Justin Germino Ramblings

This weekend was spent putting new furniture together (gotta love Ikea furniture) and prepping for the movers transporting all of our stuff from the old house to the new house tomorrow.

I will be moving my own office, dismantling my desk and putting it back together, so that I have a fully functional office again by Monday latest so I can get back to work on Tuesday.  I did have to take a day off of work since we had to reschedule the movers from Saturday to Monday due to renovations at the place falling a bit behind schedule.

Overall though the hectic craziness that has been going on as a result of being between homes over the past months should wind down rapidly and I expect by the 3rd week of October things to calm down quite a bit.  Like most moves it will probably takes weeks to unpack and be fully "moved in".  I think of the scene in The Incredibles where Helen Parr says "We are finally moved in" after two years when the final box is unpacked.

All my blogs have posts queued for them and should continue as normal for a few days and I will be leveraging mobile access for a few days to keep tabs on everything until the home wi-fi network is setup.

-Justin Germino

In the world of instant communication, texting has become a staple of the conversational diet. Many people speak to their friends and relatives more through electronic messaging systems on their smartphones than they do in person. However, a large percentage of people never stop communicating–even when they’re behind the wheel. Two out of every ten drivers admit to texting while driving. This reckless act endangers not only the offending driver but also every other driver and passenger on the road upon which he or she drives.

In independent testing conducted by Car and Driver Magazine, results showed that texting drivers experienced a delayed response time that far exceeds the affects of alcohol impairment. A normal, sober driver responds by hitting his break in 0.54 seconds. A drunk driver with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 will respond, on average, quickly enough to add four feet to the stopping distance. Texters, however, showed an increase in stopping distance of 70 feet. This is enough distance to cause plenty of damage on the highway.

Despite these numbers, most people simply don’t see the harm in texting while driving. Several locations have outlawed the act, but since there is no physical impairment of the driver, many refuse to attribute texting and driving with the proper danger. The truth lies in the statistics: Texting while driving is responsible for more than 2,600 deaths each year. There are many ways to avoid the dangers of texting and driving. Here are a few simple practices that can keep you safe on the road.

Turn off the phone. Your alerts and from emails, texts, calls and applications will be silenced, allowing you to give your full attention to the road and the other drivers on it. Silencing the ring tone may suffice, but avoid setting your mobile phone to vibrate. Whether you keep your phone in your pocket or not, the vibration in most phones can be heard from several feet away.

Keep your mobile out of reach. Take the temptation away completely by placing your phone in the back seat, glove box or trunk of your car while driving.

If you simply must text or use the phone in any manner, pull the car over. Give yourself plenty of room on the driver’s side in cases where you must stop suddenly on the shoulder for your own safety.

If you are less than self-disciplined and find the lure of the mobile too great to resist, you may be able to get your phone to help. AT&T has created a free Blackberry and Android smartphone application called DriveMode that sends an automatic return text to users who try to contact you while you are driving. It also auto-replies to phone calls and emails, informing your contacts, in a personalized message, that you will get back to them as soon as you are off the road. This application and others like it put your mobile phone to task, ensuring that you do not endanger yourself or others on the road.

About the Author

Chloe Parker is the senior news editor for www.MobilePhones.org.uk, where you can find the latest smartphones at the best prices in the market.

Imagine my surprise when my wife asked me to check on her AdSense and Blog which had been idle for the past month (due to some family health issues as well as going through a move) to find that her AdSense account had been disabled without warning.

Their typical response letter which so many bloggers have seen before was waiting in her inbox.

With our advertising programs, we strive to create an online ecosystem that benefits publishers, advertisers and users. For this reason, we sometimes have to take action against accounts that demonstrate behavior toward users or advertisers that may negatively impact how the ecosystem is perceived. In your case, we have detected invalid activity on your site and your account has been disabled.
We’re limited in the amount of information we can provide about your specific violation. We understand this can be frustrating for you, but we’ve taken these precautionary measures because intentional violators can use this information to circumvent our detection systems.
In some cases, publishers can make significant changes to correct the violation and are willing to comply with the AdSense program policies (google.com/adsense/policies). For this reason, we offer an appeals process as an opportunity to work with you to resolve the issue. To help you with the process, we’ve created a list of the top reasons for account closure for you to review before submission at http://support.google.com/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=2660562. Please be sure to provide a thorough analysis in your appeal, which you can submit at https://support.google.com/adsense/bin/request.py?contact_type=appeal_form and we will follow up accordingly.

Naturally I filed an appeal to figure out why the site was banned, the site gets around 70 – 120 visits per day consistently and though there were only 2 new articles posted in the last 60 days it was not an inactive site, it only hosted original content or some guest articles from MyBlogGuest but nothing that should have been against AdSense ToS at all. In fact IZEA Media ads which runs on the site and uses Google AdSense behind it was working and functioning just fine still.

What I found was back in late July Google did send my wife an email to update her tax information in AdSense to receive payment. The problem is this was around the time where there was family health issues and my wife was basically offline for a month.  So she never updated her tax info, 2 months later AdSense is disabled.  Could Google have just disabled her AdSense account because she hadn’t gone in to update the tax info in the AdSense account?  My thought was they just would withhold payout until the tax info was updated.

They claim violation and potential click fraud, but I don’t see how that is likely unless somebody decided to get frisky with the AdSense on a guest post.  5 days before the Google AdSense account was disabled I had published a guest post from MyBlogGuest on the site, I think it probably is coincidence as I had published 12+ MyBlogGuest guest posts on the site previously over the years, but maybe the guest post author wanted visited the post and clicked ads or something around that happened, it is possible.

Google’s generic reply to our appeal request was even more upsetting:

Thank you for your appeal. We appreciate the additional information you’ve
provided, as well as your continued interest in the AdSense program.
However, after thoroughly re-reviewing your account data and taking your
feedback into consideration, our specialists have confirmed that we’re
unable to reinstate your AdSense account.
Please know that, once we’ve reached a decision on your appeal, further
appeals may not be considered, and you might not receive any further
communication from us. Note that AdSense publishers whose accounts are
disabled for violations of our Terms and Conditions are not eligible for
further participation in AdSense. For this reason, you may not open new
accounts.
Also, accounts disabled for invalid click activity will receive no further
payment nor any reissue of previous payment. Your outstanding balance and
Google’s share of the revenue will both be fully refunded back to the
affected advertisers. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.
We understand that you may want more information about your account
activity. However, because we have a need to protect our proprietary
detection systems, we’re unable to provide our publishers with any details
about their account activity.

This blog has been in good standing with AdSense for over 3 years, it was at just the $100 balance when it was disabled and the funding and earnings were wiped out in a puff of smoke.  This policy of not allowing users to get a proper amount of information in why they were flagged to be able to explain or otherwise block a mishap from occurring is preposterous.

I especially think this time the account was banned for not updating the Tax Info and nothing to do with the site itself, if they found click fraud all they had to do was not count AdSense clicks from that IP address or subnet and known that it was target of something else.

For now I just setup my wife’s cooking blog under my own AdSense account, I have it set so that AdSense security only allows and shows for sites approved on my AdSense, in case the ban occurred from that blog having it’s feed pulled into another blog which was in violation where the clicks occurred.

If for some reason the same "click fraud" should happen and my master AdSense account get banned, looks like I will have to find an alternate revenue source when I lose that $200-$220 per month I was getting from Google AdSense.

-Justin Germino

My first born son turns 9 years old today and I can’t believe that he is only 1 year away from reaching the double digits.  I was remarking the other day about this fact and the fact that I just recently reached 10 years with the same company at my day job, I started just about 1 year before my son was born.

At 9 years old my son reminds me very much of myself, he is a Libra like I am but I find he is smarter and more advanced than I was at that age, thanks in part to having so much technology around him to adapt to.

Some traits that he has that you just know will be lasting are his compassion and empathy for others, he truly cares and few people have a truer heart for care.  There isn’t a malicious bone in his body and in a world where most people are shades of gray, he truly is on the path of light and white.

My oldest is my padawan and so completely different than his younger brother, both have different strengths and different traits and my only hope is that they somehow learn to fight a little less with each other (but we all know that isn’t going to happen).

So despite a busy week and all hectic, still taking him out to Peter Piper Pizza and spending some coins on arcades, pizza and fun while he opens his gift.  I know how much he wants the full version of Minecraft (he has been only playing the PC Gamer demo for the past week) but that gift is to come later.

Happy Birthday My Son,

-Dad

Today launched the first of the Dragon Blogger Podcasts which you can find here: http://www.dragonblogger.com/dragonblogger-podcast

Brian Alford who is used to running video game podcasts came up with the idea for his buddies and him to put together a podcast for Dragonblogger to reach out to audience members via an additional media channel.  Currently it will be published 2x per week (Monday and Friday) with half hour episodes.

I am in a trial run to see how well the fans receive it and how to optimize it, currently this tech podcast will be hosted with Blubrry Powerpress and fed into a podcast on iTunes but I am wondering if I should start looking at a different platform like a paid Soundcloud hosting or something else.

Any suggestions on what podcast hosting service you use and recommend, I would like to hear it.

-Justin Germino

Having some trouble with my blog yesterday where a few readers were saying they saw no theme or images, basically anything served from MaxCDN on cdn.dragonblogger.com was being served.  It was like there is some sort of blacklist or filter in the CDN that prevented it from serving files to these readers.

I have temporarily disabled the CDN portion of W3 Total Cache on DragonBlogger.com until I can figure out the issue, but I did purge all cache and will have the users directly hit cdn.dragonblogger.com to see if they can see any content being served from there or not.

I may have to open a case with MaxCDN to figure out the cause, I haven’t seen this happen except when my hosting provider changed my IP and the CDN needed to sync with a new IP but this isn’t the case this time and it is for a limited user set.

-Justin Germino

PicMonkey sent me a DM on Twitter last week inviting me to check out and preview their new Halloween theme effects that you can apply to photo’s online on PicMonkey’s website.

I decided to see if I could Zombify myself up for Halloween a bit with a new profile pic and using only the PicMonkey tools made this

Original Justin Germino

Zombie Justin Germino

Come test out the PicMonkey Halloween Themes, they are fun to play with!

There are tons of premium themes for adding veins, tattoo’s and other cool effects to your photo’s and makes for some great fun.  Something new for your avatar or logo this Halloween if you have online profiles or campaigns.

-Justin Germino

Seriously, I wonder sometimes how it is I became 35 and where the last decade went.  Sometimes I feel like Groundhog Day the movie where I wake up and every day is the same routine, if I don’t stop to make something unique about each day then there will be no way to know if I am living the same day over and over.

Well, routine is a good thing provided you don’t become too complacent to find enjoyment.  Lately the routine has been more stressful as we spend the previous weeks preparing for the move to a new house and the associated stresses that come with dealing with renovations and then moving.

Today I will be at the new place waiting for Dish Network and Cox to come out and setup services, we plan on moving actually on October 6th into the new place and have spent the last month with installation, renovations with my wife overseeing the operation and doing a fantastic job dedicating all the time it takes.

Here is just some of the things that have happened in the last 10 years:

Some Events from 25 to 35

• Had 2 kids
• Worked for same company!
• Moved 3 times
• Started 1 blog, then 2, then a 6 pack!
• Collected gray hairs
• Started balding
• Gained weight, lost 60 pounds and gained 15 back
• Took 4 cruises
• Won 2 company trips (one to Hawaii and one to Disney World)
• Remarried my wife (Renewed vows)
• Went to Las Vegas with my wife about 30 times
• Owned 4 Boston Terriers total (1 passed away in 2009)
• Ate at countless new restaurants

Obviously this is a small list, but was fun to reflect on some of the things that have happened in the last 10 years.

-Justin Germino

Unfortunately nobody wants to find out they paid thousands and thousands of dollars to a company to install flooring only to find out that the company does a horrible job installing flooring and the quality makes the word sub-par look fantastic.

Express Flooring is popular from their jingles, commercials with the lady singing but unfortunately the problem stems from the fact that this company uses subcontractors to do their install work and at least in our case (probably in many others) the quality of the workmanship is to be desired.

Wood vinyl flooring was installed so poorly the cuts around baseboards were terrible, bubbles all over the flooring and too many extra cuts due to lack of precise measurements with seams being ugly and poorly put together made the job a nightmare that left my wife practically in tears and both of us scrambling to try and have the situation fixed.

The installation manager first responded with statements like (I have been up since 5:30am) and “I don’t want to deal with this today” to explaining that they will have to take pictures and get a report from the subcontractor to make a determination if they will need to replace the vinyl.

Meanwhile, phone call after phone call goes unanswered, 4 hours with 2 messages to installation manager and 1 message left with installation managers manager and there is yet to be a return call on what the companies next steps are to resolve the problem.

A quick search on Yelp for Express Flooring also known as Express Home Services LLC reveals even more discerning info and I am afraid we will end up in the same situation.

The company has a 1 star rating on Yelp and a 4 out of 30 rating on Google Local.  Unfortunately this was one of the rare times where you call a company based on commercials and I regret not doing more research in advance.

I am extremely unhappy with Express Flooring and their poor handling of this situation is only further aggravating me.

At the end of the evening the installation managers manager did finally call and ask that the same contractors have a chance to fix the work, some sort of legality around being given a chance to make things right, so a last ditch effort to see if they can set things straight is being given.  If they can’t magically make things right by the end of today, after they have been given a chance to correct it then I am not sure what the next steps are.

Maybe we will get lucky?

-Justin Germino

When I was young I used to think that the more money you had the happier you could be in life because money solves all problems. As I have aged I have run into several experiences that shifted my point of view on this subject and while I think having more income has potential to lead to less stress and more comfort it can’t make an unhappy person happy.

My most notable experiences was when on two separate distinct vacations several years ago, the first one in Hawaii where my wife and I had seen and met a homeless person who just seemed so happy, smiling and living on a beach. They had enough food to survive, never really faced unpleasant circumstances and had just an incredible glad to be alive personality that you wouldn’t think for someone who is in that scenario.

An almost exact same scenario occurred during a visit to Mission Beach years later in San Diego area, where we met a few homeless people who basically enjoyed their time on the beach during the day and collected cans for trade in at night from all the beach trashcans. Once again, it was the spirit, one of them setup umbrella’s, tents, had a cooler and just hung out with a ton of people talking, laughing and seemed to be having a good time.

I was told, better to be homeless on a beach and happy than be living like a slave in a cubicle trying to make ends meet. This stuck with me, and continues to influence my way of thinking in simplification and what really constitutes “need” vs “want” to be happy in life.

Material possessions do not make one happy for more than a short time, happiness is a state of mind and anyone can be happy in life provided they have the necessities of love, care, comfort and aren’t in dire situations. I have always strived to be stress free myself, I like to say that I am like a drifter on the river of life and just accept whatever may be will be. I try not to get stressed about things and sometimes it comes off that I don’t care about something, when really my philosophy is always “life is too short”.

Life is too short to waste it on stress, worry and unhappiness we need to be content and re-evaluate what is truly important to be happy. What specific things are causing unhappiness and rectify them or find happiness in spite of them.

Life Happens, we have to deal with unexpected situations all the time, but if we remember to focus on the things that are going right the things we have that are positive it helps us absorb and move past the negatives that occur in our lives. They are nothing more than blips that we overcome, life is what we make of it, we control our lives and shape which direction it takes. We decide how we choose paths, avoid obstacles or plow through them and remember you are in the driver’s seat of your life.

What life happens moments have you experienced that changed your point of view on life? Did you have an epiphany, positive or negative experience that inspired or soured you on a subject?

-Justin Germino

In honor of Life Insurance Awareness Month, the nonprofit LIFE Foundation is giving away great prizes for the best Life Happens moments. You can enter the contest any time before Friday, October 5^th. Make sure to encourage your friends and family to vote for your story as the Life Happens moments with the most votes will win (voting ends Friday, October 12^th). First place will receive an Apple iPad^® , second place will receive a $350 Apple gift card and third place will receive a $150 Amazon gift card.

Life Happens. And while you can’t control the future, you can take steps to protect the good things in life. Take a look around The LIFE Foundation website and learn more about how life insurance can help safeguard a secure financial future for those you love.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of The LIFE Foundation. The opinions and text are all mine. Official Contest Rules