Justin Germino Ramblings

I am always in the market for quick meals and lately I have been trying the Lean Cuisine Honestly Good microwave dinners. My favorite so far is the Pomegranate Chicken and this type of meal advertises no artificial ingredients, minimally processed and no preservatives.

This is honestly one of the best and most healthy tasting pre-packaged meals with chicken breast, carrots, string beans, yellow beans and rice pilaf.  All you have to do is take out the pomegranate sauce package, microwave the dinner, add the sauce over and microwave a little more then stir and serve.

Takes about 5 minutes total and is quite good and recommended if you are looking for a healthier alternative that has more natural ingredients, no preservatives and is minimally processed.

There are so many sites online that let you link your sweepstakes or giveaway up for free that you just have to do some clever searching.  Know that every single day of the week there are linky sites that use the Linky script to allow people to automatically enter and list their giveaways, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday linky’s seem to be the most popular.

To find sweepstake linky sites all you need to do is go to trusty old Google Search and type in giveaway linky.  Then use advanced search to filter for either the last 24 hours or week.

Now typically you get an immediate list of linky sites that let you list your giveaway and don’t underestimate the traffic and attention you can get from them, if you hit them early you get more notice and some provide more traffic than others for certain types of giveaways.

There can either be an image linky or text linky and you can fill them out simply by adding the URL of your blog post, the name of your giveaway (most require you to put end date in parenthesis as part of title) and your email.  The image ones will then ask to crop an image from your site for the thumbnail, but the text linky will just add right away.

Other ways to find linky sites are to search for today or yesterday plus the word giveaway and or linky.

If it is Wednesday for example, then search for:

tuesday giveaway linky

list your giveaway

sweepstakes linky

wednesday giveaway linky

Do all search filters for last 24 hours, this will yield best results, the best thing to do is to save time and cut/paste all the info you need for the linky fields so you can easily cut and paste from a text file, in most cases the Linky will remember the form and you can simply press down arrow to fill out the last thing you entered also.

So happy linking to the giveaways.

I love Dropbox and use it all the time, one of my favorite ways to leverage Dropbox is when I work with my writing staff where they need to transfer files over to me whether it is video files to upload to my YouTube channel or mp3 files for the latest Dragoncast.  I setup folders in Dropbox for each of my writing staff members and give them access to write to those folders via their email.

This allows my staff to add what they need and for me to sync up to the appropriate sites later on without having to use a generic account/password on the sites themselves.

I love how the notifier tells me when new files are added so I don’t miss out, and I like how easy it is to create a public folder and when I need to share information like video files, sales demographics or more with advertisers, I can simply include a link to our public media and press files.

Dropbox has a pretty good referral program too, and using this referral program I already earned 19GB of cloud storage.

I have heard some people buy services for really cheap to unlock all referral space on sites like Microworkers.com but I haven’t done this and just rely on my social networks and peers who see my promotion of Dropbox and it works fairly well.

Some ways I leverage Dropbox for are:

• Downloading Minecraft Mods, Maps and having both my kids laptops gain access to them to save time.
• Sharing graphics, analytics and reports with advertisers about my sites.
• Collecting media files from writing staff in their own custom folders only I and they can use.
• Copying photos taken on my iPhone or iPad so that I can download and edit them on my PC later, this includes iPhone and iPad screen shots for game reviews and app reviews.
• Backing up blogging related documents and even backing up your WordPress to Dropbox via WordPress plugins is a great option and way to leverage Dropbox.

I don’t really put any sensitive documents or files on Dropbox, I use it more for anything that I wouldn’t really care very much if it was made public, even on the private folders.  So I don’t backup my personal word, excel documents or anything that has private data in it to Dropbox but that is just a safeguard.

What do you use Dropbox for?

Been doing a multi-week review and testing of the WP Social SEO Booster Pro plugin for WordPress from WPSocial after they contacted me on Twitter for my WPCypher.com WordPress blog.

This plugin has a plethora of features and is quite feature rich in many ways from my initial testing, my only up front notice is that it can be daunting and scare off a lot of inexperienced WordPress and SEO bloggers who just really don’t know what any of it means or how to leverage any of the features the plugin offers.

The WP SEO Social Booster Pro offers the following:

• Google Structured Data aka Rich Snippets (Microdata)
  • Automatically implements the Rich Snippets Tagging for all of your Content.
• Google Authorship & Google Plus Optimization
  • Seamlessly integrates Google Authorship for Single and Multi-Author blogs, Plus allows you to Optimize how your Content Appears in the Google Plus Network when Shared Socially with Google Itemprop, just like when using Facebook Open Graph.
• New! – Google Plus Interactive Posts Social Share
• Facebook Open Graph
  • Automatically optimizes your Blog for Facebook Open Graph SEO and the New  Facebook Graph Search.
  • New! – Option to Auto Create Open Graph Product Type for WooCommerce Products
• New! – Facebook Authorship and Publisher Open Graph Integration (Just Like Google Authorship, but for Facebook!)
• New! – Facebook Recommedations Bar Integration
• Twitter Meta Tags
  • Automatically adds the Twitter Meta Tags for increased connections between Google, Twitter, and your content.
• Twitter Cards
  • Show off your content on Twitter like no one else can using all Twitter Card Content Types!
  • New! – Option for Automatic Twitter Card Generation for WooCommerce Products
• New! – Local SEO Facebook Optimization, Local SEO KML/ GEO Sitemaps, Google Plus Local Optimization
• New! – Pinterest Rich Pins Optimization
• Increase SEO Rank
  • The Plugin does this all seamlessly and can take a poor performing blog to a Highly Ranked Blog FAST!
• Increase Site Performance
  • Includes HTML5 Boilerplate .htaccess Optimizations for better site performance on the Web and with Mobile.
• Star Rating System
  • Includes a Star Rating System with Google Structured Data (Rich Snippets) Integration.
• New! – Social Sharing Icons Integrated with all Optimization Features
• Image Optimizer – New! Image Sitemaps
  • Optimizes all your images for better site performance automatically.
  • HTML5 Boilerplate Optimization for fast and more optimized performance for your site on Mobile Devices.
• Social Sharing Statistics for all Your Posts and Pages for all the Major Social Networks!
• Optimized for Speed – Will Not Slow Your Site Down!
• Integrates and Optimized for Use with both the Yoast WordPress SEO and All in One SEOPlugins
• Unlimited Lifetime Site License:  Use on as Many Sites as you Want
• Full Developer License to Use Our Plugins and Themes on Clients Sites You Develop*
• Lifetime Support and Upgrades

Best of all you get access to a backend demo on a test WordPress site so you can see how it works and look at it yourself before you even decide to take a trial of it.

http://wpsocial.com/demo/backend/wp-admin/

At $37 the plugin isn’t a bad price, but I am still testing it out and doing more feature testing and will have a full review up on WPCypher within a week or two.

My birthday approaches on September 29th, but my wife decided to give me my birthday present early so we can both partake in it’s benefits.

I had always used juicers and the main juicer I used for about a decade was the Juiceman Jr. but one of the things I didn’t like about juicers was the pulp that was wasted.  The NutriBullet was different, instead of juicing which is separating the pulp and fiber from the liquid in the vegetables and fruits, it simply pulverized everything into a nutritious shake.  This is what it claimed and how it offered more nutrition with way less cleanup (no filters to scrub with a tooth brush and piles of dried rubbish to through away or recycle).

I have read a lot of reviews on the NutriBullet and the top complaints are related to overfilling the cups and/or leaving the motor running too long, it isn’t a juicer and you can only run it for 30-40 second blends at a time, you pulverize for a few seconds, stop, pulverize again, stop, shake, pulverize a gain.  Overall it only takes about 1 minute to make a full 8-10oz shake with the NutriBullet and I became much faster at it the 2nd and 3rd time I used it.

Everyday so far I have made a different nutritious shake, and my latest involved 2 handfuls of spinach, 1/4 cup of chopped pineapple, 1 teaspoon of chia seeds, 1 teaspoon of brown rice protein powder, 1 dozen blueberries, 1 sliced fuji apple (never put apple seeds in it, they are toxic if you grind them up) and then fill to the max line with water.

The shake may not look to appealing, more often than not they are greenish brown in appearance and may not look appealing, but depending on how sweet you like you can add a higher fruit content, or you can add other flavors like ginger, mint leaves and more to add other flavors.  Feel free to give it a spicy kick with some red pepper powder or Tabasco too if you want.

I can honestly tell you that cleanup with the NutriBullet is like 2 minutes, there is nothing to throw away, you just rinse out the blender and cup when you are done.  I am very impressed with the product and in the first two days of owning it we made 5 separate juices including one being a coconut milk and fruit smoothing that was fantastic.

It is so easy to add a little extra boost with chia seeds (milled) or buy the seeds and use the milling attachment to grind them into powder.  You can also add the protein powder of your choice, as I can’t tolerate Casein, Whey or Soy very well, brown rice protein powder works best for me.

I am very impressed with the NutriBullet and I even overfilled some of the fruit above the max line and it had no trouble at all blending, I plan on using it every day and replacing either a breakfast or lunch with a healthy smoothie in the hoops of boosting my energy levels and reducing my daily fatigue primarily.

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For decades, people thought the planet’s energy resources were at a seemingly endless supply, but as world populations grow, non-renewable resources quickly diminish. And at the rate society is going, there’ll be nothing left in the way of energy for future generations. So with continuous conservation in mind, how can the world today ensure that there are enough energy resources to go around for tomorrow and beyond? Here are a few factors to consider.

The Ability for Renewability

Image via Flickr by Daniel Wehner

Considering non-renewable energy resources like coal, petroleum and natural gas are in a continuing short supply, the importance of renewable energy is at an all-time high. As fossil fuels become extinct, wind, solar, and hydroelectric energy will fuel tomorrow’s generation.

Not only do renewable resources like the ones mentioned above offer an endless supply of energy, they’re environmentally friendly. Harnessing the earth’s natural energy via solar panels, wind turbines, and hydroelectricity helps conserve non-renewable resources while implementing new forms of energy production.

Making Energy More Secure

When energy resources are diversified, are made available and affordable for everyone, it will result in secure energy. But, when it comes to preserving energy resources for the future, everything from the competition over energy sources to political instability in energy producing countries to increasing oil prices affects energy sustainability and availability for generations to come.

When referring to the accessibility of affordable, renewable energy on a global scale, the idea of energy security comes into play. Energy security results in worldwide government-mandated opportunities for inexpensive, renewable, efficient energy sources that provide energy stability across the globe, which is essential for the planet’s energy future.

Increasing Energy Efficiency

When existing energy practices work more efficiently, it extends the life of resources, whether they’re renewable or not. Because of this, the importance of energy efficiency is just as crucial as the way that energy is produced in the first place – and efficiency results in more resources for the future.

A great example of energy efficiency is the increasing popularity of compact fluorescent bulbs and even LED bulbs as opposed to regular incandescent light bulbs. Not only do compact fluorescents last ten times longer and LED’s last longer than they do, they also use a third less energy than incandescents, which helps ensure more energy stability for future generations.

Planning Ahead for Energy

Without a plan in place, today’s energy resources are in threat of depletion, which means that the future of energy is in trouble too. Because of this, energy planning needs more global attention. In an eco-friendly nutshell, energy planning is the development and adoption of long-term renewable global energy policies.

And, where there are policies, there are politics, which is exactly why government involvement across the world is necessary. When countries as a whole adopt energy planning as a commonplace practice, they become better informed about current and future energy trends as well as energy predictions that impact current populations as well as the generations to come.

From renewable energy becoming a global mainstay to the benefits of energy efficiency, today’s energy practices will affect tomorrow’s energy usage.

Author Bio:

Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including personal health, home improvement, and the environment.

Last week I was lucky and after opening up my son’s Kindle Fire when it refused to power on anymore no matter how long he kept it charged, I was able to revive it.

Apparently the problem had to do with the battery connector to the Kindle Fire itself, maybe due to dropping or rough usage the connector plug must have become loosened because the battery didn’t register as it existed.  At least this is why I think the Kindle Fire would show a green power button for only a second, then power off.

I re-seat the connectors and then the Kindle Fire powered on fine battery fully charged and it seemed to have done the trick and revived the Kindle Fire for now.  The charging port on this one is very unstable and this was a known issue with the 1st Generation Kindle Fire tablets, it has been about 22 months since this Kindle Fire was purchased and my kids are due for a tablet upgrade this Christmas and I am considering getting them a Google Nexus 7 tablet as an upgrade to the 1st Generation Kindle Fire.

So when Facebook changed its terms of service around sweepstakes and giveaways, Rafflecopter was quick to come in with a new service that allowed Facebook page owners to run flash giveaways on their page.

This means you can run a giveaway right from your Facebook wall in a post, and the post is the giveaway.  The number of comments and likes you get on your Facebook wall post are the entries and the Rafflecopter flash giveaway app will randomly select 1 winner from all the likes and comments left on the Facebook wall.

You can read more about it here: http://blog.rafflecopter.com/2013/09/facebook-flash-giveaway-app/

I decided to test it out, as with all giveaways make sure you give clear start and end times and have a disclaimer in the post itself on who is eligible to participate.  Kick off your wall post giveaway and watch to see who interacts with it.

So I kicked off the giveaway stating what the prize was, who was eligible and when the giveaway would end.  This experiment was with a $10 Amazon gift card or PayPal cash if winner preferred.

Within the first hour of announcing the sweepstakes it had 68 likes and 56 comments which is really good for a wall post, it had an impression reach of 1,200 or so which is about 10% of my Facebook fanpage following.

Here is a video showcasing the entire FB Flash Giveaway from the fanpage and picking the winner with the Rafflecopter FB Flash app.

I reached a total of 196 likes

and 163 comments

with 6,556 people seeing the post, and I tried to do a $5 promotion, but it got rejected after just over $2 in promotion because there was too much wording in the image for the gift card!

Okay so I really need to spend some time and organize my desktop this coming weekend, it is a mess with so many icons that even with Stardock Fences I can’t keep it managed and under control well.

The poor dragon in the background has only a spare square to breath and this is after I cleaned up a ton of files that co-existed in his mouth and eyes.  I have scrolling areas of Stardock Fences that scroll into the abyss.

Normally I would say that Stardock Fences I awesome how you can organize your icons into subsections and containers on your desktop so you you can applications in one container, games in another and my blogging files in another.  It works well for this, but when one container gets full a scroll bar appears and you can have many and I mean many applications all fit into a container and not realize you have so many until you scroll forever.

So time for some fall cleaning of my desktop to at least sort my files into a more organized folder system.  Most of the items on my desktop are screen captures, blog related snippets that I need to get around to incorporating into blog posts at some point.

Of course you can always double click and hide all your containers which gives you the appearance of a clean and empty desktop with Stardock Fences.

Recently I have gotten into the coconut water craze you could say, I wanted something that had a bit more flavor and water and something more hydrating than the 6 cups of Iced Coffee I was drinking a day to help reduce my caffeine intake while adding more electrolytes and hydration at the same time.

There are quite a few brands of coconut water and coconut water certainly isn’t that cheap considering it compared to the cost of other filtered and flavored water, but it is natural and lightly flavored with some brands being sweeter than others.

I will list out all of the brands that I tried and add my honest review and feedback, but I will start with my favorite brand which is Taste Nirvana Coconut Water and it can be found in the jars (taste better) or cans (twice as much, cheaper and still taste better than other brands).

Taste Nirvana Coconut Water

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Taste Nirvana coconut water I have reviewed in both the 9.5oz jars which are glass jars with sweet coconut water from Thailand coconuts and the 16oz cans.  The jar coconut water does taste a bit better than the cans for some reason, not sure why maybe the can degrades flavor ever so slightly but either way the cans are very good too and much cheaper when ordered in bulk on Amazon than the jars.

The Taste Nirvana coconut water is much sweeter than other brands though the sugar level isn’t overly high, they also are a little pulpy and think of this a little like pulp orange juice except there is small white coconut pulp in the coconut water.  Now in some the cans some of the pulp can require some minor chewing which I don’t mind, you kind of swish the coconut water in your mouth a little chew some of the pulp and swallow.  There isn’t that much and only toward the bottom.  The jars however the coconut pulp seems to always be softer and can just be swallowed immediately.  Either way I don’t mind the pulp, but if you don’t like the idea of some coconut pulp then this may turn you off of the brand.

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O.N.E Coconut Water

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O.N.E Coconut Water has less sugar and calories than Taste Nirvana and has no pulp at all, it is thinner and closer to water in texture with less flavor.  It comes in pouches rather than cans or jars and is a good option if you want to drink a lower calorie coconut water or you prefer a coconut water without that sweet flavor and without pulp.

I definitely prefer the O.N.E. Coconut Water chilled as it tastes a little better, and if I can’t find Taste Nirvana I will pick up this brand at Walmart which is the primary brand sold in Walmart here.

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Vita Coco Coconut Water

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If you read reviews many will say Vita Coco tastes better than O.N.E coconut water but to me this was a distant 3rd in coconut water flavor.  However it isn’t bad and at $19 for a 12 pack it is about $8 cheaper for 12 than the O.N.E Coconut water and one of the least expensive brands.

Like O.N.E coconut water, Vita Coco is very thin and light and has no pulp, it is not sweet and low in calories while having the potassium and other minerals you look for in coconut water.

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C2O Pure Coconut Water

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I tried this brand after picking it up in Whole Foods in Southern California, it is thin without pulp and very sweet like Taste Nirvana, it has about 12 grams of sugar per serving which is twice as much as the O.N.E and Vita Coco coconut water but is quite delicious if you want a sweeter coconut water beverage.  It is less expensive than the Taste Nirvana brand and actually is my 2nd favorite brand of coconut water personally.

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Zico Pure Coconut Water

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Zico Pure Coconut Water is also a bit on the sweet side at about 10 grams of sugar per serving but it tastes less sweet than C20 or Taste Nirvana.  Zico also uses Thai coconuts and many on Amazon prefer Zico to Vita Coco and O.N.E. but this would probably be my 3rd favorite out of the brand reviewed.  You can kind of tell that I tend to prefer sweeter coconut water beverages based on my preferences.  Zico also has no pulp but is a little thicker than Vita Coco and O.N.E. coconut water.

So these are the 5 brands I have tried recently and Taste Nirvana (Jar, then Can) are my top 2 with C2O being a very inexpensive alternative that also comes in a 33oz container which makes it great for pouring in glasses and leaving in the fridge if you want a larger container and are not looking for to-go cans or pouches.

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Which is your favorite flavor of coconut water?