Justin Germino Ramblings

One thing I like about Klout is the ability to give you quick metrics of your social media activity at a glance.  It does compile a great amount of information that you can use just to see how your social media communications are propagating across various networks.

The quick 90 day activity report from Klout shows me a summary which I can use to see where my social media strengths are.

This shows the power of Google+ compared to Twitter considering I have just less than 2,000 followers on Google+ yet I have 1.1k comments, 380 reshares and 987 +1s, with about 1/5th the network size of my Twitter network.

This tells me that my followers are engaged more and more interactive on Google+ in some ways.  It should be interesting to see when Facebook statistics are added how they measure up.

Klout Score Jump

I had a temporary huge boost in Klout Score from my Kindle Fire Giveaway contest which caused a huge amount of retweets over the past few days, this jumped my Klout score more than 5 points in about 2 days and is an anomaly and will fade when the contest ends.  I am curious to know how high my Klout will get just as a result of the insane amount of retweets I have been getting from the contest however.

Overall I use Klout fairly regularly as a means to check the pulse on my Social Media, and there is certainly value in the analytics that you get at your fingertips.

-Justin Germino

Last weekend we spend time in Encinitas, CA where on Saturday we had went down to South Ponto beach during low tide and the ocean had pulled back away from the jetties.  It was during this walk that we discovered dozens of various star fish clinging to the rocks eating the black mussels covering the jetties.

The star fish were mostly purple and some were horned, while others were orange.  I started to peel them off the rocks to show them to my kids and people came from everywhere to look at them, I handed them to kids and parents alike and we all just marveled at all the sea life.

Image Credit: Wikipedia

It turns out they are Ochre Sea Stars, which are very common but being that I am from New York originally I never saw giant purple starfish before up close except at an aquarium.  It was amazing to hold these things up which were the size of dinner plates and some had mussels still in their beaks and mouths when I extracted them from the rocks.

All star fish were returned to the water and rocks when we were done observing them and it was like a discovery show with me as the host.  I also read that they can live at least 3-4 years but in some cases up to 20 years if they survive long enough.

Either way they were amazing to look at and hold, and they have the tightest grip on hard surfaces. 

In addition to the Starfish there were Starburst Anemone’s all over the rock alcoves as well and they would kind of grab on to your finger and pull if you touched them.

Image Credit: Wikipedia

One cool fact about these Starburst Anemone’s I read is that they move around and when two anemones touch tentacles they unleash their fighting tentacles and battle until one of them gives up and decides to move along.

Source of information: Wikipedia Ochre Jelly & Wikipedia Starburst Anenome

-Justin Germino

So my kids were so excited to see the Cartoon Network movie premiere of Level Up last week that we DVR’d it and they watched it about 5 times already.  Not only that but my 8 year old son got into the Conqueror of All Words game big time after seeing the show.

The game is kind of like a kid friendlier version of Diablo with hack and slash elements, upgradable items and centers around you plus two other characters exploring, killing and looting.

It is completely free and my son loved playing it and reached Level 18 with his character until he logged in one day to find all his characters had been deleted by what would appear to be a glitch.  I told him that web based games, brand new ones were less reliable but that didn’t make him lose a little bit of interest and he doesn’t want to vest time if his character will just get lost again.

Meanwhile, he also wished the game had a teamspeak kind of aspect and let you actually pair up with other live players like they do in the Cartoon Network movie, but what can you expect from a web based game on a TV Channel website.  Now my son wants to get back into Runes of Magic and at some point he is going to want to do audio chatting while gaming, but he is only 8 and I have rules about how much online interaction he can have with people until he is older.

Meanwhile, the game was pretty fun for the 8 – 13 year old crowd and is worth checking out if your kids like Action RPG type games.

-Justin Germino

I am stuck in a case where my iTunes can’t load the iTunes App Store and my Safari browser can’t load any websites at all.

I have seen other users report similar problems on the Apple forum but I can’t see any resolution.  I opened a support case with Apple but have received nothing but the auto reply so far.

I have uninstalled both iTunes and Safari, rebooted, re-installed, flushed all sorts of cache and no matter what I do Safari cannot connect to the internet and just spins in place no matter what website I try to visit.

Chrome, Firefox, IE, Opera all work fine, and this problem only started after the Safari 10.5.x upgrades I did last week.  In the meantime I hope I can find a resolution soon because not being able to access the iTunes apps store is a bit of a setback.

-Justin Germino

Yesterday kicked off the Kindle Fire giveaway contest on DragonBlogger.com where thanks to some awesome sponsors I am able to give away Kindle Fire gadgets to two lucky readers who enter the contest. The contest is a random draw contest but readers can gain new entries everyday and increase their odds of winning.

Enter the contest now for a chance to win one of two Amazon Kindle Fire’s in the giveaway.  So this is your chance to win a free Kindle Fire and I suggest you enter the contest now!

I have opened the contest to anyone, however I will only ship to an address in the United States or Canada, so if you want to enter and live Internationally you have to have a friend stateside that I can ship the Kindle Fire to.

Thanks to the following awesome sponsors for helping me put together the biggest contest ever so far:

Dragon Blogger Kindle Fire Giveaway Sponsors

These awesome sponsors made this giveaway possible and you should pay them a visit and thank them!

Platinum Sponsors

BlogEngage.com

Aidy Reviews

Gold Sponsors

Basic Podcasting Tips

Blondish.net

Silver Sponsors

iBlogZone.com

Metallman

How To Blog

Smart Boy Designs

-Justin Germino

If you are keen to social media, and would like to improve your scope of it in order to broaden your horizons, then it is important that you understand there is a certain, unspoken etiquette that dictates the right and wrong way to use social networking sites. Even more (for you business-minded readers), there is an effective and an ineffective (even counterproductive) way to use social media. If you want to get the most out of your Internet social networking, then you owe it to yourself to gain a thorough understanding of what to do and what not to do. One of the best ways you can optimize your social media participation is to schedule your updates. Read on for some more about the importance of scheduling social media updates.

Your target audience

Who are you trying to speak to? This is a serious consideration if your social media usage involves a target audience. For example, if your niche targets college students, then it doesn’t make much sense to send updates out at the crack of dawn (you may be up and drinking your coffee, but I don’t know too many college students who are actually early birds). By scheduling your social media updates, you are able to put your messages in front of your target audience’s eyes when they are actually open.

Flooding the market

I don’t know about you, but I get really annoyed when someone I’m following on Twitter decides to completely monopolize my feed so that I am forced to basically follow only them (unfollow). If you want to respect people, rather than force yourself on them, then you need to space your updates out some. Sure, you may only be able to squeeze time for social media in during your lunch break, but that doesn’t mean you have to squeeze all of the day’s tweets into a 30-minute period.

Set it and forget it

Perhaps one of the biggest advantages of scheduling social media outlets is that you can approach the task like a business matter. If social media is important to you but you have a busy schedule, you can schedule your social media time just like you schedule your meetings, then create and schedule all of your updates and that time and move on.

There is no doubt that if social media is important to you, then scheduling social media updates is also important. Make use of one of the many popular applications designed to automate the scheduling process, like HootSuite, Tweetdeck and Co Tweet, to make your Internet social life a breeze.

About the Author: Abe Morario is a full-time writer with a passion for social media and business. He enjoys working with accounting recruitment firms to help new businesses find affordable staff.

It is amazing how quickly I have lapsed on my fitness regimen and now am paying the price. In June 2011 I was down to about 169 pounds and felt healthy and better, but a cruise in July followed by a busy schedule and excuses to not find the time to hit the gym 3 days a week and I wound up at 180 pounds and feeling just more crappy in general.

What I really need to do is block out an hour a day three days a week and just go back to the gym, it isn’t easy and I have to see where I can fit the block in without causing disruption to my job, or my hectic schedule picking the kids up from school or helping my oldest with his homework before dinner.

I saw a fitness equipment which you can use while sitting at your desk that was similar to a stationary bike pedaling except with resistance bars you push with your feet. I can’t remember the name of it now but saw it in the Skymall catalog while on a plane and it looked like an interesting way to burn calories while sitting at my desk typing or sitting on conference calls all day long.

I will have to do further research, or else I better start saving now for the treadmill desk I wish I could get.

-Justin Germino

I ordered the Kindle Fire’s I will be giving away in the Kindle Fire contest on Dragonblogger.com starting Monday. I found out that it is easy to order Kindle Fire devices and check mark “give as a gift” which has them sent unmarked and unregistered.

This way I didn’t have to deal with de-registering the Kindle Fire devices manually and having any personal information sent along to the winner. I don’t have to open the boxes now and can just reship to the winner without any issues.

In retrospect, I probably should have just waited and ordered/shipped to the winner directly from Amazon when they won the contest. But I wanted to take a picture of me holding the boxes in my hand to show readers that I had them. I could have saved the shipping fee, but the picture holding the Kindle boxes was worth it.

I am excited about this giveaway, it is the largest contest I have done so far in my 3 year old technology blog and I had some fantastic sponsors.

The following sites also signed up to become Platinum sponsors and get special notice!

BlogEngage.com

Aidy Reviews

The Chefs Cookbook

I am super excited and hope to get as many readers as possible signing up for the contest.

-Justin Germino

I like to think of today as food coma Friday. I am stuffed from all the turkey, stuffing, potatoes, green beans, rolls and so much other food the family ate as our thanksgiving lunch yesterday. Yes, I did say lunch instead of dinner because we decided to drive up to California thanksgiving afternoon to spend the long weekend in Encinitas.

I don’t have to do any holiday shopping on black Friday because we already purchased some gifts and others we have had since September. The rest will be ordered online or through a single shopping in early December. I will probably take the boys to pick out gifts for their mom in the next week of two as well.

Things are pretty good overall and I can’t complain. Work keeps me very busy and I also enjoy blogging and spending time with my wife and kids. Lately I alternate between spending time playing Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters on the Xbox 360 and Red Alert 3 with my oldest son on the computer.

For the first time in years I don’t really have a Christmas gift or item that I really want as I have everything I need. I am just happy to have such a great family to spend my holiday time with.

Every Thanksgiving I tend to do a post that focuses on what I am thankful for and encourage my readers to share what they are thankful for.  I tend to stop and reflect on the present, the here and now and not the future or the past.  This was one of the busiest years on record in my household and 2011 certainly had some challenges, but it also had some of the best rewards of all time as well.

[easyazon-image-link asin=”B000LMESDM” alt=”Be Ye Thankful Art Poster Print by Jo Moulton, 8×16″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Aa7oSeR1L.jpg” align=”center” width=”226″ height=”450″]

I am so thankful for the two wonderful children I have, two boys who are not only the greatest gift I could have ever asked for but also the greatest human beings in my life.  They challenge me, inspire me and teach me in more ways than any other.  I grow as a human being as a result of being a parent and there is nothing like being a father.

I am also so grateful for the lovely woman who is my wife, through thick and thin over the last 15 years we have been together and rode the greatest of times and the worst of times together.  She gives me purpose and keeps my in motion.  I have never met a person who captured an extreme intelligence, determination, beauty and fire all wrapped up in one extraordinary personality.

In an economy that is crushed I am thankful I have a job that I love and one that I have been with for nearly 10 years, I realize how luck my family is when others are not so fortunate and I make sure it is appreciated by not complaining (too much) about anything in my life.

My health, of course we all have our aches and pains but my health is fairly good compared to some and I am thankful it is holding up okay.

My readers, fans and fellow bloggers on the web.  I have met so many great people over the years while blogging and each blogger is their own unique personality and story, each goal is an inspiration.  It is amazing that so many people that never meet face to face can build such a connection with each other, take the time to show appreciation for each other and this online community of peers is one of the greatest thing about the Internet and social media.

Everyone have a great Thanksgiving and remember to take the time and show appreciation for the people you love and the things you have, not just one day a year but every day.

-Justin Germino