Google it Dad” just like that, six years old and already telling me to Google stuff to find the answer.  I wanted to come back with “you mean Wiki it?” but he wouldn’t have understood the reference and I promised to Google the answer when he got home from school.

Alas, though he did arrive home from school and we both forgot what the question was in the first place so the issue was dropped.  At six years old he can barely read and write, and he can play flash games on the web, but he hasn’t actually Google anything yet, I know that six years old today is vastly different than when I was six years old twenty six years ago.  This was my first “my kids are in a totally different generation” moment as I reflected how different their world is growing up with the Internet than mine was.

Information literally at your fingertips, no library books to check out, you can get virtually anything you need instantly online.  If knowledge truly is power, then the power at your fingertips is limitless.

-Justin Germino

For readers who have been here often you already know the drive for perfectionism that has been a battle since my childhood. From my earliest years I was bombarded with messages to improve, perfect and be the best at whatever I chose to do. This isn’t a bad message to instill in your kids if you teach it properly and be very careful. Perfectionism, criticism and cynicism are close neighbors in my opinion.

If you use positive encouragement and reinforcement to inspire one to be the best, you are going to help raise a child who is more confident, happy and enjoys life more. You have to teach children to learn from mistakes and failures and take away a positive message and inspiration, not taint it with criticism, judgement and cynical remarks. One only needs to look at celebrity sports figures to see how some have achieved greatness in their profession but were psychologically scarred to achieve it.

I myself have never reached the almighty and unattainable perfection in any field, hobby or trial I have faced. I always try to be the best I can be, but I don’t ever consider myself the best at anything. I believe my determination and hard work ethics help me do better than some, some who are smarter, or some who are more knowledgeable but lack dedication, patience and determination.

I do however still get upset with myself if it takes me too long to figure something out, suffer great disappointment with myself if I feel I am not meeting high enough standards or not being as good as I should be. These aren’t as dramatic in my early thirties as they were in my teens and twenties, but the pang of regret and failure is still there.

I share with you this:

Strive to do the best you can, and learn from mistakes to improve. Do not strive to be the best there is, the people who are the best there is are often the ones who weren’t trying to be deliberately, they were just doing there best and ended up there. In some fields Talent really exists and realize that if you don’t have it, find where your gifts lie.

If you have children encourage them to try as many things as possible and you will find what they naturally will gravitate towards. Encourage them to try their best, but if they do try and give it their best shot and fail, do not criticize and tear them down for not doing better.

-Justin Germino

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of iCoke.ca. All opinions are 100% mine.

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Coca-Cola is running a special that if you purchase any two 591ml Coke products from a Mac’s stores, you will receive collectible Medallions commemorating the upcoming Olympics. For those who like collecting Olympics paraphernalia or coins in general this is a nice way to collect something that is only available for a limited time.

All you need to do is go to the website and find your nearest local Mac’s store by using the Find Store feature. Then just drive down and pick up a minimum of two Coca-Cola product sand you will receive your FREE Coca-Cola Collectible Medallion, its that simple.

I was interested but learned that there is no Mac’s store in Phoenix, and I would have to drive almost 150 miles to Payson which is the closest destination for a Mac’s store. So it looks like I won’t be picking up my collectible medallion this time around.

Regular Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero and Sprite products are eligible for this contest, so you can purchase a few bottles of Sprite if you don’t drink caffeine or coke, and you can purchase the diet brands if you are trying to cut down on calories.

So Let your Olympic Spirit Shine and purchase your next Coke products from Mac’s.

-Justin Germino