Justin Germino Ramblings

I speak from experience when I talk about eating oatmeal and telling readers that if you eat the same thing day after day you will grow bored with the flavor and be tempted to eat more unhealthy food for breakfast.  Irish Steel Cut oatmeal happens to be my favorite and among the most “grain” flavored when you boil it and serve it plain.

Some of the following tips are ways you can spice up the flavor of oatmeal while still keeping it healthy and by changing up flavors every few days you can stave off the fatigue and boredom that comes with eating the same thing over and over.

The most popular is to cut up fresh fruit and mix it in with your oatmeal, you probably have heard or thought of chopping up banana, apples, strawberries and tossing them into your oatmeal to add some fruit flavor as well as more fiber and some extra vitamins and minerals.  You can also consider tossing in some fresh blueberries, raspberries and blackberries which have among the highest levels of antioxidants out of any fruit or vegetable.

Another alternative is to use some dried fruits that are soft and easily chewed, raisins, dried blueberries, Craisins (dried cranberries) are excellent examples as they are very soft and often very potent flavored.  You can also add freeze dried fruit bits like apples, pears, apricots but only if they are the freeze dried kind that chews easily and/or dissolves when it touches your saliva.  The harder dried fruits will be too chewy and make it a little bit more difficult to enjoy while trying to eat your oatmeal.

Other methods to flavor oatmeal involve sprinkling some cinnamon or nutmeg on the top of your cereal, cinnamon is healthy and helps regulate blood sugar levels, if you are looking for a sweet oatmeal taste without calorie addition you can add Splenda, Sweet & Low or Equal packets to your oatmeal to make it as sweet as you want without adding calories.

Then again maybe you want to thicken your oatmeal and add flavor with milk.  Another alternative is to use strawberry, chocolate or vanilla milk slightly mixed with your oatmeal.  This will add a creamy texture to the oatmeal as well as flavor and strawberry milk added to oatmeal is a delicious treat to have once and a while.

These are just some tips to help you flavor and enhance your oatmeal experience and keep it fresh so you can continue to enjoy oatmeal day after day without growing bored or tired of it.  If you have any additional tips or ideas, please feel free to share them here.

So my in-laws old fashioned television was on the fritz and was having horizontal banding issues at the top of the screen on any input (DVD, Dish…etc) which clearly was a problem with the TV and not a feed. My wife and I bought them a replacement 26″ widescreen LCD TV to replace their 27″ CRT television as an Xmas gift this year. I am going to leave the house and drive over and install their TV while they are over our house for Xmas eve dinner, they will unwrap the “empty box” and come home to find I had already installed and configured their new TV for them.

I hope they enjoy the new Television.

-Justin Germino

My son had entered a charter school called Legacy Charter School earlier this year which is more advanced than the public elementary schools around here in Casa Grande, Arizona. With first graders already working on 2nd grade math and my son being a tad younger then the rest of the students he was having some trouble early on with spelling, phonograms and mathematics and received C’s last report card in those subjects. So we decided to buckle down and work more closely with him, we test him every night on phonograms, spelling and math including giving him mock exams and pop quizzes. We made it a rule that no computer until weekend and computer games are only allowed if he received a minimum of a B in his Friday tests (he receives tests every Friday).

This method has worked and now he earned straight A’s in every single category with only getting slightly less than an A on his handwriting penmanship, which it isn’t that he can’t write well when he is slow and careful, he just writes too fast and his handwriting suffers. Heck his teacher would give me an Unsatisfactory in handwriting, so that isn’t a super important category in my book (who will write anyway by the time he is 18?).

I am so proud of my son who has worked so hard and at 6 years old spends almost an hour and a half each night doing his homework plus additional study, he virtually never complains and always does his work and does it well (if sometimes rushing). I hope these good homework and study habits will burn themselves into his personality and he will continue to have this dedication and work ethic as he gets older.

-Justin Germino

It is ironic that it is still considered vulgar and inappropriate to swear in the corporate work place, yet you will find social media riddled with vulgarity and it is often used in the workplace. Personally I think it is crude, crass and generally not professional, only entertainers, comedians or people who are in fields where swearing is common place gain more leniency in this area, but people looking for professionalism need to represent such on all of their social media profiles and sites.

Remember that like it or not employers are just as likely to look you up on social media sites as friends, and now that Social Media is indexed by Google, Leapfish, Bing…etc when someone does a search for you things that you say on social media sites will be listed in the search results. This could very well damage careers, reputations and more. When interacting with social media you should always put your best face forward, unless your profile is set to private and only a handful of people can actually see and communicate with you.

-Justin Germino

This man has spent 35 years in prison and was innocent the entire time.

In an article all over the news later last week about James Bain, a man who was convicted when he was 19 years old in Lake Wales, Fla of the rape of a 9 year old boy was cleared by DNA evidence after serving 35 years of his life behind bars. He is the now the longest person in prison who has been cleared by new DNA evidence, but what was more astonishing is his request for DNA testing was denied for several years before they finally approved a look at the evidence.

The fact that this man said on live Television that he has no anger toward his accusers, was not angry with law enforcement or anybody and just happy to get a life back was astonishing. Fortunately Florida is one of the states that compensates falsely accused prisoners, CNN reported that he would likely get $50,000 for each year he wrongfully served in prison, this would be a total of $1,750,000 dollars that he will likely be awarded from the state for the wrongful imprisonment. That plus hopefully he might get a book deal about his plight, maybe a movie deal and pickup some interview money and he might be able to at least have a chance at building a life for himself that was robbed from him.

Truth is, there are wrongful imprisonments, because it is a democratic system and guilt or innocence can be conjured and portrayed by an attorney, and sentence carried out by judge or jury that is presented the information and must make a decision this can happen. The system isn’t perfect, but its the best one we have.

I think there should be compensation in all states where a wrongfully imprisoned person is exonerated, I found out that Arizona does not compensate anyone (though they usually win with lawsuits against the state, city and/or law enforcement agencies at some point).

-Justin Germino

I am normally not a big fan of chocolate and I rarely eat chocolate bars, when I do eat chocolate I prefer dark chocolate that is almost bitter rather than sugary sweet milk chocolate. Recently on a foray to Cost Plus World market, I was looking at some chocolate bars and picked up the Dark Chocolate Triple Berry bar, I could smell the raspberry through the wrapping paper and it smelled so rich I decided to buy it and give it a whirl. Now I have eaten Ghiradelli, Godiva and other gourmet chocolates, but when I tasted this chocolate I couldn’t believe how rich and gritty the flavor was. It was sweet, but also a little bitter and had a grainy texture like crushed raspberry seeds. The berry flavor was completely infused in the chocolate, not a filling like similar types of chocolate bars.

If you have a Cost Plus World market near you and you like Chocolate, I highly recommend giving this bar a try.

-Justin Germino

This is a sponsored guest post written by a Press Release on behalf of PBM Products. Post powered by Sponzai.

GORDONSVILLE, VA., December  2 , 2009—PBM Products, LLC, a leading infant formula company that supplies store-brand infant formulas to Walmart, Sam’s Club, Target, Kroger, Walgreens, and other retailers, has received a favorable jury verdict and a $13.5 million damages award in its false advertising lawsuit against Mead Johnson & Co., the operating subsidiary of   Mead Johnson Nutrition Company (NYSE: MJN) (“Mead Johnson”), the makers of the national-brand Enfamil® LIPIL® Infant Formula.  Mead Johnson is 83 percent-owned by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

PBM’s lawsuit claimed that Mead Johnson engaged in false and misleading campaigns against PBM’s competing store-brand of infant formulas, suggesting they do not provide the same nutrition as Mead Johnson’s brands.  PBM’s store-brand infant formulas cost up to 50 percent less than Enfamil® LIPIL®.  The $13.5 million in damages awarded by the jury in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is one of the largest damages awards ever for a false advertising case.

“This decision by a jury of the people confirms that Mead Johnson’s ads have been false in suggesting that there is a nutritional difference between our store-brand formula products and their products, when in fact the only major difference is price,” said PBM CEO Paul B. Manning.  “Despite Mead Johnson’s scare tactics, parents are assured that PBM’s formula products are as high quality and nutritious as Mead Johnson’s.”

U.S. District Court Judge James R. Spencer issued his written rulings yesterday following the November 10^th jury verdict. Judge Spencer’s written rulings permanently enjoined Mead Johnson from making any false statements concerning PBM’s infant formula, including the claims Mead Johnson previously made in Enfamil advertising that "It may be tempting to try a less expensive store brand, but only Enfamil LIPIL is clinically proven to improve brain and eye development," and "there are plenty of other ways to save on baby expenses without cutting back on nutrition."  The Court also ordered Mead Johnson to retrieve from the public domain all advertising or promotional materials containing these or any other false claims about PBM’s store brand infant formula.  

The details of the decision and the complaint are posted online in full at:

·      http://www.pbmproducts.com/docs/Order_Laches.pdf

·      http://www.pbmproducts.com/docs/PBM_Complaint_MJ_III_LIPIL.pdf

The nutritional supplements under examination in the case are two fats, DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and ARA (arachidonic acid), which Mead Johnson calls “LIPIL®” solely for marketing purposes and touts as promoting infant brain and eye development. PBM’s claim focused on Mead Johnson’s direct mailing to more than 1.6 million parents of an alarming blurry picture of a child’s cartoon duck next to a clear picture of the same image which suggested that anything other than the Enfamil LIPIL® blend of ingredients is inferior and will result in poor eye and brain development.  Other parts of the false advertising campaign consist of statements that only Enfamil LIPIL has been proven to confer visual and mental benefits on infants, and store-brand formulas are a “cut-back in nutrition” compared to Enfamil. 

PBM successfully argued that these advertisements were false and misleading especially since PBM store- brand infant formulas have the same nutrients at the same levels as Enfamil.  PBM infant formulas are formulated to contain DHA and ARA, and are sourced from the same supplier in amounts which equal or exceed the DHA and ARA in Mead Johnson’s Enfamil LIPIL®. 

This decision marks the third time PBM Products has sued Mead Johnson for false advertising claims. On the prior occasions Mead Johnson admitted that it made false claims about PBM’s products.  It is also the first false advertising case to focus on the issue of DHA and ARA nutritional ingredients in formula, which were introduced into the market in 2003 and have become a staple in recent years by many brands as key components for infant development.

“This jury verdict should send a significant and clear message to Mead Johnson about the way it conducts marketing and advertising for its brands,” said Manning.  “This lawsuit also demonstrates our complete commitment to defending our products and the valuable brands of our retail partners.”

“As a parent and supporter of children’s medical research, I take a personal responsibility in assuring our customers that the products we produce are healthy and nutritionally equivalent to brand names like Enfamil® LIPIL®.  It is important, especially now, for parents to know that there are lower priced yet highly nutritious store-brand formulas that will provide the same benefit to their children as any national brand name formula product,” Manning added.   

The U.S. infant formula market is estimated at $3.4 billion and the global market is estimated at $7.9 billion.

All of PBM’s formulas, and for that matter all of U.S. infant formulas, are subject to the exacting standards of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), pursuant to the Infant Formula Act of 1980.  This legislation vested FDA with the authority to ensure that all infant formula products sold in the United States provide the necessary levels of identified nutrients required for the growth of healthy babies. For more information, visit this FDA link.

PBM Products was represented by the law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP.  Partners from the firm’s advertising practice, Harold P. Weinberger and Jonathan M. Wagner in New York, led the team.  

About PBM

PBM is privately owned and based in Gordonsville, VA.  PBM companies specialize in manufacturing, distributing, and marketing consumer food, nutritional, and pharmaceutical products. For more information, visit www.pbmproducts.com.

Enfamil® LIPIL® are registered trademarks of Mead Johnson & Co.

I started three blogs last year and helped my wife convert her company website into a blog which allowed her to not only provide information about her music production company and showcase events, but allowed her to bring music and entertainment news and feature local Arizona musicians on her site as well. Then my wife followed suite and turned her cookbook into an online food blog for the home chef, called The Chef’s Cookbook. This blog has dozens of her original recipes and culinary tips she learned from attending a Le Cordon Bleu culinary school as well as information and tips she picked up in the industry. My wife has a Le Cordon Bleu diploma, an Associates Degree, Food Safety Certification and is highly qualified to run one of the best food blogs on the web.

I am the great benefactor as much of the food photography you will see on The Chef’s Cookbook was photographed by myself just before I devoured plate after delicious plate. My wife doesn’t like to call herself a blogger but now that she runs two blogs and monetizes them just as I do with PayPerPost, PayU2Blog, AdSense and even uses SponsoredTweets and runs 2 twitter accounts one for each blog. She is my blogging prodigy and we just redesigned her cooking blog together to make it even more fresh and visually appealing.

So stop by The Chef’s Cookbook and let my wife know you visited, check out some articles and recipes and you won’t be disappointed if you are looking to cook something new for your family or yourself tonight.

-Justin Germino

The company I work for dropped my previous health insurance carrier that I have been using for the past five years. This is always a little bit of a stress in the home when you have to switch health insurance companies, compare rates, quotes, services, percentages and out of pocket costs and more. We have decided to use a type of plan that I have never participated in previously, this is where the plan pays up to a certain amount and covers 100% of the cost (no copays at all), then when those funds run out you pay until you reach your cap for the year.

I have been covered by HMO’s, EPO’s and PPO’s previously where I have had everything from standard $25 copays, to paying 20% of all costs when going to a doctor, hospital or other medical provider. This is the first time I will be under plan that covers it all until the cap is reached. Of course we tend to only go to the doctor once or twice a year at most, our kids are very healthy and have an average of one doctors visit every twelve months, which this plan is ideal for people who are healthy and don’t need to see doctors or specialists often.

The good news is even if there is lots of doctors visits, there is cap on how much I can pay for the year, and once the cap is reached the plan covers 100% of all else again. The cap itself is not much higher than the cap on an HMO where you pay the 10% of all hospital costs until your cap is reached (you just reach it faster with this type of plan). This all goes into effect starting 1/1/2010.

Here to experimenting with my health insurance.

-Justin Germino