Justin Germino Ramblings

My family had a little bit of a scary incident yesterday involving my Boston Terrier dog Porky. I was outside working on the trailer and this stray Jack Russel terrier mix had come up to our house and was playing nicely with my kids and dogs. I don’t know where the dog came from, but it didn’t seem harmful and my dog played pretty nice with him, until it went along its way. About an hour later my Mother in Law had taken my kids and dog for a walk (the dog was leashed) and while they were around the block a police officer had come by asking if we had seen a black and white dog. We mentioned about the Jack Russel terrier mix we saw earlier and he had informed us that a dog had bit a kid on the hand.

The worst part was when my Mother in Law came back to our house with our Boston Terrier who is black and white the Police officer had asked if our dog was leashed the whole time and since a black and white small dog was reported the office asked to have our dog brought over for the kid to identify if it was the dog who bit him.

This poor little dog wouldn’t bite anything or anyone, he hasn’t a mean bone in his body and he was guilty until proven innocent:

Meanwhile, the kid at first said “It looks like the dog” which had us panicked before the kid finally acknowledged it only looked like it because of the black and white, it wasn’t the dog that bit him in the hand. The kid must have only been eight or nine years of age, and I can see how kids can see a dog and any dog black and white “looks” like another dog. The officer let us and our dog go, but for a brief moment my wife and I were panicked about what almost could have happened.

Be careful out there with your pets folks, make sure they are leashed at all times and don’t run free. Even if you have the friendliest dog in the word, when a dog around the neighborhood bites someone it can make everyone be on alert and if you have a dog wandering or a dog that even is close in appearance to another dog, you might be blamed.

-Justin Germino

So last summer we picked up a cheap boat trailer that was unregistered and a little rusty, but we put a good 1st coat of white paint on it and now all it needs is a second coat with some carpet stapled on it, new winch rope and some chains repaired.  I am also going to install the light kit, then my wife can start the registration process so that we can have the trailer registered in time for when we get our boat.  We know we want a 14′ aluminum boat, nothing fancy but something that will allow us to fish in the deeper areas of Woods Canyon and Willow Springs lake because the banks are just overcrowded lately and we have had little success fishing off the banks in recent years.

I always thought it was a little ironic to own a boat in the middle of the desert.

-Justin Germino

A friend of mine forwarded me a link to the article on PhysOrg.com about a Spray on Glass Liquid that is transparent, non-toxic, odorless, flexible, breathable and can bond with almost any surface.  Liquid glass was invented in Turkey and the patent is held by Nanopool which is a German company.

This liquid glass is only about 100 nanometers thick which is about 15-30 molecules and is made of pure silica, no additives it truly is glass that is such a thin coating that it is completely flexible and breathable.  Studies have shown that countertops sprayed with this glass coating can be cleaned with just hot water, without the need for harsh chemicals to kill bacteria.  In addition you can coat a house roof, cars and other objects with the spray on glass that would create a water proof, UV protected, scratch and stain proof coating that was so thin it would be invisible to the naked eye.

The liquid glass coating is breathable, which means it can be used on plants and seeds. Trials in vineyards have found spraying vines increases their resistance to fungal diseases, while other tests have shown sprayed seeds germinate and grow faster than untreated seeds, and coated wood is not attacked by termites.

Think of the possibilities

• Coating for cars so that you will never get scratches in your paint again, nor ever get rust.
• UV protection for your roof which would insulate and keep your roof lasting so much longer, rain would slide off your roof so much easier with a liquid glass coating
• Clothing sprayed with liquid glass would be stain proof and water proof, the material would never get wet and no stain could ever penetrate the cloth.
• Cutting Boards and other kitchen counter area’s would be easier to keep sanitary and clean, this would be especially useful in commercial kitchens

I think this may be one of the most revolutionary products that is about to make it to market in the next few years and you will start seeing liquid glass applicators for just about every object you can think of.   This is something to watch folks, this is going to be big.

On another note:

Nanotechnology and research into nano-particles is not very efficient, if this product were used on cutting boards we know that silica itself is nontoxic, but at this nano scale inhaling and ingesting nano particles could cause them to lodge into cell membranes in the body and nobody really knows what the side effects could be if nano particles were to contaminate the human body and start collecting in or around cell structures.  This is true even of those micro scrubbing pads and makeup with nano particles of diamond dust or other materials.  I myself wonder if twenty years from now there is going to be a huge “recall” of nano products because of the damage caused over the years of inhaling nano chemicals and components as a result.  I would hope much more research gets done to make sure the liquid glass nano-particles are safe if ingested and inhaled because if it is going to be used to sanitize countertops and food stations, then little microscopic bits are going to break off and get lodged in food and water and will make its way into the human GI tract at some point.

-Justin Germino

In an unusual article published on DailyTech titled Running Barefoot Better Than Wearing Running Shoes there was a study done that shows that runners who were barefoot had a completely different running style of front pad touch down first instead of heel first, as a result this put much less stress on the hips, feet and legs and lowered the chances of stress fractures and tears greatly.  I found some of the comments on the article amusing like “You mean bare feet actually are more optimal for the body than running in shoes?” you would think this is common sense as shoes were added to protect the feet from injury and scrapes from walking on ground.

Obviously runners can’t just jog or run in open sidewalks and streets without shoes, but this is something to consider when using a treadmill at home or if you are running on beaches or softer ground.  It is healthier on your feet and body overall to run on your treadmill barefoot than to wear shoes while using one. I myself use a stepper and since my feet never actually leave the ground I don’t think it will provide any specific benefit to my own exercising, but I should walk barefoot more around the house. My wife is always telling me not to walk with my shoes on all the time. (But I do it because we find two to three scorpions per month on the floor and I would rather be safe than sorry).

-Justin Germino

I have had the blessing to be relatively unscathed by the troubling economy in recent years and have not really felt its effects until this week. However our family was recently affected by the economy which has put our family line under some hardship.

Part of the problem is related to the state of health care in this country which provides no insurance for anyone between poverty and retirement age and you are forced to get insurance from a company.  If you have a health condition prior to trying to obtain private insurance you are either rejected or paying far too high premiums.

I feel for all the people who put their lives and careers into a company to be shown the door or cut just a handful of years prior to retirement and no matter what you say about the health insurance coverage issues going around, there is a huge gap in health care and something needs to be done to take care of the people who are caught between the system. Unable to buy private insurance and unable to qualify for medicare, there must be something in between.

-Justin Germino

So the other day my wife decides that its time to play Scrabble with our six year old. I was busy trying to get my three year old to use the toilet (he is still potty training) and meanwhile my wife is busy teaching my son the basic rules of scrabble. We decide to forget the points and just have him practice creating words and building them onto the existing letters on the board and my six year old starts off pretty well with two and three letter words. My wife meanwhile plays the game like she normally would and decides to capitalize on an S already on the board and spells the word “S E X” while playing with my son.

Our son quickly asks mom, what is “Sex?” what does the word mean? Meanwhile, I am asking my wife why she would choose such a word when playing Scrabble with a six year old and couldn’t she have chosen a different word. If you saw the word above it it was “WET”, and I was thinking (while laughing to myself) that it looked like an X-Rated game of Scrabble for a second. Fortunately we dodged the bullet and weren’t ready to explain that word to my six year old, but the time will come soon enough.

Word of advice, when teaching your kids to play Scrabble be careful which words you use!

-Justin Germino

It was a very busy weekend knocking off some long overdue chores and many of which were a result of the recent rainstorm in Arizona that devastated my landscaping in the front and back yards.  I had to cleanup damaged lawn furniture, broken pieces of wind chime and pull hundreds of weeds which seem to crop up overnight.  There were so many weeds in fact that I had to go to Lowes and purchase a weed sprayer with a self pumping spray and hose them down with chemicals.  I pulled maybe 300 manually, but there were thousands more.

Then I had to help my in-laws with a few errands, they had purchased a new couch to replace their old damaged one and this couch had a 36″ clearance on its shortest side, whereas their front door only had 34″ of clearance.  By squishing the cushions we were able to squeeze the couch through their door, but it wasn’t easy and took almost forty minutes of straining, pushing and adjusting to get it to fit through the door.

Last but not least, my in-laws had to put in a new ceiling fan in the master bedroom.  This ceiling is vaulted and they wanted a fan with overhead lights instead of just a fan.  My Father in-law is in very poor health and unable to climb a ladder anymore, this left the chore up to me.  I have a case of acrophobia (fear of heights) and I also get very shaky and uneasy on ladders if I go up more than a few steps.  Overcoming my phobia for at least the two hours it took, I dismantled the old ceiling fan (picture above) and installed the new one (forgot to take picture).

We celebrated by all eating at Chili’s for dinner.

-Justin Germino