Book: "The Blog Of War" -Matthew Currier Burden- www.blackfive.net (blackfive is a name for the executive officer making things happen behind the scenes)

"The Blog Of War" is a collection of military blog (milblogs) entries ranging from everyday events to traumatic ones. These are current and active blogs posted by soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The military bloggers describe all the heart ache, life-changing events, and even humor they experience. Before each entry, editor and former U.S. Army Major, Matthew Currier Burden introduces the author and gives a brief description of what the entry is about. These short intros are enough to pull you in and keep reading. This book does not focus on the gruesome aspects of war, but rather on the everyday life of the soldier, and the wide range of emotions and realizations these soldiers experience. Here are a few entries that touched me the most, with the authors' blog addresses. They are listed in the order they appeared in the book.

Staff Sergeant Fred Minnick- In Iraq for 365

Staff Sergeant Fred Minnick writes about his favorite spot on the FOB (Forward Operations Base) where he was living. Nicknamed "NCO Alley", this was the spot he and his friends hung out at to release stress and have a few laughs. Minnick describes "NCO Alley" as a gravel alley way between rows of trailers, with red plastic chairs and cigarette butts covering the ground. I like this story because it shows that even in harsh environments and under the incredible stress of living in a war zone, soldiers find happiness and a sense of normality. It illustrates soldiers chilling and goofing off, a side of their lives during war often over looked. Minnick describes one particular friend, Sammy, a chubby 40+ soldier who laughs at everything. During this time of relaxation, the group of friends do not discuss serious issues dealing with the war and combat, rather they talk about hot girls and other trivial topics. One interesting ritual they have is to pin Sammy to the ground and dry hump him, not out of anger, and obviously not out of lust, its just something friends do to be funny. This action is not the result of living and fighting in a war zone, its just the spontaneity and immaturity of the energy that is generated when a group of close friends are relaxed, laughing, and having fun. But even during times of relaxation the threat of attacks still loom in the air. On the last day at their FOB, Minnick and his friends where hanging out in "NCO Alley" when they heard the screeching sound of a mortar. Soon after, bullets where flying, inches from their heads, close enough to feel the wind created by the bullets cutting through the air. Luckily nobody was harmed. Minnick describes this incident as a bittersweet ending to his time spent in "NCO Alley".


One of the few gruesome stories told was the attack on the LMTV (truck) Sergeant Elizabeth A. Le Bel (known as SGT Lizzie on her blog) was in. This story is featured at- New Lives.

Early one morning, while Le Bel was riding in the back of an LMT, part of a convoy headed toward Baquba (ba-kuba), an IED (improvised explosive device), also known as a homemade bomb, exploded in front of her LMT, shattering the windshield. The LMT Le Bel was not in control of hit a road barrier and flipped. The attack and resulting crash left Le Bel trapped upside down, and the driver dead. She waited, with aid from a member of the convoy, 30 minutes for the medics to arrive. Upon the medics arrival, Le Bel was forced free from the truck and placed on a stretcher. Le Bel joked that she wouldn't be pretty again, the medics reassured her, to her mangled face, that this wasn't true. Le Bel survived this near fatal incident, and wrote this entry during recovery, hooked up to an IV, with severe gashes on her legs, and a face held together by stitches.


I thought First Sergeant Patrick Cosgove's entry was very touching. He blogs at- Six More Months.

Cosgove's entry talks about his three kids and how they cope with having their dad away at war. One daughter is a conservative artist in highschool, the middle child is a fiery athletic middle school girl. I was touched by what he wrote about his youngest child, a 7 year-old boy who loves Star Wars and looks forward to building a tree house with his dad when he returns from war over the winter. Here is a quote Cosgove wrote about building a tree house with his son,
" When I asked him how we would build a tree house in the middle of winter, when I get home, he applied perfect 7-year-old logic: 'We can build it in the garage, and then move it when the snow is gone.' As far as I am concerned, it is a perfect plan. A few minutes a day of sweeping snow off of cars and scraping windows is an insignificant price to pay. Cars come and go; clubhouses last forever in a son's mind."


There are many more interesting blog entries compiled in this book. Some are very amusing, such as a post by Staff Sergeant CJ Grisham, a Military Intelligence analyst. He posts on- A Soldier's Perspective

Grisham's entry is an incident where a young lieutenant brought him a dress pattern he was convinced was a secret enemy map. In an intense meeting with the lieutenant, Grisham acted as if the "map" was extremely important, and drilled him with questions of where he found it, what the guy who had the "map" looked like, and other questions pertaining to the "map", just to mess with him.


HERE IS A LIST OF GREAT MILITARY BLOGS (Milblogs)

This Is Your War- One of the blogs of Sergeant Michael Durand (California Army National Guard). He was stationed in Iraq
with the famous 3rd Infantry Division. This is one of the more frequented Milblog sites.

Paint It Black- Another very popular blog site of Sergeant Michael Durand.

In Iraq For 365- Staff Sergeant Fred Minnick's blog site, where his entry above was taken from.

New Lives- Sergeant Elizabeth A. Le Bel's (SGT Lizzie) blog, where the entry on how she was almost killed and left with a face full of stitches was taken.

Six More Months- First Sergeant Patrick Cosgove's blog, where the entry about his current relationship with his kids was taken.

A Soldier's Perspective- Staff Sergeant CJ Grisham's blog, where the humorous story of the dress pattern mistaken for a enemy map was taken

CHECK OUT MATTHEW CURRIER BURDEN @ www.blackfive.net

Dishes (extended version) Note: Some of the audio was lost (hopefully I can resurrect it)

A iChat Conversation on the book, "Everything Bad Is Good For You"

I decided to re-post this old animation from senior year of highschool

You Tube : A community where someone's always looking out for you

Just the other day I was checking my youtube account and I noticed an unread message. Upon opening said message, I immediately detected it was spam, it was pretty obvious. It does not surprise me that I got spam mail, what I was surprised by is that other youtube members had posted comments about the message, warning me that it was spam. I could already tell, but it was nice that complete strangers were looking out for me.

: Books


In his book, "An Army Of Davids", Glen Reynolds talks about how the internet and technology revolution in general has changed society, just as the industrial revolution had before it. In recent years computer technology has connected people from all parts of the world together, and made it easier, and cheaper for people to become entrepreneur's and express themselves creatively.

During the industrial revolution and up until the end of the 20th century, the majority of people worked strictly scheduled jobs, away from their homes, and under the shadow of a select group of bosses, "giants" in business and government. For many, their majority of their life was work, and work resembled the comic strip "Dilbert" or the movie "Office Space". Work kept many people away from their families during the day, and left them tired and in need of a cocktail at the end of the day.

Now that the internet is in full maturity, people are able to start and maintain businesses through the internet. Many people run businesses through the website eBay, and it is close to surpassing Walmart (the employment leader) in numbers of "employees". By running a business through the internet, people are able to work from their homes, and interact with their families more.

Reynolds also talks about "the third place". "The third place" is sort of a home away from home, a public place where you can just hang out. "The third place" sells food and drink, along with other things. A good example is Barnes and Noble or Boarders Books. These stores encourage people to hang out, and read a book while having a cup of their coffee or a pastry. Retailers are discovering that if you give people an enjoyable place to shop (a place where they actually want to be), and allow them to chill and take their time, they will keep coming back, and ultimately they are going to buy more things from the store.

Reynolds also mentions the return of specialty stores, where prices might not be as low as a everything store like Target, but customer service is much better. Reynolds claims more people are going to smaller specialty stores just to get better customer service, and are willing to pay extra for it. I agree that smaller stores where employees actually devote a good amount of time helping you get exactly what you want is nice, but I think that if the price at a store like Target is low enough, a poor shopping experience is a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Creating and distributing music is becoming much easier in this day and age. It use to be that in order to record music, a person would have to book studio time. The equipment used to record was very expensive, so the price to record music was also very steep. Today, a musician can buy decent recording software at a reasonable price. The software is often intuitive, making the recording process much easier. It is also possible to download free programs. Another challenge musicians face is getting their music to a wide audience. Radio often has set play lists, and rarely play music that is not being distributed and promoted by a major record label. Websites like Garageband allow anyone to post music for any visitor of the website to listen too. They have a top 20 list of the most popular songs posted, some of these songs are receiving attention from record labels. Inexpensive and easy to use software combined with the free distribution and promotional capabilities of the internet have allowed ambitious music producers to start small record labels, such as the small label created by author Glen Reynolds.

Another way the internet and technology is changing society, is through blogs and media sites. The internet provides a far reaching and loud voice for people to speak out about anything. And with digital cameras becoming affordable, posting home made videos on sites such as youtube is within the general publics reach. This is good and bad. This outlet can be used to check the news, as it did when Dan Rather reported false info. It can also be used to report injustices and bring individuals to justice, as it did when a video documenting an act of police brutality was posted on youtube. A negative aspect of the internet as a public voice is that lots of false news claiming to be true, and general crap pollutes it.

Although Glen Reynolds is a middle aged professor whose life style and means of communication far differ from mine, I hear a lot of what he's trying to say. The only information in his book, "An Army of Davids" I really didn't find interesting, was the interlude where he talks about what makes up a good blog, and he provides a series of tips. I have glanced over a couple of other books that provide pointers to what makes a great blog. One common tip, is to provide a unique voice, that is a good tip, but what if you are a bad writer? Most books suggest revealing things about yourself, That works if you can be anonymous. The majority of the ideas he expresses I agree with, and the other content is good as well.


Know What Horizontal Knowledge is before its too late


In chapter 7, Reynolds focuses on the idea of horizontal knowledge. Most people think of the internet as expanding an individuals ability and power to spread vertical knowledge (knowledge from on person or source to a large mass of people), but Reynolds reminds the reader of the equally important power of the internet to connect people with similar knowledge together and spread knowledge together (horizontal knowledge). This idea seems trivial when you focus on the word "knowledge" as strictly book smarts. Really what horizontal knowledge implies is that individuals can connect together and gain power with numbers. This idea of individuals with the same beliefs, concerns, ideas, or simply interests, connecting together, benefits workers, activists, and individuals just looking for a friend to play Warcraft with.

A good example of "horizontal knowledge" being practiced is the group of New York Times employees who complained so vigorously and convincingly through emails and blogs that editor-in-chief, Howell Raines was fired. Nick Denton (who is quoted in "An Army Of Davids) argues that the power for employees to connect and change management they don't agree with can be a bad thing. Denten argues that managers trying to create change for the better can be shut down, and fired by employees teaming up through the internet. In an extreme case, this could result in companies falling apart do to the fact that smart but unpopular management can no longer afford to be unpopular, and if the work ethic and/or wages of employees is low, smart and popular management could be impossible. Reynolds for the most part disagrees with Denton, claiming that if managers and executives use blogs and email as a sort-of survey, they can change aspects of their business model that are unpopular. He also notes that if the complaints of one employee are unreasonable, often times other employees will not agree and a protest group will not form.

Citizens' Band Radio (CB Radio) is an early example of people connecting together to fight injustices. According to Reynolds (I was unaware of this), in the 70s speed limits where set based on " politics and social engineering" (Reynolds, Glen), not on safety. Drivers feeling the need to go over what they considered unreasonable speed limits, connected together through CB radio, and warned each other of near by cops and speed traps. CB Radio still exists, but the internet has taken over as the leader in "horizontal Knowledge".

In a perfect world the internet's power to connect people would only be used to create positive change. Unfortunately we do not live in a perfect world.

Here is a video of a reenactment of the famous bathroom scene in the 1993 Al Pachino film, "Carlito's Way", with commentary by actor Paul Manning

Inside The Actor's Guild (Carlito's Way)