Justin Germino Ramblings

I hate to admit it but the family learned a few life lessons last week and that is that you shouldn’t remove a baby animal from the wild to bring home and keep as a pet BUT if you do you should make sure you know the behavior of your other pets in the house.

So, we had brought a young Jack Rabbit home and he was named Hop by my boys.  He lasted 3 days before I learned the hard way that my old female Boston Terrier dog was a rabbit killer.  While my wife was taking the kids to school one day, she got up in the kids room (door was left open) and knocked over the cage (which was just sitting on the floor).  My wife came home and had to clean up the remains of poor Hop and was traumatized.  Even worse was how my poor kids reacted to hearing that their beloved wild Jack Rabbit was fatally killed by our dog.

We had spent over $100 on a rabbit cage, bunny food and supplies and I always lose receipts.  So we decided to try again with more diligence after my son wanting nothing more than to spend his earnings on a bunny after receiving straight A’s in school in every subject (we pay him for each A he earns so he earned enough to buy a bunny).  We found a bunny breeder in Mesa, AZ and my son picked out and bought a lop eared brown bunny naming him Fluffykins.

Yes Fluffykins is the name of the rabbit, and this time we have his cage up high on a bookshelf and the door will always be closed.  We know our oldest Boston Terrier is a killer so we have to make sure she isn’t anywhere near the bunny when the kids take it out to play with it.  My youngest Boston Terrier named Porky is fine around the bunny he doesn’t do anything but give it a gentle lick.

So Fluffykins joins the family and hopefully we can prevent our son from losing another animal in such a brutal fashion.  He actually is very guarding and caring for the bunny who already has a liking to him.  The bunny will come to him when he calls and holds lettuce out as well as enjoys just sitting on his lap while he watches TV.

Currently Fluffykins is only 3 months old and I am hoping he has a long and healthy life.

-Justin Germino

Raising children in the twenty-first century can be more challenging than ever. There are experts that say we should not be exposing our children to a lot of television, computers and other media when they are in their most developmentally sensitive stages. On the other hand, it is important that children develop math and reading skills in addition to becoming familiar with technology, as discussed in this article: http://math-and-reading-help-for-kids.org/articles/The_importance_of_math_education.html. So much in our lives depends on familiarity and mastery of technology, and thus it is important that we prepare the next generation for such an existence with exposure to some technical skills early on in life. One way to uphold the values you would like to teach your children and still give them a competitive edge in life is to start them off with preschool math games online.

The Three Big Benefits of Early Math Education

Preschool math activities have benefits that are threefold: they provide math skill development activities that are both fun and educational; they impart basic computer skills; and they appeal to many learning styles.

A Unique Mix of Fun and Learning

Online preschool math games are a great way to get your child’s brain primed for math skills while simultaneously being engaging and appealing to how a child plays and learns. Games that are constantly changing and requiring interaction pull your child into an interesting world, using rewards such as tickets to simulate real-life achievements. There are 6 learning levels for your child’s age and skills, with 350 lessons in all. With each new level that your child ascends to, he or she builds on past math learning and adds new abilities in the subject.

Developing Many Skills Simultaneously

Even though these games are fun and math-oriented, they also teach children rudimentary computer skills that will come in handy more and more as they go to grade school. Math games help kids learn how to use a computer mouse to scroll and click, as well as teaching keypad and basic typing skills. Although children can use interactive learning games with or without parental supervision, you will never have to worry about your child’s safety online when you aren’t present; learning software does not allow for access to outside websites.

Learning for Achieving Optimal Success

Best of all, interactive learning online allows kids to take learning at their own pace, expanding their growing brains with a varied array of different exercises. Activities start at age 3 and build in complexity from there for up to 6 distinct levels of knowledge and achievement. From puzzles to songs, a multitude of approaches ensure your child will learn math with whichever method is easiest for them.

Jessica writes about a wide variety of topics.  She especially enjoys writing about education. You can learn more about Preschool Reading at www.abcmouse.com

I usually don’t write too many political posts but recently with all the political news and further division by our major (only) political parties I can’t help but point out to a recent article which showcases that between the years 2000 – 2010 the % of Caucasian children has dropped 9.8% while blacks have dropped 2.3% according to the 2010 Census Bureau.  This while Hispanic children rose 46% and the number of Asian children rose 31.2% during the same time period.

In 23 states, minorities make up more than 40% of the population and whites will likely become the minority much sooner than the estimated 2042 which was originally projected by the Census Bureau.  The decisions politicians have now will be remembered by this generation and this will play a major factor in the shape of the government and policies in two decades as these children become voting age.

For any who are still stuck with an ignorant mindset akin to white racist supremacy or have bias to another race for any reason they should wake up and realize the time of America being a “white nation” is virtually ended.  Those who hold onto this fantasy are delusional and if there ever was a time to embrace our nation as being truly multiracial it is time now.  Personally I hate that non-whites are still called minorities and this term won’t be able to be used for long.

The greatest strength of this new generation is that they are more tolerant of the varying nationalities than current generations.  My sons who are four and seven don’t see race at all, they only see kids their age and there is such diversity in their own classes and schools that they don’t even know there was a thing as “mostly white kids” at one point.

America will eventually become a population of Gray Tabby cats, where most of the population will have some ancestry from multiple races.  The racial divide will disappear but unfortunately the wealth/poverty divide will probably only further worsen too in the future.

-Justin Germino

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal written by Richard K. Lester who is the head of the department of nuclear science and engineering at MIT he makes a strong argument that despite the Fukushima incident nuclear technology has promise and will become a viable and significant benefit to energy needs in the future.

Much of the issues and fears around nuclear power and its safety concerns center around plants that are three decades old or older and are not nearly as sophisticated as the type of designs that are being conceptualized and developed in the future.  Nuclear technology will advance to a point where plants will not require “pressure” and constant cooling to prevent meltdown as methods to draw nuclear energy will not require the heating/steam/hydrogen methods being used now to generate power.

Realistically I think he correctly realizes that eventually with the right fuel and extraction combinations a nuclear reactor may become a near infinite source of energy where the fuels used have such a long half-life that they don’t deplete for centuries and require no disposal of waste.  Nuclear still a vastly higher power output than any other form of alternative energy, and even if solar energy could increase to 20-40% efficiency wouldn’t match the energy producing capabilities of nuclear technology.

Still the technologies face criticism and concerns due to the severity of the current issues and fears caused by it.  Older nuclear plants do pose a risk as they age and new plants are prohibitively costly to develop without even including the necessary funding in research, models…etc.

Should we really shy away from a technology that if science and talented engineers studied could develop a way to make it truly more efficient and far less risky?  I have even read an article in Popular Science years ago about a reactor with the nuclear material inside graphene balls which operated at near room temperature.  Should the facility rupture, there wouldn’t be any radiation spill because each were sealed inside these spheres and they could be swapped out when they ran out of energy.

Where do you see our power coming from in 100 years?  Will we still be relying on coal/oil/gas as the primary sources of power in the year 2100?

-Justin Germino

With the Google Panda update a few months ago I no longer re-use articles for Associated Content on occasion like I used to.  There is no point submitting content that was already published as this won’t benefit Associated Content nor rank well in search engines and therefore provide much benefit to myself either.

I will still continue to contribute original poems and haikus on occasion.  AssociatedContent still has the potential to be a good income earner for those who want to write online but don’t want the hassle of running their own blogs.  There are plenty of writers who make hundreds per month in up front payments as well as those that have so many articles written they make equal amounts in Pageview performance.

At between $2 and $3 per article if they are well written and between 500 and 600 words you can get more for writing articles here than pitching them for freelance on a site like Freelancer.com (though I don’t know what countries Associated Content will pay out to).

Still, I earn far more even from my personal blog in AdSense earnings than I do from PageView performance on AssociatedContent but this may not always be the case.  I couldn’t establish a great following over there either as I had to subscribe to others and comment before I could get some people to consider reading and comment back on my articles.  This type of socializing isn’t really well built into the program and communicating with other publishers isn’t as intuitive as a social network.  I do think that AssociatedContent should update the author bio box for the published articles so your LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter profile can be accessible via a click from the article so if you enjoy a user’s writing you can follow them on one of the social networks.

How many of my reader still contribute articles to AssociatedContent?  Have you been affected by the Google Panda update personally with your own article Pageviews decreasing?

With drums blearing in the distance, he had no choice but to jump and pray the vines would be there.

I envision life sometimes as an adventure through jungles and much like Tarzan when he first started jumping through the trees and had to rely on vines to swing his way through the forests, we have to swing from moment to moment taking time to not only appreciate the present but also know which direction we want to swing next.

I often tell people in my close circles that I believe we have one life and truly the purpose is to collect as many life experiences as possible before reaching the end.  These life experiences can be whatever your soul would want and for some this involves traveling, others it involves creating or collecting art.

I also realized as of late that journey’s are found in every day adventures that one could find mundane.  Just taking my kids to Peter Piper Pizza for example and engaging them while they play arcades and try to win silly tickets to get cheap plastic toys or vampire teeth is a memory that shall stay in my head for decades. 

One of my greatest adventures lies in the next few months with my wife and I finally travelling to Europe, and more specifically Italy for the first time ever.  We have both dreamed of visiting Rome and at long last after fourteen years of being together we were able to turn this dream into a reality.  I believe live experiences and visiting other countries, cities and cultures help enrich a person and give perspective on the world.  This trip which includes staying 2 days in Rome and a 7 day cruise which will take us to Greece and Turkey as well is a getaway for my wife and I only.  We are fortunate enough to have grandparents to watch our kids so their safety and care is top notch while we will be away.

I do hope in the future to be able to take my sons when they are old enough to other countries and cities so they can get a taste for adventure and life outside of America.  We have taken them on various road trips, camping, California and even a Disney cruise before and though they don’t realize how lucky they are, they do already appreciate and enjoy the experiences and talk about them fondly often.

I do also realize that traveling alone would not be in the cards for me, I really don’t like to go anywhere by myself and had it not been for my wife’s love to travel and most excellent companionship I probably would not have been on a cruise yet or even seen many of the places I have been.  Adventures are best when shared, at least in my case.

So far after this journey there are a few others I would hope to accomplish some day which include:

• Seeing the Galapagos Islands
• Visiting Australia
• Visiting London
• Taking my family on an African Safari adventure (Disney has some great African safari adventures)

Travels are difficult of course and enduring day long plane flights with kids, losing weeks away from work only to have it pile up can sometimes cause me to dread vacations and travel.  But once my adventure is underway I try to put all work related things and life stresses behind and just give in to the journey.

What are some of your journey’s and adventures you look forward to in life?

Ironically I was traveling earlier in the week and thought the time spent at night in my hotel room would inspire me to catch up and write some articles for my tech blog DragonBlogger.com but instead I found myself inspired and only interested in writing poetry. 

I literally couldn’t get myself in the mood to write for my tech blog, my artistic side wanted to shine through and I churned out about 28 haiku’s and 6 poems in two nights, most of them queued for my poetry blog but some used for random Twitter or Facebook broadcasts or submitting to other poetry sites and contests.

Here was one I decided to post right here:

Spent Creativity

Maybe fate decides my right

it’s not my choice of what to write

my own hand stills at subjects denied

from my brain itself, creation is pried

so I write with no purpose or intent

until my creativity at last is spent

-Poem by Justin Germino

Okay, make this now 7 poems and 28 haiku’s written in 2 days (most of the haiku’s were typed out on my blackberry on a plane and my thumbs were very sore by the time I was done).

Speaking of poetry, you can now follow @poemwatch on Twitter and friend my poetry specific twitter account.

-Justin Germino

So my four year old has had a particular "job" in his mind for the past few weeks where he wants to sell toys as his job.  I asked him specifically do you want to make toys?  But he insists he wants to sell them to other kids and families?

So with the mind of an affiliate blogger I was thinking if only he were a few years older, I would help him setup a site where he can hand pick the toys he likes and wants to sell and use like an Amazon affiliate to sell them.  I also considered turning this into a teaching lesson.

I would have my son pick out some toys he wanted to try selling on Amazon.com, and I would do write up and promotion for them on my personal blog.  I maybe create a "kid wish list" or recommendations from a kid type of theme and I would put earnings of sales for his items toward his college or maybe savings for when he is a teenager.

If he were eight or ten, I would have totally encouraged him to start some sort of small entrepreneurship like buying used toys at garage sales and trying to sell them on eBay or his own site.  Skills that would teach him the value of money, buying at discount and selling for profit margins, savings, marketing, sales…etc.  These are lessons that would help him undoubtedly later in life.

In the meantime, he is only 4 and my own entrepreneurial spirit as of late maybe jumping the gun on this one with all these crazy idea’s.

-Justin Germino

Image: Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I couldn’t help but laugh when this email came circulating about senior texting codes and I thought it worth sharing with some of my readers who may find it funny.

SENIORS TEXTING CODES

1. ATD….At the Doctors

2. BFF…Best friend fell

3. BTW…Bring the Wheelchair

4. BYOT…Bring Your Own Teeth

5. FWIW…Forgot Where I Was

6. GGPBL…..Gotta Go Pacemaker Battery Low

7. GHA……Got Heartburn Again

8. IMHO……Is My Hearing-aid On

9. LMDO…Laugh My Denture Out

10. OMMR……On My Message Recliner

11. OMSG…. Oh My! Sorry, Gas

12. ROFLACGU……Rolling On The Floor Laughing And Can’t Get Up

13. TTYL……Talk To You Louder

I myself may start TTYL as I get older and can’t hear as well on my conference calls.

What do you think?  Funny or poor taste?

-Justin Germino

I wrote this blog post while on my flight to Charlotte, from Phoenix and I happened to start listening to the Avatar soundtrack on my iPod and have to say that this really was one fantastic movie soundtrack.  The orchestra really takes you through a variety of emotions and captures “wonder” and “awe” so well in audible format that I couldn’t help but smile while listening through the tracks.  Perhaps, it is because I was so fond of the movie and still consider it one of my favorite of all time that the music is so enjoyable.

Anyway, while traveling I am stuck in a plane and while others are buying meal packs, I reach down and grab a little packed sack that my wife had put together for me.  It upon seeing what is inside the little snack pack that I take a moment to appreciate just how much thought and consideration my wife has for me.

The contents of my sack included a small peanut butter sandwich, but she included a plastic knife and small jelly jar on the side.  Accompanying the PB&J she packed a custom made trail mix with craisins, seeds, peanuts, raisins and more.  Finally as a desert she included a sugar free Jell-O and a 100 calorie snack mix pack.  She had told me she packed something, but I am still amazed at how much care she put in to making sure I didn’t go hungry on the plane or that I didn’t have to buy a meal.

It’s these little considerations and items that are the meaning of love that sometimes get forgotten or taken for granted.  To have somebody in my life who cares about me enough to put such details into something so small is a great feeling.  I can honestly say I spent the majority of this airline flight just appreciating my wife for the little things, the details and considerations she does not just for me, but the whole family.

This is one of those times where I consider myself one of the luckiest people alive and I don’t want to take things for granted…ever.

-Justin Germino