Justin Germino Ramblings

So yesterday morning my wife and baby go to eat breakfast at IHOP before I have to start working for the day.  We sit down at a booth and start to order drinks and our usual breakfasts.  I do love IHOP pancakes and I always get the Sampler and split the scrambled eggs and hashbrowns with my little one.

A lone gentlement probably somewhere between 55 and 65 years of age sitting just behind us in a booth decides to engage us in conversation out of the blue.  The man first inquires about the toy Woody doll that my baby carries around, he claims he has seen that doll somewhere but couldn’t place it.  I informed him it was the Toy Story Woody Doll and that jogged his memory.

The man proceeded to say that the usually doesn’t talk to strangers but there is something about us that makes him feel old.  He said he had six kids the oldest being thirty five and the youngest being eleven years old.  He also apologizes for wasting our time and talking to us and said he would “shut up now”.

The odd fellow just kept engaging us in conversation throughout our entire meal however, at first it was polite and friendly questions.  When he asked my wife how old she was, I was a little disturbed, point blank asking a woman her age is not proper etiquette and can be downright rude.  I know he was doing it to illustrate that we were “babies” compared to him, but it was still rude.

When he found out that I was from New York the conversation turned weirder still.  He asked if I was an Italiano, not Italian clearly defining the stereotype difference.  I politely joked with him about it, and then he took a phone conversation with someone and once again I overheard him joking about if another family member was Italiano, then he told the person he was talking to on the phone that he met some nice people and one of them was a New Yorker, and also an Italiano.

I have been stereotyped before but was kind of odd, in the thirteen years I have been living in Arizona less and less people seemed to stereotype me as a New York Italian, but today was a throwback I guess.  He might as well called me a mobster and a greasy WOP.  Meanwhile my wife was shaking her head and kept giving me looks like “don’t encourage him”.  I told her that if my skin was dark he would have asked “Are you part black?”

I joked with her and said that if I told him I was 1/2 Jewish do you think it would help or hurt my case?  Seriously, whats up with the stereotyping.  Not all Italians from New York are Mafia wannabe’s who just talk trash and are up to no good scams… wait, hmmm so many are no wonder why there is this stereotype.

That is my funny story folks, the funny thing is these types of things happen to us all the time, weird strangers just talking to us out of the blue.  We had an old Native American woman in a shoe store, she was so ancient that her hands were like parched leather, she had a wise elder look about her.  When our first baby was only a few months old she had walked over and touched the baby’s foot and said some words in a dialect I can’t understand.  Smiling we can only assume she said some sort of shamanistic blessing to our baby, that is what we joke anyways.

-Justin Germino

I am not a psychologist, therapist or have taken any courses or training in such topics.  I can only post based on my experience and my point of view and opinions.  As a fairly intelligent person who has gone through personal insecurity and self image problems over the years I can speak to this subject since I have gone through these things myself.

If you find yourself the type of person who looks at yourself in the mirror and only see’s what is wrong and what you wish you could change about yourself, then this post is targeted at you.  I myself used to be that kind of person, perfectionism that was unattainable, can’t stand the way I look, loathed myself and hid behind various mental traps that kept me in that way of thinking.

I started to really turn my way of thinking on its head over the past few years and especially recently, instead of focusing on what was bad, or what I wished I could change, I forced and reminded myself to only point out what I thought was good or decent and ignore the rest.  Then I started thinking we should apply this attitude and way of thinking toward everything in life.

So with conscious effort at first and it comes easier once you make it a learned habit you start looking and pointing out only the things you like about anything, instead of nitpicking and only noticing the things you dislike and find unappealing.  These can be simple things from eating a meal in a restaurant, instead of complaining about what was bad, start by instead thinking about what you did like and ditch the rest unless you are a food critic.

If you see yourself in the mirror and are unhappy with something about yourself then point out something you like about yourself and forget about the rest.  The more confidence and positive attitude you have the more charisma you will display.  Charisma is not just how you look physically, it is how you come off and your aura that is picked up on by other people.  Confident optimistic people tend to draw people near them who want to hear what they have to say, whereas dark brooding and self defeating types tend to be isolated and lone.  Sarcastic types can become isolated as well unless their sarcasm is shared among who they are with.

Remember it takes conscious effort to reprogram how you think and you will slip up from time to time, but take my advice I am generally a happier person now deliberately noticing what is good and fine rather than constantly noticing what I don’t like.  I am also much more accepting of my own self and in turn I feel lighter, more confident and am happier as a result.

These are just some of my insights that I am sharing with you.

-Justin Germino

I have to be honest with my readers, I am not an expert SEO marketing guy, blogger, or anything.  I am just an IT Security guy who has a passion for writing, reviewing, entertaining and poetry.  So I started 3 blogs and my oldest Dragonblogger.com was started on August 23rd 2008.  The other two started in late September including this one.  So I have only been blogging for less than four months and I am learning new tricks, tips and methods of doing things every day.

One thing I have discovered is I have a passion, in my real life I was blessed/cursed with the gift of gab.  People always said I talk to much, and now I have a medium to share my thoughts and views with a much wider audience than the handful of people I talk to daily.  The best thing is some people actually like hearing what I have to say, and have become fans of my poetry, Heroes reviews, Technology Reviews…etc.

Fans, here I was a just a regular IT guy a few months ago and now I have more people who follow me on my blogs than I can count on all my digits.  That is amazing to me really, and I am always willing to share what I have learned and give back to my fans, readers and friends.

The first is this, I am starting to make some money with my blogs, it isn’t much and equates to about $100 – $150 per month in my 2nd and 3rd month blogging.  The hours I put in make if I break it down equals that I earn about $1.20 per hour while blogging.  So I make like cheap chinese sweatshop labor rates, but the point is I love doing it, and the fact that I make something is cool.  I bought a few extra Christmas gifts this year that I would not have been able to get without some blogging money.

I am also realizing that my earning potential will grow as my blogs expand, $150 could become $300 in three or four months which could be $500 by the end of 2009.  My goal would be to reach $500 per month in December of 2009, but I can’t seem to figure out how to break more than $200 per month, you can only do so many paid posts without your blog ratio being blown to bits and looking like a paid advertisement blog.

So at some point I will need to invest some of my blog money back into promoting my blog, maybe learning and searching and buying SEO link packages to see if they work.  Paying for adwords or some sort of link advertising, but I need to make sure I have a brand to deliver, and have clarified what I am offering before I market myself and my name.

If anyone wants help and to learn everything I have tried, you can check my dragonblogger.com for blogging category, where I share all my blogging tips, also I have the same category on this site.  You can also twitter me anytime @dragonblogger, I am happy to meet and talk to anyone about blogging.  Also if you have something to share, if you are a blogger who started from nothing and are now making $1000 per month, or even blogging is your full time job now, I would love to hear from you.

-Justin Germino

Again it would seem weekly an opportunity presents itself where I am faced with a choice to help someone or just walk by and turn the other cheek.  Yesterday I was walking my kids to the playground and noticed several teenagers in the play area in the grass.  There were pinning a smaller teenager to the ground with his hands pinned behind his back and the kid was laying on his face.

I immediately started walking over as I did not know if the kids were playing rough, or if they were being mean and harming the kids.  As I got closer the kids got up and I saw the smaller boy laughing and running around chasing them and they all went back to playing.

I breathed a sigh of relief, but had those kids been harming the other kids, I would not have walked away, I would have intervened and driven the kids off and made sure the smaller kid got home safely.  Too many times people walk by and ignore a fight among teens, kids or adults and do nothing about it.

I have seen my fair share of fights while in New York and the horrendious and vicious public school systems there, I have been on the receiving end of group fights where nobody intervenes.  There just is no acceptable way to allow such actions to be committed and turn the other way in my opinion.

I had my little boys with me and I would never want them to be treated that way if they were older, if they saw another kid being hurt I would be proud of my kid for trying to stand up and protect someone, I would not want to instill the “look the other way” attitude because it is wrong and if more people looked out for each other this would be a better place.

-Justin Germino

I have been a fan of Vayden’s music for over a year now and have seen them four times play live in the local Arizona market scene. Each time they are spectacular and have a great stage presence, their music is generational and appeals to many rock genre fans. Though some of their stuff is harder than traditional radio rock, their catchy tunes and superb music style swept Arizona and will soon start to sweep the nation I predict.

They have been signed by the same record label as Tantric and did a brief tour with them this year, next year they plan on doing a longer tour. Radio Station 98 KUPD plays them often here in Arizona as they can also be heard on Sirius Octane with their hit song “The One you Left Behind”.

To share one of their songs with my readers I found a youtube posting of their live video Anthem Of The Used, which is another of my favorite songs by the band:

Vayden – Anthem Of The Used – Live in Hollywood
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=639MWGOz6Pw

Curtis the lead singer has very powerful vocals and softens his voice very well before releasing his powerful voice in the chorus of the song.  Vayden when they play live does a Beatles cover of “Come Together” that sounds in my opinion better than the original.

Armin is amazing teenage guitarist having just turned 19 recently and been playing with the band for years, he is able to do impressive solo riffs and has fun entertaining the audience with his blazing fast fingers and handwork.

Bruce is one of the most amazing drummers in the business able to wow the audience with being able to spin the drumsticks in his hands between hits of the snare drum which is a feat of amazing dexterity.

Jason the bass player plays some complicated arrangements on the bass guitar and does a great job doing backup vocals for Curtis.  The dynamic of the group is incredible overall and they have fun with their audience especially their home town in Arizona.

If you live in Arizona, or hear about Vayden coming to town in your area I highly encourage you to see them live, they are even better live than on their recorded album.  If you are interested in their music check we will be posting their album for purchase on Rock Along Productions soon.

-Justin Germino

I was stumbling across the web and my friend sent me the link to this site which has 25 spoofing motivational posters.  They are so amusing I had to borrow a few and post them here just to share with my readers.  To see the rest of them I encourage you to visit Village of Joy.

My favorite one is Retards, its sad because its true.  Makes me think of the movie Tropic Thunder when I see that one.

My in-laws who are a very big part of my life needed some assistance changing light bulbs in their vaulted ceiling.  Now my Father in law is very ill and on full time oxygen, and neither of them could climb a ladder.  I was more than willing and happy to assist, and they made me and their grandkids dinner for coming over to help them.  Such a simple task such as changing 3 light bulbs and they appreciated my effort so much.

These are good caring people and it made me think about this, do you take the little stuff for granted?  Take some extra time to notice people who do small things to assist and help you, determine if you are appreciating them enough and their efforts.  Go out of your way to do something to help someone, a stranger, a friend or anyone.  There isn’t enough kindess in this world and just doing a simple act every day or as often as possible goes a long way.

If everyone would try to do just one kind and helpful thing per day, we would see the whole face of the world change with this one thought and this one positive belief.  That instead of seeing what the world and people can do for you, what can you do to help other people?

Example, the other day I saw an elderly lady in a Walmart parking lot fighting to lift an empty shopping cart out of a pothole, sixteen people walked right past her.  I walked over to her and grabbed the cart and lifted out and moved it to flatter even surface for her.  How can people just ignore someone who obviously needs some assistance?

Mull on that today, I know everyday I will never pass the opportunity to do the following simple acts:

-Justin Germino

Why is it that most human beings in general would complain about the way things are but never make a move or action to try and make things better.  This is a really people are looking for support and understanding and empathy, but don’t really know or how to make things any better or what to do, so they don’t bother even trying.

If you are going to complain and whine over and over about the state of the economy, CEO’s getting rich while middle class get poorer, Gas prices (which are dropping radically and shouldn’t be a complaint anymore), Companys offering Black Friday deals and then blaming the companies when the shoppers are the one killing each other for them.

You just mine as well wear an adult diaper and fully regress to infancy at this point.  Take action even a little bit at a time makes a difference.  If you don’t like the way a company does things, boycott that company and its products.  Instead of finding and dishing all the negative people need to start looking for what they can change in their own sphere of influence.  Is the negative really that bad, or is something else the source of your frustration?

I myself can complain from time to time about things but I also have the ability to look at everything in my life as half full as well.  Your buying power affects your immediate sphere, support what you believe in and do not give in to what you don’t.  If you really want to complain about something, do it with a purpose that can lead to change.  If you are complaining just for the sake of someone hearing and agreeing, that is what family and friends are for.

So here is my post complaining about complainers,  hmm..  Maybe I should take my own advice, and with that this is a good time to end this rant.

-Justin Germino

This is my personal blog and I also use it to generate a small amount of income besides my primary Dragon blogger blog.  For the month of November I had set the following blog goals for myself for this personal blog:

• 150 Average Unique Visits per day
• 6000 Unique Visits for the Month
• RealRank under 600
• 10 new backlinks
• $50 in Blog Income

For the month of November I averaged a total of 195 visits per day which exceeded my first objective.  I also had 6073 Unique Visits for the month which just made that objective as well.  My RealRank currently is 836 though was under 600 for a few days.  I only added 6 new backlinks according to blogsearch.google.com which was shy of my goal of 10.  I made a total of $35 dollars in paid assignments with this blog only between November 1st and November 30th.

My goals for December are going to be simpler and much more focused on providing content not collecting numbers or statistics.  I am going to try to set the following goals which are much more in my control:

• Break the 150 post mark I will have to write over 40 posts this month but think I can do that.
• Continue to increase visitors try to have a 10% increase in overall visits from previous month via Google Analytics

I am not setting money goals or specific ranking goals anymore as they are too much by chance and too unstable.  When they aren’t met they cause frustration and I instead would rather focus on content and promoting and not care about the rankings and ratings at this point.

-Justin Germino

This morning I decided to do some online shopping and see what kind of cyber Monday deals could be found online. I managed to find a few holiday gifts for my wife from Amazon, as well as found some good prices on various toys, though I haven’t purchased anything for the kids yet.

Free shipping is always a good incentive as is discounts, a coworker of mine told me about Microsoft Live Cashback search, where you collect cashback after 60 days based on any item you purchase that is participating. This was an interesting thing and I was going to try and compare prices later today to see if prices are better than local stores. One thing it would seem is that Amazon.com seems to consistently have better prices than overstock.com at least in every item I directly compared.

I did some reading and learned about eBillMe which was an interesting concept and service.  eBillme allows you to make purchases and receive an ebill and pay the bill directly with your online bank account via billpay.  This bypasses the need to charge your purchases to credit cards, and allows you to pay your bills with cash you have in your bank accounts.

In addition there is a contest called shop and confess, where you can win cash prizes.  Here is a video you can play to learn more:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG7Zwju20_U