Justin Germino Ramblings

When I need information or support from a company, unless my online is actually under an outage I would prefer to find my support online than make a phone call and talk to somebody directly. This is were live chat software comes in, and it is more convenient for me to chat with someone on a company support site and get my questions answered or solve an issue than it is to talk to somebody over the phone.

Add the fact that with many calling centers outsourced to China, India you sometimes can have a communication barrier when speaking with people over the phone due to accents and other factors which may cause misinterpretation or understanding issues. Support Site Chat software gives users the ability to speak with somebody live without having to make a phone call or worry about hours of operation and is one of the many benefits I have seen out of company support sites in recent years.

I have received particularly excellent live support from HP, Dell and some other computer companies who were able to not only answer questions, but open tickets and send out replacement parts all from a live chat support request.

-Justin Germino

My wife and I decided to try the new USA Network show White Collar and were instantly hooked by the FBI/Criminal drama within the first fifteen minutes. This show has style and class, instead of focusing on murders and grisly criminals, instead this show focuses on the White Collar crimes (Art thieves, frauds, con men and more). The star of the show is Matt Bomer as “Neil Caffrey” a con man and art thief who was busted by his FBI rival Peter Burke played by Tim DeKay for forgery and sentenced to four years in prison.

Four months prior to being released Neil Caffrey breaks out of a maximum security prison to investigate the disappearance of his girlfriend who stopped seeing him four months ago after breaking it off. Neil is convinced she is being coerced and she was trying to leave him clues. Meanwhile, Peter catches him again and he gets sentenced to four more years in prison for escaping, but instead of serving time behind bars, Neil offers his services to help Peter catch white collar criminals the FBI is hunting.

The sharp dialogue and classy stylishness of Neil is what draws you into the show, he has the suave, charisma and confidence of someone who is an expert at what he does and this pairs well with the tight, sharp and short fused Peter who has to constantly monitor him. This show is rich and entertaining and is one of the best new shows on network TV I have seen, check out a trailer here:

-Justin Germino

I was a bright kid and student growing up and somewhere along the way I made poor decisions that started in high school. I was a straight A student through grade school and even did both 7th and 8th grade in the same year in an accelerated program. As a result I was one of the youngest if not the youngest kids in my high school, heck I was the only 14 year old Senior in high school.

Due to hormones, genetics and normal teenage issues I did have acne problems that did always bother me, I tried nearly every all natural acne treatments that were available at the time but nothing worked. I even had my chiropractor one time tell me that urinating on a rag and holding the uric acid to your skin was a treatment, but I can honestly say I never did test out that potential treatment.

During my high school years I loved to play Dungeons and Dragons on lunch breaks, but my high school was rough. I was good in academics, but was not a very good physical athlete. Due to bullying and other issues with kids older than me, I wound up skipping classes (mostly PE classes) and eventually skipping school altogether when it became one daily physical battle after another.

I would up repeating Senior Year twice, only because I was not able to get enough Gym credits to graduate, finally when I was 17 I could take it no longer and just voluntarily took the GED to test out of High School altogether. Had I had the benefit of going to a Charter School or Private School I probably would have graduated high school when I was 15.

This is one of the many memories that I use to help make sure my own kids don’t suffer the same fates, go through the same struggles that I went through. My sons will be enrolled in smaller Charter Schools which focus on academics and have much smaller controlled classes, my oldest boy right now attends Legacy Charter Schools in Casa Grande and is doing 2nd grade math in first grade. He learns 30 new words a week and is already proving to be very smart and have enthusiasm for science, biology, and reading (if the stories interest him).

My message here is simple, make sure your kids have a comfortable and safe environment when they go to school. Most of the times as a kid I told my parents nothing, they didn’t even realize the bad days I had, the fights I had gotten into. It is important that parents have better open communication with their children and are open with them about these things.

-Justin Germino

The first day of November and I can’t believe there is only two months left in the year.  In two weeks the radio station called 99.9 KEZ here in Arizona will start playing Christmas Music around the clock already, there are only 4 paydays left until Christmas if you get paid biweekly and October closed out my 14th month as a blogger.

I have some vacation time coming at the end of November and December and will enjoy spending more time with the family during the Holidays.  I will also be looking forward to the awesome Thanksgiving Meal that my wife creates every year, she is so talented in the culinary arts and comes up with some of the most splendid creations.

Today is a day of relaxation and recovery after being out until 3am helping with the Rock Along Productions Halloween Metal Mayhem last night, I am exhausted and need rest.

-Justin Germino

My wife and I will be at Goat Head Saloon in Mesa (Country Club and the US 60) where her company put together the Halloween Metal Mayhem show, where 6 local Metal bands will entertain crowds for five hours. She is giving away various free prizes including free shots, free dvd’s, free T-shirts and more to people who come and enter the raffle. We are hoping for a good turnout, and with lots of competition for Halloween activities, Rock Along Productions has some of the best local AZ Metal bands in the valley including: Skeletal Secrets, Embers Rise, Depraved Heretic, Vile Existence, One Body Too Many and Frozen by Fire.

If you are into Metal music or live music at all and are looking for a good time to hang out join us at the Goat Head Saloon in Mesa tonight. If you wear a Halloween Costume you get a discount at the door.

-Justin Germino

Jaypee is hosting one of the largest prize contests I have seen from a blogger over at JayPee Online which features over $1500 in prize packages.  There will be 3 main winners with 2 bonus prizes given out to everyone who enters the contest.  Visit Jaypee’s site for full rules, but here is a high level overview of the steps to enter the contest:

#1 – Subscribe to his RSS feed via email
#2 – Write a 100+ word blog post linking back to his site about the contest
#3 – Leave a comment on his blog post (click link to Jaypee Online at top of this post to get there)

PRIZES AT STAKE:
1st Prize
Pro Plus All-Theme Package from StudioPress ($199.95)
Single Theme License from Pro Theme Design ($79)
Single Theme License from Press75 ($75)
Single Theme License from WP Zoom ($49)
1 Year Theme Club Membership from Elegant Themes ($19.95)
1 Year Hosting w/ Free Domain from DreamHost courtesy of Jehzeel Laurente
$50 Cash via PayPal from Jehzeel Laurente

2nd Prize
Single Theme License from Pro Theme Design ($79)
Single Theme License from Press75 ($75)
Single Theme Package from StudioPress ($59.95)
Single Theme License from WP Zoom ($49)
1 Year Freedom Plan Hosting from WP Web Host ($80)
$25 Cash via PayPal from JaypeeOnline

3rd Prize
Single Theme License from Pro Theme Design ($79)
Single Theme Package from StudioPress ($59.95)
Single Theme License from WP Zoom ($49)
Single Theme Licenses from WP Now ($29)
1 Year Freedom Plan Hosting from WP Web Host ($80)
$10 Cash via PayPal from JaypeeOnline

Consolation Prizes
Single Theme Package from StudioPress ($59.95)
Single Theme Licenses from WP Now ($29)

Congrats JayPee on the awesome contest.

-Justin Germino

I had contacted Microsoft several weeks ago asking if I could get a media version of Windows 7, since I would be starting a new category with featured articles about Windows 7 on my DragonBlogger.com site. Microsoft had told me they would let me know if they can send me a copy and I waited patiently. Windows 7 meanwhile was released on October 22nd 2009 and I hadn’t heard back from Microsoft, so I assumed they weren’t planning on sending me a copy. I bought a full version of Windows 7 Home Premiere and paid full retail price for it, upgrading my system and writing my first Windows 7 related blog posts.

A week later a FedEx package arrives with a full media license version of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition from Microsoft saying they have granted me the media copy. Had I received this just one week prior I would have saved $220 dollars out of my own pocket, and now I have 2 versions of Windows 7. I will be using the Media version of Windows 7 Ultimate and probably save my store bought Home Premium until I need it for another computer in my household at a later date.

I still would like to thank Microsoft for sending me a fully licensed media copy of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition both 64bit and 32bit versions, this was very generous of them.

-Justin Germino

I have been focusing on using my Tension Band more when working out these last few days, especially since I snapped my Torso Tiger after using it for two years. I also went through three pairs of hand grips (to strengthen your wrist, hand and forearm muscles) and the latest pair is more comfortable to use, but doesn’t give as much resistance as the previous pair.

I have not actually used Kettlebells before, though it is a celebrity trend and you can find them in fitness stores everywhere. I still use my free weights as much as possible, but somehow I injured my right arm just past the shoulder and I have a sharp pain that seems deeper than muscle when lifting. It hasn’t recovered on its own so I may have to see my Chiropractor and have him adjust my arm and spine to make sure its in proper alignment.

Resistance weights are really good for toning, and I find that doing fifteen minutes of strenuous activity twice a day keeps my heart pumping faster longer, and appears to be more beneficial to my metabolism than just working out in one thirty minute stretch. This could of course just be an illusion, I have no real science to back this up.

In the meantime I still work toward my fitness goals and try to vary up my routine to prevent muscle plateauing, which has happened to me before, but I seem to be able to get around it by doing something completely different every once and a while.

-Justin Germino

I realized this week that I basically spent double what I had in my budget for food, it is the one area where I constantly fail in my budget is to keep my food expenses down.  The reasons are simple:

Too much going out to eat

Yet this cycle is very hard to break, and when you eat out with a family of four you are paying a tremendous amount of money at a sit down restaurant, even for breakfast it costs over $30 to have an IHOP or Mimi’s Cafe breakfast these days.

Yet because of tight schedules and being cooped up in the house all day long, you tend to want to get out of the house, and when we go out it is usually to eat somewhere.  My goals are to tighten down on going out to eat, though I have attempted this before I really need to build up the willpower.

-Justin Germino

One of the great thing about the Internet is that there are so many options when looking for jobs, you can not only browser jobs in your local state, but can browse jobs around the world and even find some that allow you to work remotely without having to relocate or move in this day and age. You also can find specific job sites that search and list only jobs in specific fields like if you were looking only for Information Technology Jobs, or Jobs that Pay only 100k or higher. If you worked in Healthcare and wanted to find perform an Insurance Job Search to find a new position in your state or another location you can do just that.

There will always be room for the giant Job sites out there, but the smaller niche job sites also have a place and are worth checking out, just do a search on google for your “career + jobs” and you may find specific job sites out there for whatever field you are looking to work in. Just remember, make sure your resume is up to date and make sure you tailor it specifically for each job you request, make it look like the resume was made just for that job, the more specific it is for the position you apply far the more notice it will grab.

-Justin Germino