Justin Germino Ramblings

I decided to do some reading and research and post some information and facts about our new president from his life, one’s life experiences help create and forge the character one becomes.  Obama’s unique experiences and dealing with many “modern age” issues as a child going through them puts him in touch with people better than some of the presidents from traditional family establishments.  Personally, I hope Obama ushers in a new age of what future leaders of this country will be, every president should have vision and future and be quite in touch with reality and what is going on in society.  Too often presidents have lived cultured, groomed lives and have been raised to be out of touch with the middle class and poor.  Not to say that some people of extraordinary vision, talent and ability shouldn’t be able to take office, but they must at least be able to understand and know what the majority of the country lives through.

Some facts about Obama growing up:

• Barack’s parents met in 1960 and married in 1961, they separated when Obama was 2 years old and divorced in 1964.  Barack Obama Sr. who was born in Nyanza Province in Kenya, only saw his son once more since the divorce before dying in a vehicle accident in 1982.

• Obama’s mother married an Indonesian student after her divorce and during 1967 when Indonesia recalled all students studying aboard both she and Barack moved with Lolo Soetoro back to Indonesia where Barack continued to study in local schools there until he was 10 years old.

• Obama returned to live with his maternal grandparents in Hawaii from 10 years old until graduating high school, his mother returned to Hawaii for 5 years in 1972, but moved back to Indonesia until 1994 when she moved back to Hawaii.  She died of ovarian cancer in 1995.

• Obama admits that during his teenage years he has done marijuana, cocaine and alcohol to deal with life stress and questions at the time.  He declared later on that turning to drugs was one of his greatest moral failures in his early years.

• Obama met many of his paternal family for the first time when visiting Kenya in 1988.

These life experiences make him unique and give him a very honest point of view of what it is like to grow up in non-traditional family architecture, he is not one who has hid any of his wrongs from his past (at least so far it appears that way).  I can only hope that Obama stays true to his word and becomes a president that shows clarity and vision and leads the country toward a better future.  Particularly by aiding the middle class and lower class who need a way to benefit from the system and not be left behind or broken in the process.

-Justin Germino

-Sources from most of this information was found on wikipedia

My poor five year old came down sick with a bad cold on Saturday and is not feeling any better, we had to delay our trip to the Zoo until he is feeling better.  He is really sad and dismayed so I kept the day off of work to spend time with him to ease the disappointment.  In the meantime colds catch like wild fire in families and with the baby sharing bottles and even taking his brother’s tissues and stuffing them in his mouth he is bound to get this cold next, as well as us parents.

I will probably be holding a Twitter poetry contest tomorrow since I will be around the house and try to get some blog posts done while my son naps.  Everyone else have a good Monday and give a silent nod to Martin Luther King who had vision and conscience and was an inspiration for human rights and humanity way ahead of his time.

-Justin Germino

Our family has discussed adding a second Boston Terrier to our household in the near future, and I have seen many breeders and sites that sell puppies from a far and will ship them to you. My family is a little old school here, when you are choosing a family pet you have to go and meet the puppy or adult dog in person and get a feel for its personality, how it looks and acts. I truly believe that people have a “spark” with the pets that they will share their homes with for many years.

I just couldn’t purchase a pet over the Internet and have it delivered to me at my door because It’s not like if you aren’t happy with it you can just pack it in some shipping boxes and send it back to where you got it from. Our dog is almost fully recovered after several weeks, it is strange he had almost total paralysis in his right rear leg 3 weeks ago and now has so much zippy energy and appears to have full use of the same leg again. I don’t think the anti-inflammatory medicine would have made him feel better, he must have just injured his spine (pinched an nerve) and it finally is healing very well. Our dog is back to his old spunky self, but all of this has made the family realize it is only a matter of time and adding a second Boston to our family would be good this year.

One the kids can bond too and soften the blow if the eldest one should get sick again in the next few years, and one that could bond with the kids a bit better. Our older Boston Terrier is my wife’s dog and everybody knows it, him most of all knows who he belongs to. Our oldest dog is always friendly with the boys but doesn’t really play with them, he ignores them mostly or tries to get out of there way but only actively engages and plays with my wife and I. The new puppy would bond with the boys and have a much more “I belong to the whole family” since he would have grown up with the boys since it was a puppy.

So maybe this June for my wife’s birthday we will be picking out a new Boston Terrier, my wife is hoping to fall in love at first sight with one as she did with the one we have. I think lightning will strike again, she has a fondness for the breed now and although she likes other terriers and all dogs really, Boston Terriers have a special place in her heart.

-Justin Germino

I have been with the woman of my dreams for almost twelve years now and we have a family with two small kids, one of the things that people should never forget is that you should forever continue the “woo” phase of the relationship.  Never stop showing what your partner means to you with gestures, words and other ways.  It doesn’t have to be lavishly expensive, I coined the phrase “Woo on a budget” meaning you show expression without spending large sums of money (but if you have the money don’t be cheap either, nobody likes a miser).

One of the things I intend to do far more frequently is to date my wife, take her out on the town at least a few times a month where the kids can be watched by Grandma and we just have private alone time with us to talk and share each others company without the kids running around, the noise and distraction of daily life.  I suggest everyone try this more often, it is easy to date when you are single or in your early years, and gets harder when you have children, jobs and all the stresses that come with it all.

One thing to note, leave cell phones and blackberry’s at home or set them to silent.  Nothing kills a romantic evening like SMS messages flying back and forth and somebody checking their phone constantly while trying to engage in conversation over dinner.  Never forget to show the love in your life just how special they are to you, I know I will never take my woman for granted and I have committed to showing her every chance I get what she means to me and how much I adore her.

Sometimes relationships can become “stale” or “complacent” and it takes some effort to break the monotony of daily routine, show some spark, fire and passion with some gestures that are unexpected and come at random times.  It really will benefit your relationship as a whole.

-Justin Germino

So my loving Boston Terrier who is no longer a pup has what appears to be spinal degeneration and even though he is in much better shape now than he was a few weeks ago, he still has partial paralysis in his right rear leg and has trouble standing or falls over occasionally when he gets too spunky or over jumpy.

The vet recommended we keep him relatively docile in his old age and not encourage him to jump or play rough anymore. He is only 8 years old and it is sad to see him become this way, we considered putting him on some pet supplements to see if it would help increase his energy and vitality, but the vet pretty much said there isn’t much we can do but give him a comfortable life.

That being said he still sleeps in bed with us, I let him outside often to go to the restroom and his energy and health have improved tremendously since a few weeks ago. He has no signs of tumor, infection or any other ailment other than his weakening spine. The vet seemed to believe that he must have jumped and injured his spine while in the yard the other week, so he could recover in 8-12 weeks and regain feeling in his foot. It isnt completely paralyzed he can move it, walk on it and such but it is very numb. He can’t feel if you pinch it and he has poor reflexes when you perform certain tests with his rear foot.

Meanwhile the dog is still our beloved pet and his quality of life is a little slower paced, but he still gets love and is able to function and enjoy the families affection. He also doesn’t appear to be in any pain, so we are just glad he is okay for now and will continue to provide for him.

-Justin Germino

So for my lunch break today I have to go to the dentist and get some x-rays and my teeth cleaned.  Routine checkup and cleaning twice a year but its funny how I dread just losing an hour of my day to attend to what is actually an important health item.  I actually am like “great, I can’t believe I have to lose an hour” like what is more important than keeping your teeth healthy and clean to avoid problems later?  I find that many people get so busy with work and home, that they come to hate or dread just taking a few hours to take care of their health, have a checkup, physical or in my case today dental checkup and cleaning.

We are all busy and that is a fact of life, but try not to be so harsh on taking a break now and again to keep yourself checked out, well and carve out some time to get checked out.  Better to get a clean bill of health now than have a problem discovered a year later that could have been avoided early.

So I breath in and exhale, one hour out of my day sitting in a dental chair isn’t going to kill me.  I will just sit back, relax and try not to think about all of the things I could be doing at work, or blogging at home, or an extra hour I could spend hanging around the house with my wife at the same time.

-Justin Germino

I am busy these last few days working on adding Social Networking buttons to all of my web sites, and I will have them up pretty soon on 3 of my 4 blogs.  These will include buttons to LinkedIn, Twitter, Plurk, Zimbio, BlogCatalog, Digg, StumbleUpon, Technorati, YouTube and any other social networks that I belong to and collect friends on.  I am becoming very active in the social network seen and whether you are one of my 500+ followers on Twitter, or a connection on LinkedIn, feel free to follow and connect with me on any and all social networks that you belong to.  I try to keep consistant with my online ID across the board.  I am known as Dragonblogger on every service except LinkedIn which I use as my professional work and use my real name.

Once I get my buttons established I look forward to building more connections with my readers and fellow bloggers.

-Justin Germino

One thing I remembered is how simple touches can add elegance to your home and really make it feel as if it “IS” your home and yours. Customizing and adding the simplest of touches can do wonders, one of the things we did in our last home is to put in custom industrial knobs in the kitchen cabinets. We had an assortment of knife, fork and spoon knobs and handles that I installed on all the kitchen drawers and cabinet doors. These brushed steel handles and knobs gave a real sense of class and style to the kitchen.

There was a downside of course, I would accidentally bump into the knobs and get a fork handle jabbing me in the hip bone or the buttock occasionally. At least the knives were butter knives not steak knife handles or else I could have been in real trouble. In our newer house the cabinets were all upgraded and so nice looking we didn’t want to drill holes in them to install the knobs and handles.

My point is though customizing simple things like cabinets with unique handles, change the paper tower rolls, or toilet paper rolls with unique designs. Unique towel racks, or shelving all add a unique sense of style to your home.

-Justin Germino

I want to say that there are way too many divorces that occur in the country now  a days, people have given up on “working at a marriage” and are so eager to take flight the moment they deal with an issue that is complicated, hard or they feel like giving up.  I do believe that divorce is an option under certain circumstances including anything like “Abuse, Domestic Violence” or children are at risk, but barring physical or mental abuse or health there should be things taken into consideration.

Financial issues are among the top reasons for getting divorced and ironically are one of the top reasons why people are devastated following divorce financially.  Another major one is fidelity, cheating, dishonesty or lying.

Your significant other should be a transparent window to you vice versa, nobody should get married unless they not only know about each other, but know how each other feels and thinks about certain things.  One of the key ways to accomplish this is through open communication, take the time to ask your partner the tough questions or ones you wouldn’t have thought to ask.  Ask them how they feel about religion, marriage, kids, sex, adult movies, strip clubs, Internet dating, social networks…etc.

You see where I am going with this it never hurts to ask your partner how they feel about anything and what is their take and opinion on anything and everything you can think of, learn early on what your partner’s point of view is on these things and these can become foundations to strengthen the relationship, or if your girlfriend/partner has differing opinion or point of view on certain topics you can share your own and find a compromise in the middle if there can be one found.

Marriage is about giving not taking, if both sides give then both sides receive, if one side gives and the other side takes then the marriage is out of balance and is destined to have problems and issues.  Communication is key, never assume your partner thinks a certain way unless you have asked.  Even worse, if you know your partner is against certain things you must be honest and open about how you feel.  Lying is never okay in a relationship even when many people lie to spare another person’s feelings, this in the end can only cause worse issues and weaken the marriage.

Marriages are complicated, hard and require a lot of effort, consideration and commitment.  But the reward can be a thousand times better than the work put into it, as long as both sides are equals and are true to each other and have open and honest communication.  It is never too late to open up to your partner and never too late to start fresh and build a healthier and stronger relationship.

-Justin Germino

My wife has had several recipe’s published in various magazines over the years.  She has also won two contests and competitions including one from Shamrock Farms and another from her Culinary Federation chapter.  She won a year’s supply of dairy products a few years ago from the Shamrock Farms one.  Now she has had her 2nd recipe published in Taste of Home magazine, and we were both surprised and happy to see it arrive in the mail on Friday.

I am sharing this recipe with my readers:  (Click for Larger Image and to actually read the recipe)

-Justin Germino