Justin Germino Ramblings

As news articles around the US have recently written and published, Gaming continues to thrive and make money in tough economic times. As people turn to cheaper and distraction type entertainment during a tough economy. The fact is that games have a dollar per hour value that is far better that most forms of entertainment and movies.

But there are ways to spend less gaming even, such as with online rental services like GameFly. For those of us who shell out fifty dollars for a single console game only to beat it within a week or two, it is better to rent games and play six or seven games per month for the same price as purchasing a single one.

Other creative ways to save money gaming is to find online MMO games that are free, there are more of them each month and one of my favorites right now “Runes of Magic” is as engaging as World of Warcraft or GuildWars, and has such depth and richness that you could play for weeks or months before growing bored.

Even for people without powerful computers or money to purchase a new console can get an older Playstation 2 at dirt cheap prices and play thousands of games for very low costs. People are using trade services like SwapTree to trade used games between each other so they can constantly get new games to play for the cost of shipping and handling.

Gaming is more affordable than ever, and even if you play the latest java, flash, or online games, there is always some way to get an escape and find a game to bury yourself in.

-Justin Germino

For almost two years we had a really nice pool table in our front room that didn’t get much use and we wound up selling it when we thought we would move to California. Now the front room has a small sofa but is much emptier without it.

The pool table we had was a really nice custom table with a ping pong table top that can slide over it, so you can play ping pong if you were tired of playing pool. I was never very good, but I enjoyed playing once and a while and my youngest used to play rollie ball with me.

I really didn’t play it enough being the fact that we don’t have company very often, but my wife and I occasionally played a game at night when the kids went to bed. Ah well, you always miss the things you don’t have and hindsight is 20/20.

-Justin Germino

Guest post by Shona Daily-Germino

Keeping the young ones busy especially during the summer can be really challenging. This article lists a few must have toys to keep you child busy. Remember to choose toys that are safe and age appropriate for your children. Also just a quick note, watch your child around water!
Everyone loves getting wet during the summer. A great way to do that is with the Beach Ball Sprinkler made by Little Tikes and for under $12 your child can have some giggles in the outdoors. The ball inflates and hooks up to a hose which makes it portable to take to friends houses. For the price this toys is worth it.
Plug and play electronic games make it easy and fun to just hook up a game to your television without having an expensive game system. The SpongeBob Square Pants Plug ‘n Play is great! This game is super easy to use. There are 4 different games included, which gives some variety and for under $20 it’s a sure thing.
Toys made by Alex Toy Company are some of the best and most creative toys out there. The Alex Clay Fun Kit is no exception. This kit comes with 4 lbs of air drying clay, Gray and terra cotta colors, Paint , Mosaic tiles , and Gemstones. This product is under $15 dollars and is a great way to let your child be creative.
Another great must have toy is the Fisher-Price Digital Arts & Crafts Studio which hooks up to your computer. This product features Kid-friendly tools, drop-down menus, voice prompts and an on-screen assistant which makes it easy to use for a child. This product is good for the 4 year old to 9 year old age range. It’s easy for your child to create multiple arts and craft projects. This product sets up quickly for quick install. This product is under $50 and the best part is no mess! Activities include Jumping frogs, Flying airplanes, Paper people, Greeting cards, Invitations, Party hats, Dot-to-dot, and Digital coloring.

Finding great activities for your child to do can be tough, but there are some really great products out there, all you have to do is look! Make sure you go online and read reviews and articles like this one to find out what other people are saying about different products. This will give you an idea of what parents and kids are saying.

-Shona Daily-Germino

I have always suffered from speech anxiety which is ironic because as my wife can tell you, I am a motor mouth and a chatterbox in my home life, and clearly I speak often and all the time at work on conference calls. I do however have anxiety about crowds and speaking in public, and I when I spoke at CA World in Las Vegas in November 2008, I was vomiting for days before the conference and even several hours before I gave my speech.

That being said I had a little bit of anxiety last week and this week when contacted by several media journalists, one from the Arizona Republic the largest AZ newspaper, and the other a freelance writer who was writing an article for MSNBC.com Tech site. AZ Republic had an idea for an article about blogging, bloggers and interviewed me as a blogger, poet and my inspirations, start…etc.

The writer for MSNBC.com was writing a piece about Twitter Schemes and follower sites, and wanted my input since I had done some research and written an article on dragonblogger.com about the subject last week. I also read that BenSpark, one of my socialspark and blog friends recently mentioned he had interviews with NY Times and Wall Street Journal, which tells me that bloggers are getting more media coverage lately overall.

I am still a very small wave in the ocean of bloggers out there, but it is good to be able to contribute to the community as a whole and help open public awareness to what we do as bloggers and why we do it.

-Justin Germino

To break up the monotony of being around the hot desert for nearly the whole summer, we took the kids up to northern Arizona to go fishing on July 4th at Woods Canyon Lake which was one of our favorite fishing holes. It was all my wife’s idea and she had been fishing these area’s for trout since she was a little girl and introduced me to the lakes when I came to Arizona so many years ago.

The trip was a little bit of a drive, and we all woke up at a quarter to five in the morning to drive almost three hours and arrive at the Woods Canyon Lake by just a little after eight. The kids enjoyed having the cool temperatures and looking for bugs, crayfish and minnows to catch in the water’s edge. We took our two Boston Terriers who enjoyed escaping the heat and rode in the car very well.

Due to so many people being there and just poor luck, we didn’t catch any trout, and only by using a bug net, was I able to entertain the kids by catching some Crayfish, minnows, a caterpillar and a dragonfly. I did take the kids for a hike in the woods and they enjoyed walking among the majestic pine tree’s and exploring dead tree trunks and moving aside large rocks to see if any creepy crawlers lay hidden within.

After a few hours we decided to rent a small boat, which they cleverly use car type batteries to power the small motor so they don’t cause any pollution to rent and operate them. We took the two year old, five year old and my wife and I into the boat and we explored the deeper channels of the small lake.

Just under an hour of fishing the lake a monsoon storm blew in and thunder cracked around us, rain poured into the boat and we hastily sped back toward the dock to escape the cold rain. We were soaked and we tried to wait out the storm by waiting in the truck, but alas, it rained for about two full hours and we decide to call it a day at almost three in the afternoon.

Though we were rained out and only got forty five minutes of boating time (no refund even if rained out) was the store policy, we had a grand adventure and this was the first time my kids were on a boat. The whole family enjoyed being at the lake and in the cooler northern country, and now that we have an annual fishing license we probably will make the most of it by doing several more trips up north this summer.

-Justin Germino

Well its official, though I own a Wii and love my Nintendo Wii, after seeing the trailer for Final Fantasy XIII, I must eventually get a PS3 for when the game comes out. Fortunately it has no release date yet in the United States, which gives me time to save up some blog money. I have been a Final Fantasy fan since NES days, and loved Final Fantasy X, X-II and XII for the PlayStation 2. The only Final Fantasy version I didn’t get into was the FFXI online MMO game because I didn’t want to get into a monthly fee based game. Final Fantasy XIII will only be released for the PS3 and Xbox360, and since I wanted a Blu Ray player anyway, I probably will get a PS3. So check out this original trailer showing Final Fantasy XIII in Japanese, the animation sequences rival that of even the Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Advent Children movies.

Life is hard, too hard sometimes and even though you toil day after day, week after week you find yourself barely making ends meet, struggling to keep your family cared for and happy only to feel like you are breaking even. Emotional toils run across the board and everyone can feel on the brink, suffering from stress for an almost infinite number of reasons.

The hardest thing to do is step back and re-examine your situation with a clear head, moments of hopelessness come and go, and stress, anxiety and worry all wax and wane like the tides. You need to step back and take a clear balanced look at what is the root cause, and try to find a resolution.

Set a goal and create baby steps on how to get there, doesn’t matter what stress or anxiety in your life is getting you down, the same rule applies to everything. There is nothing you can’t at least start doing some small thing each day or week to slowly overcome the issue at hand.

There is always a way to unbury yourself, and there is always a solution even if it isn’t a convenient or easy one to your problems, but sometimes the solution is hard to see. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and this includes your partner, a loved one, family member, clergy member, close friend, or even professionals depending on the type of difficulty you are experiencing.

Like the symbolic cat picture hanging from a tree, Hang In There Baby…. there is always a solution, you just need to step back and find it.

-Justin Germino

My family decided to take the boys and the dogs up for a drive to northern Arizona to do a day of fishing, where we will spend most of the day in around 80 degree weather while people roast in 107 or higher temperatures down in Phoenix. We will stop and probably watch a fireworks display in Payson and be back home in Casa Grande by midnight.

Figured it would be a nice way to kill the day, my boys love to fish and catch crayfish with nets, as well as bug hunt up in the woods. The dogs love camping as well, I don’t mind a two hour drive each way when you have a car DVD system to keep the boys entertained.

Everyone have a happy and safe 4th of July, and don’t play with fireworks, seriously I grew up in New York where I used to light fireworks as a kid and I would never let my kids do it, my parents were CRAZY for letting my brother and I play with firecrackers, jumping jacks, roman candles and more when we were younger. It just isn’t worth the risk, too many people get injured every year.

-Justin Germino

Celery is the only food that takes more calories to digest than it contains averaging about 6 calories a stalk, but burning almost twice that in the digestion process since the celluloid fibers are so tough to break down. This does not mean you will lose weight eating celery, but it does mean if you eat lots of celery in addition to other food in smaller amounts your diet could be augmented so that you will intake less calories and lose weight as a result.

So while other people can try some of the latest weight loss products like Solo Slim, you can try something different. Add celery as a side to lunch and dinner and eat the celery first and slowly. This will help you feel fuller and you will eat less calorie dense food.

Here are some other celery facts:

• Celery seeds and oils are often used in weight loss products, but they contain androstenone which can stimulate the uterus and should not be used by pregnant women. Seeds and oil produced from the seeds also contian Bergapten which increases photosensitivity making you more prone to sunburn, so you should avoid direct sunlight if taking any celery derived supplements.

• Note, you don’t have these risks from eating the stalks as a side in the meal, it is only the high concentrations of crushed celery seeds that pose these risks.

• Celery, is one of the ingredients (Onions and Bell Peppers the other two) to make up the Holy Trinity of Cajun cuisine.

• Celery actually has an allergy risk and can make some people go into anaphylactic shock for a small minority of people. The allergen is not destroyed at cooking temperatures. Celery allergy is more prevalent in central Europe than in the United States, where Peanut allergies are most common.

• The longest celery stalks can reach around 3 feet in height, that is a huge stalk.

-Justin Germino

A good friend of mine is selling his custom chopper named “SLAKR” after several years of touring it at bike shows across the country. Slakr has been featured in several magazines including Rumble, V-Twin and been showcased on the Paul Yaffe Originals website.

Slakr was a Harley Davidson Softail Custom FXSTC that was reborn into the head turning, jaw dropping customized Harley Davidson that it is today.

SLAKR was on display at the 2007 Las Vegas Bike Fest custom bike show where it garnered several attention and several offers, but the owner didn’t want to sell at the time.

If you are a Harley Davidson fan looking for a one of a kind unique custom hog, check out SLAKR, the owner promises no reasonable offer will be refused.

To learn more about SLAKR and contact the owner, visit SLAKR.com.

-Justin Germino