Justin Germino Ramblings

With a TBA release date of the next Starcraft 2:  Heart of the Swarm game, players who beat Wings of Liberty have to enjoy multiplayer and try to complete the extra victory modes in all of the Normal and Hard campaign missions until the new game is released.

The question is, with the ending of the first game in the Starcraft 2 series, how will the 2nd game come out?  Will the Queen of Blades still exist, or will the Overmind come back?  Who will lead the Zerg and will there be new units and buildings in the sequel to Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty?

My prediction is that there will be a tech like tree where you can integrate Protoss and Terran DNA to create hybrid units or structures much like the Protoss / Zerg DNA allowed customized buildings and options in Wings of Liberty. 

I can’t wait for the sequel for Starcraft 2, it isn’t even available for preorder from Amazon.com yet.

Each game has sufficient material, cinematics, story that they are worth being separate stand alone games.  I actually am not displeased with Blizzards decision to do this.  Games cost millions of dollars to create, and when you put so much into a single game and design each game in sequence it really is like separate games.  No different than Halo series, Call of Duty series, each game is a succession to the previous.

-Justin Germino

I wrote a detailed article on the YouSayToo AdSense revenue sharing network that I joined a few weeks ago and have to say that the site is very easy to use and also includes the ability to bookmark and import your favorite flash games.

Hundreds of online flash games can be found in a variety of categories on YouSayToo.  The site also has really nice page load times as well as clever integration of ads.  There are lots of ads on the articles, but it all seems to fit together like a well designed puzzle.  The ads are not overly intrusive and no annoying popups or ads that block parts of the readable content.  Overall I think the site design of YouSayToo is pretty good.

YouSayToo is an online social network for bloggers that lets you find posts to read based on interests, but also lets you list your blogs, create new blog posts, import your blog feeds or even import other peoples blog feeds so you can keep track of them on YouSayToo.com

YouSayToo does do AdSense Revenue Sharing as well as Amazon Affiliate Revenue sharing.  The site also lets you choose to donate your revenue to charity if you want.

Connect with me, Justin Germino on YouSayToo and if you haven’t started using this online networking site to promote your blogs yet, then now is the time to start.

-Justin Germino

Life is about decisions and choices and realistically I am one of those people who doesn’t think you should have suffer day by day doing something that doesn’t make you happy.  If you find yourself in a routine or situation where your enjoyment of life is just not there you need to first examine if your feelings are justified and not a symptom of true depression (make sure the grass is really greener on the other side and look at your issue with perspective).

This can be applied to virtually every facet of what you do and includes:

• Job
• Relationship
• Hobbies
• Behaviors
• Personal

Life is far too short and I believe that we are a collection of our experiences in life, you have to exit the world having tried everything as possible and really "lived" your life.  Other than the occasional bad day or week, look at your year and define whether or not 80% of your days were "happy" or good days, if they aren’t then look at what you can change or tweak to increase the number of days you are happy.  Don’t do anything rash without seriously considering the outcome of any such decisions, and don’t do anything irresponsible just because you are unhappy.  Sometimes responsibility overrides happiness until you can find a compromise.

I myself try to constantly improve, tweak and adjust what I see as my own shortcomings, limitations or behaviors I would rather not have or repeat.  I use my own analytical way of thinking to critique and brainstorm ways to remove my unwanted traits (though some take much longer to resolve than others).

Don’t be content to suffer or be unhappy if you can make some simple adjustments to help you enjoy your days more.  If you feel consistently unhappy all the time, make sure you look into whether it is environmental or psychological as in some cases it can be a sign of real depression or chemical imbalance in your brain chemistry. 

-Justin Germino

My six year old who will be seven next month was begging to rent Diary of a Wimpy Kid for a few weeks, so we rented the movie and my two boys and I watched it while my wife was doing some work and out of the house.

It was funny, clever and in every way entertaining appealing to boys of every age in my opinion.  Though it was definitely focused on "Middle School" age kids, I was reminded of my own childhood friendships and mishaps a few times during the movie.  I akin the movie to being similar to How to Eat Fried Worms which is another movie covering the same age range of kids trying to fit in a social setting.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid did make for a good film and my six and three year olds were laughing up most of the film and my son told me the film was not only about middle school but about friendships and being true to yourself. 

Good moral, and good clean movies that are enjoyable for the whole family are few and far between these days.  This is definitely a boys movie though, too many gross body habits and behaviors to appeal to women much I think.  Meanwhile, my son read some of the first book but wants them all and this is one reading habit I intend to help him develop.

So perhaps he will get the series for his birthday next month?

-Justin Germino

Kids really say the funniest things sometimes, and my six year old son (who will be seven very soon) is no exception to this.  We were driving in the car the other day and my son blurted out:

I want to be a nomad when I grow up, not the kind that live in tents, but the kind of nomad that lives in his car.

The fact that he used the word nomad tells me he is playing Age of Empires way to much (the nomads using Wagons to settle new territories is probably where he got the idea).  I just found the whole statement hilarious and literally couldn’t stop laughing.

Right now he keeps changing what he wants to be when he grows up, sometimes a doctor and other times a scientist or robot inventor even a video game designer or a blogger who runs charities…etc

Ah, what it is to be on the verge of seven years old with the world ahead of you and infinite possibilities at your disposal.

Let’s just hope the desire to be a nomad doesn’t stick.

-Justin Germino

I read a disturbing article by Carla K. Johnson who writes for the Associated Press the other day.  This article cites statistics that show that 1 in 5 teenagers now have hearing loss to the point where they can’t hear a whisper or leaves rustle.  That’s right, 1 in 5 teenagers can’t hear their mother whisper goodnight to them in their ears at night as they can’t hear in the 16 to 24 decibel range.

The hearing loss increase is attributed to increased listening of music with earbuds, concerts and volumes being set so loud that scarring occurs in the microfiber tissue of the eardrum. By contrast, hearing loss has been increasing overall since Walkman days, and used to be about 15% in the 1988-1994 range.

Some music devices have audio level controls which allow parents to lock the setting so a device can’t go louder than a certain volume and this certainly may be a good tool to help younger kids avoid damaging their hearing from personal audio devices, but surely only educating and trying to convince your kids that they don’t need to listen to music at 100+ decibels to enjoy it.

Of course, if you are the type of person that is blasting your car audio to where you can’t hear each other speak, or playing music so loud in the kitchen you can’t hear the blender, then this will fall on deaf ears.

-Justin Germino

I know so many people who own the P90X Home Fitness Workout Program now that it isn’t funny.  Like any Fitness program you purchase, it is only effective if you set a strict routine and stick with it.  Nothing will work to help you lose weight and get fit if you don’t adhere to a regimen.

The P90X system has something going for it that I have rarely seen in infomercial based products.  There are over 621 reviews on the product on Amazon.com and 430 are 5 star reviews, 85 4 star reviews and only 60 which are 1 or 2 star.

The majority of the complaints are not about the program itself either, but about the DVD’s being damaged or shipping not being prompt, and hassles with return policies. 

I myself was adhering to a bench routine, stepper with Wii Fit Plus periodically but got lazy and let my workout routine slip.  As a result I have gained about 15 pounds in the past year and am considering adding the P90X Home Fitness program as a potential item to jumpstart my motivation and dedication to working out again.

The program has 3 guides, and 12 diverse workout programs with online and other tools to keep you on track to meet your fitness goals.  I am always engaged in the science and information about muscle plateau and how the system uses a constant cycle of new exercises to keep your muscles learning and adapting.  The question is, do I have one hour a day to dedicate and commit to the program?

Has anyone used the program and do you recommend it?

-Justin Germino

I was browsing around for games online to see what might come after Starcraft 2 and I saw that Final Fantasy XIV is coming out for the PC and is a MMORPG game that looks to be pretty impressive.

The game features five playable races, several classes with dozens of abilities and much of what you would expect from an MMORPG game.  The fact that it is set with Final Fantasy theme and created by Square Enix means it probably will be exceptional.

I didn’t get into the Final Fantasy XIII MMORPG game because I didn’t want to commit to monthly fees for a game I wouldn’t play that much.

Final Fantasy XIV may change my mind after watching some of the animations and artwork for some of the creatures.

This looks like a game that might be worth pre-ordering and playing.  I have been a huge fan of Square Enix games and particularly the Final Fantasy series since the early 1990’s with Final Fantasy for Nintendo.  I just don’t own a PS3 or a Wii so didn’t get a chance to play Final Fantasy XII myself, but did play X and X-II the sequel which I enjoyed immensely.

As I don’t have as much time to game lately, I liked the linear game style where you just followed the story.  Games that are too open ended can end up costing too much time and that is something I don’t have as of late.

How many Final Fantasy fans are out there and what do you think of the latest Final Fantasy XIV MMORPG set in a Final Fantasy theme?

-Justin Germino

I actually have been a writer for AssociatedContent (now owned by Yahoo!) for a year and a half.  I joined on February 3rd 2009 and have earned nearly $70 with the site since that time frame.

Now my earnings mostly came from writing up front articles which paid out between $1 and $3 per article, with articles ranging from 400 – 600 words to qualify.  Then I earned between $2 and $3 monthly for pageviews on my articles.

I have been curious on how the Revenue sharing program works for AssociatedContent because they pay X amount per 1,000 pageviews, which is $1.50 or 1.5/10th of a cent per pageview until you reach the higher account status where you can earn up to $1.75 or $2.00 per 1,000 pageviews.  I currently am a Clout level of 7 which earns me $1.55 per thousand pageviews.

I was thinking that for my own personal preference, I would rather forgo doing up front article payments if AssociatedContent would have an AdSense Revenue sharing, something like 10% or 20% of AdSense for your articles that you publish.  I understand that the site earns AdSense revenue as a primary method for paying writers, but the cost per pageview is just much lower than Helium and far lower than your own blog running AdSense with the same content you would have submitted to AssociatedContent.

I do however that AssociatedContent will let you submit articles for up front payment as long as they are unique and can be on virtually any topic and at any time.  My wife used to make $20-$30 per week writing about 10-12 articles per week for AssociatedContent and she wrote about everything from food, parks, pets and as long as you write a good informative article you can get a pretty decent payout.  So when paid opps come thin for my blogs, sometimes I fall back to AssociatedContent and write some articles to pick up some extra change when I don’t have any offers coming from my usual blogging sources.

You can follow Justin Germino on Associated Content and see some of my poetry or unique and original articles which I submit to A/C.  I do sometimes repost some content from DragonBlogger or my Personal Blog, but many of my original Haiku’s and poems can be found there which aren’t shared on other sites.

Who else uses AssociatedContent? 

Do you think AssociatedContent should setup AdSense revenue sharing and give a direct portion of Ads clicked from your articles to you?

I know Helium pays more but you don’t have the flexibility of writing whatever you want, you have to find a title and write for their titles.  I have had several articles rejected and disqualified because I wrote for their "Title" and they deemed my article not "on point" enough for the topic.  This has caused them to even reject some of my poetry (which makes me question how they can be so objective, when poetry can be abstract even when not directly mentioning the Title).

-Justin Germino

Do you know your blogging purpose?  Why do you blog, is it a means of self expression and do you do it for yourself or with your audience and readers in mind?

My biggest mistake when blogging is having too many idea’s and not spending enough time to flush them out and create clear "business plans" for my various blogs.

You should treat blogging like any other entrepreneurial business if you ever have any intention of doing more with it than just venting your own writing/thoughts and don’t have any regard for turning into a product or service offering for readers.

Create a business plan for your blog

• Why start this blog?

I started DragonBlogger.com to offer technology, gadget and other reviews as well as to share my blogging tips and experiences learned with my audiences.  I figured whatever I learned as a blogger, I would share that knowledge with others so they can learn and avoid mistakes, mirror the same principles and systems that worked…etc to help with their own blogging.  My personal blog is similar in blogging experiences, but covers my personal thoughts, Arizona specific events and parenting tips. 

I created my poetry blog purely to let my poetry art be available on the public internet, I had my poems locked in an unpublished book and figured I mine as well put it online for people to read.  My poetry blog is my art and I do it for me, I really don’t have a regard for what "readers" want or look to provide readers information with my poetry blog.

• What do I offer my readers?

My primary blog offers technology reviews, news and blogging advice and tips that I have learned from my two years as a blogger.  I am establishing myself as a trusted source for honest reviews, feedback and information on technology and blogging related topics.  My poetry blog offers hundreds of original poems for any mood or occasion and has an interactive poetry game.  My personal blog is sharing insights from an Arizona resident, blogger and has some life lessons and blogging advice.

• Who are my readers?

My readers vary from poets and art lovers for my poetry blog to tech and blogging enthusiasts and peers for my personal and technology blog.  I also get lots of search traffic as people stumble across my blog looking to learn more about Paint dot Net, WordPress issues or more.

• What do I want to accomplish?

I want to become a trusted source of information, technology reviews and blogging tips for my readers.  I am hoping to expand my site into an online magazine at some point in the future and be able to offer a wide variety of articles that appeal to several topics.

• Where do I want my blog to be in 2 years?

DragonBlogger.com will be more of an online magazine like TomsHardware meets Mashable with a little IMDB mixed in as well.  In theory this is what I envision, it will be interesting to see how it all pans out.

In Summary

It is important to setup your blog like a business and have clear action plans and goals.  How about you, where do you see your blog in 2 years?

-Justin Germino