Justin Germino Ramblings

Now that Walmart sells laptops you may be tempted to assume that Walmart has the best prices in Laptops, but you would be wrong. I was shopping in Walmart the other day and though they have laptops with AMD Sempron processors for just under $400 dollars, you can find laptops $299 or less on Dell.com and other computer manufacturer sites directly. The deal is even better if you can find a coupon for a discount which is found in almost every single Sunday paper (especially for Dell).

If you are looking to buy a laptop or desktop for the family, there is no better time than getting a really cheap computer or laptop as a second or third home computer. If all you need it for is surfing the web, Office, and variety of basic applications than you will find a sub $400 laptop should do just fine, especially if it is a learning computer for younger kids. You can always upgrade later when your child gets older.

Walmart has good prices on laptops, but they they are by no means the cheapest and you can find better quality laptops for cheaper prices by shopping at the manufacturers directly or by doing some digging online.

-Justin Germino

Tonight my wife and I are attending AZ Culture’s Havana Night event at Babaloos Cuban Cafe in Phoenix, this fantastic event features a Four Course Meal, expertly paired with perfectly matching wines. As you dine you will be soothed by the Silky Voice of Luis Salgado, singing classic Cuban “Sons.” The food will be a blend of Classic & Contemporary Pan-Caribbean fair, with a focus on Cuban cuisine.  The event costs $50/person; that includes dinner w/ wine and one of Willy’s Cigars!  We know several friends from AZ Culture are attending and if you are looking for a great mixer and social event this is the place to be tonight in Arizona.

Hope to see some of you there.

-Justin Germino

Playdough or any form of modeling clay is simply one of the most brilliant inventions and creations of all time.  My three year old lately has been very interested in playing with modeling clay and pretends to create dinosaurs, robots, monsters and all sorts of creations.  Of course they all look like multi-colored blobs to me, but his imagination is fired away and when he mixes colors of clay together he is becoming immersed in his world of creativity and play.  Though I used modeling clay like Sculptey III when I was a child (older kid) for playing with clay, Playdough is much better for younger kids for the following reasons:

The first being that it is non toxic, and they will consume some of it.

The second is that it dries out and becomes easy to vacuum and cleanup in comparison to oily modeling clay which can stain and be harder to scrape off table surfaces when you are ready to clean up.

The third is that Playdough tends to not stain surfaces, modeling clay has oils that can leave stain marks on surfaces.  Cheap dough from dollar stores tends to have the same staining oils, but the name brand Playdough is higher quality and for a few bucks more you get dough that is often higher quality and easier to mold.

So make sure you have some playdough in your house if you have a kid that is over two years old, it is worth letting them mold, mash and create a world of play.

-Justin Germino

Last year when my old Amana fridge compressor broke, I had purchased a new fridge that dispenses purified water and ice. The fridge had its own MWF filter that you screw into the bottom of it and it is easily replaceable. Though my filter expired (shows that it needs replacing) last month I haven’t had a chance to purchase a replacement filter yet I still drink water and use ice. I need to replace it soon so the filter doesn’t start corroding and potentially contaminating the ice and drinking water. I am not sure how long you could go on the same filter before it can actually cause some particles to float in your water.

I still think filters and purifiers are a little too expensive for everyone’s budget, the ones for the sink faucets are cheaper than the ones for a refrigerator but they are still cheaper than if you buy gallons of fresh or purified water every day or week, and you aren’t polluting the environment with all the plastic bottles you are wasting by purchasing bottled water.

-Justin Germino

We were shopping in Walmart on the weekend and my wife and I were talking about potentially getting a new China set for the kitchen.  My son loudly exclaims “They can’t fit China in Walmart” and thought that Walmart sold China.  We explained to him that China were fancy plates, bowls and matching porcelain ware.  The simple assumption was funny and I realized that my kids have been eating on plastic plates and using plastic silverware since they were first able to eat, its no wonder why they don’t know about China.

Meanwhile, I didn’t go on to confuse him and say that almost everything Walmart sells is made in China.

-Justin Germino

My current hosting provider Dreamhost had so many network and server related outages last week that my wife purchased a hosting account with Host Monster and requested I migrate her three blogs over to the new hosting provider.  This was a multi day effort and I spent Veterans Day last week converting two of the blogs over.  This made me consider migrating my own blogs off to a new hosting provider which I probably will do in the near future if I don’t have better stability and performance with Dreamhost.

It is an enormous amount of work and I wrote my first post about my efforts titled Migrating WordPress Blog to a New Hosting Provider Part 1 to help explain to people how to backup their existing wordpress blog to prepare it for the transfer.

-Justin Germino

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is a Nintendo Gamecube game repackaged with Wii Motion controls and sold for the Wii.  I had never actually played the game before and rented it from Gamefly for my kids to play.  It was quite enjoyable for a six year old to play and watch.  It is a side scrolling action game where you play as Donkey Kong and collect banana’s by going through different kingdoms.  Each kingdom pertains to a fruit (banana, orange, apple…etc) and each Kingdom has 2 levels and a boss at the end.  Your hit points vs the bosses depends on how many banana’s you collect and however many you retained is your final score for the level.

The game is fun, entertaining and is a treat for little kids.  It is a bit easy and I made it through the first six kingdoms in only two hours, so the game is probably worth renting rather than buying since it will be beaten quickly.  I wish it had a 2 player option to let a 2nd player run around as Diddy Kong or something, as my six and three year olds took turns, it would have been better if they could play simultaneously.

Highly recommended if you have kids under 8 years old, I would say the game play is from 5 – 7 years old.

-Justin Germino

This isn’t the 1950’s anymore where a rigid father/son system existed where Fathers were just not brought up to show affection and emotions to anyone, especially their sons becuase it wasn’t the “man” way. Too often even in modern times a Father will have no qualms about showing a daughter affection, hugging and telling her “Daddy loves her” but when faced with a son, the Father will often just give a slap on the back, and not show any of the same emotional affection traits that they would with a daughter.

I myself grew up in a house where my mother always let us know how much she loved us, but I don’t think I can recall more than once if ever I heard my father ever say he Loved Me, or was proud of me. My mother always had to tell me on the side “Your father loves you, he just doesn’t say it”. This for years left me with trying to constantly compete for my dads “approval and affection” often leading to a negative self image and myself struggling with feelings of worthlessness in high school and early adult years.

I have since grown past all of this and am determined my two sons will never feel the way I had felt as a child, they are no stranger to me hugging them and telling them how proud I am of them. No stranger to me tucking them in at night and giving them “super tucks” along with a hug and a kiss. They won’t ever have to worry about not meeting my standards, or feeling like they aren’t good enough because they are as perfect as any two kids can be.

So let this be a tip for fathers who think they shouldn’t show son’s affection or be open with emotions around them, it is not only healthy but vital to their well being and mental state that you let your sons know that you love them and that you are proud of them. The last thing you would want is for them to grow up and have the exact same personality where they won’t show their own kids affection and emotion and repeat a cycle that should have been ended decades ago.

-Justin Germino

A coworker and friend of mine was telling me about her attempt to make Takoyaki at home and I had never even heard of the traditional Japanese dish. (Tako is Japanese for Octopus). The dish is fried octopus and you can see the recipe along with pictures of before and after from Soylent Mean’s Takoyaki Adventures.

I would be adventurous enough to try such a dish, I love trying new cuisine and have enjoyed shark fin dumplings, tako salads as well as a variety of sushi and sashimi dishes, but have never had the pleasure of enjoying a dish like this.

-Justin Germino

I have a friend who knows that I sometimes write articles on fitness and weight loss, not that I am an expert but I did manage to lose fifty pounds in two years the healthy way and without looking for the best diet pills on the market.

I always tell people the same thing when it comes to losing weight:

Eat in Moderation:

It sounds so simple, yet these two simple things are so hard to actually do if you struggle with willpower and complacency. First eating in moderation is extremely hard, if you go out to eat as I often do you will see portion sizes are three times what they should be. Yet people complain they aren’t getting their money’s worth if restaurants served smaller portions, so its a vicious cycle of people expecting more food for the money which in turn makes them fatter when they consume the whole plate.

How about this, when ordering at your favorite restaurant, ask the waiter to put half of the food in a “To Go” container before they even bring the food to the table? This option alone may help you consume less when you eat out and you save money by having a 2nd meal with the leftovers.

Avoid all you can eat buffets like the plague, these will tempt you to pile on food and eat until you are gorged. They are common and cheap and all over the place, yet these will certainly keep you from your weight loss goals.

Increase Exercise:

I am not talking about spending an hour a day running, jogging or training for a marathon. You simply need to add 30 minutes of exercise in either 2 15 minute chunks (15 minutes morning, 15 minutes afternoon) or one thirty minute set. The ideal exercise for losing weight is one that builds muscle which in turn helps metabolize fat faster.

Aerobic exercise is needed to build endurance and is healthy for your heart, but your first concern is losing weight and you should focus on weight training type exercises.

You only need a kettlebell, or some free weights. Push-ups, pull-ups, jack knifes, crunches, tricep curls and bicep curl will get you started. You can also do squats while performing a variety of these methods which will work your leg muscles as well.

I found that a good fitness band is multi-purpose and if you are not a heavy exerciser will work very well for toning your muscles and working your muscle groups.

Summary:

It sounds simple but realistically these two things are all it takes to shed some excess weight the steady and healthy way.

-Justin Germino