Milblogging: The New Cadre of War Reporters

I’m watching Greyhawk, JP, Toby Nunn, Bouhammer and Christian from Military.com who embedded they’re getting the nitty gritty of what it’s like to blog from the ground and what they went through.

It doesn't stay in Vegas

Panel #3 Live DoD Bloggers Roundtable

Hosted by Jack Holt from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Ward Carroll of Military.com and John Dovovan of Castle Argghhh with special guest, the Honorable Pete Geren, Secretary of the U.S. Army. Secretary Geren just stated that as far as the internet, he’s roadkill.
A constant theme this year panel after panel is the upper leadership of the military services are starting to notice how important the new media has become, there’s a growing demographic of people who don’t read print media anymore, they get their news online or from the source. A disaster happens and the first thing they do is find a local blogger. Secretary Geren mentioned the downfall of Dan Rather, Mr. Rather might not have known what a blogger was but he does now.
I know I’m one of those people that don’t go to the top 3 news sources first, I usually go to Google News. When hurricanes hit, I find a local blogger who’s covering it and send some traffic his way. I also cover the mainstream media but blogs bring the big story down to one person straight from the source.

Panel #1 Are Milblogs Still Relevant?

With Ward Carroll of Military.com, Phil Carter of Intel Dump and Obama for America, Matt Burden of Blackfive, Greyhawk of The Mudville Gazette and CJ Grisham of Soldier’s Perspective. They talked about the future of Milblogging where Milblogging has changed since 2003 and the invasion of Iraq. These guys are mostly the big names in the milblogging community, Matt is a “Rockstar” and has a bazillion readers, Greyhawk was responsible for bringing most of us together, CJ is the strong voice from the Active Duty milblogging side.

Panel #2 Milblogging as a Community

A look a how the Milblogging Community was built. A panel discussing focusing on mostly military support people and how they tie in with the Milblog community. Panelist include Melinda of SpouseBUZZ, Beth of Soldiers’ Angels, Mrs. Greyhawk of The Mudville Gazette and Milblogs, Karen of Parents Zone and Sarah of SpouseBUZZ.

Blogworld Morning Post

After a wild party at The Penthouse Club’s VIP room last night, it was an amazing time. Open bar at one of the best clubs in the city, how can you beat that? Thanks for the support Penthouse!

This morning wasn’t as fun, we all came in stumbling in this morning to the Milblogging track at the Blogworld and New Media Expo, well many of us did, I only had 3 drinks last night because I knew I wouldn’t have wanted to get out of bed. Any minute now we’re going to be getting this kicked off. Poor poor JP, I’m sure he’s not feeling good and he’s the first act. So far it sounds good, he’s giving a speech from Lt. General Caldwell on new media and blogging.

I also have to give and acceptance speech tonight, I received a surprising email earlier this week saying that I had won the Milbloggie for best Navy blog... Again. Eek, more soon and maybe pictures too.

What goes on in Vegas gets blogged about

Thursday started out with a phone call from Sherri asking for a ride from the airport, her roommate LL had missed her flight and she was homeless and needed a hero come and pick her up. I rolled out of bed and grabbed a quick shower. She and I spent the rest of the day meeting people, moving them back and forth the by the store to buy a fridge full of recreational drinks.

LL finally landed and we all met up at their suite and I ran home to take a powernap and change my threads. That night we went out with the Blackfive crew, B5, Laughing Wolf, Mr Wolf, Jimbo and Gregg (Zonker). Here’s a few pictures. AG and SM, check.

I'm off to go pick up the lovely bride, see ya in a few.

Blog4Tix and Vegas

If you're in Vegas Thursday and Friday sign up for Blog4Tix, they're giving out free tickets to Blue Man Group, Mamma Mia, Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat and the Roller Coaster at NYNY. Unless someone wants to go with me to a night show tonight, I'm going to probably just chek out the Roller Coaster or the Secret Garden tomorrow. All they ask is for a blog post afterwards, nothing better then free:)

I'm staying at Arizona Charlies who gave me a great suite for 32 bucks a night. I'm beginning to see the lure of the city, last night driving into town I had just finished crossing a wasteland around midnight and suddenly the whole skyline is lit up like a Christmas tree. This is the first time I’ve been here in 10 years and my first impressions? It’s beautiful.

My wife flies in tomorrow so I think I'm just going to explore today. Right now, I'm going to check out the steak and eggs breakfast for 3.99 across the way. Drop me a line if you’re in the area.

BlogWorld & New Media Expo and the 2008 Milblog Conference

Myself and several thousand regular Bloggers and Milbloggers will be will be trekking across a vast desert (without people shooting at us) by plane, train and automobile till we arrive at a small southwestern town called Las Vegas this weekend for the BlogWorld Expo. Yes, it’s that time of year again for the 3rd annual Milblog Conference (small joke, the last one was May 07)where we have fellowship in person instead of across a cybernetic divide and people get to find out how much cooler we are behind a keyboard. Sponsors of the Milblog Conference include Military OneSource, Military.com and of course our trusty USAA. This year I am thankfully not on a panel (fear of public speaking) and can take part just enjoying the show and hopefully live blogging it (yay, Wireless internet!) Friday night I’ll be attending a pre-conference bash with my wife hosted by my buddies over at Blackfive at the world famous Penthouse Lounge. Here is a list of the schedule and hopefully see some of you there (you can also follow me live on Twitter.)

Panel topics/times are below:
Date: September 20th, 2008
Location: Blog World Expo, Las Vegas
Agenda:

10:30a – 11:00a: Opening Remarks and Presentation of 2007 Milbloggie Awards

11:00a – 12:00p: Are MilBlogs Still Relevant? In the wake of a successful military surge in Iraq, waning media attention and an election year, are MilBlogs as relevant to the national conversation on war as they once were?

12:00p – 12:15p: Break

12:15p – 1:15p: MilBlogging as a Community. A fascinating look at how the milblogging community was built, what it’s achieved and how deep and wide its reach has become. We’ll explore how milblogging gives a voice to supporters, parents and spouses of service members, and how that voice is effectively used to support an entire military community.

1:15p – 2:45p: Lunch Break

2:45 – 3:45p: DoD Live Bloggers Roundtable: We will be joined by Pete Geren, Secretary of the Army, and General George Casey, Chief of Staff of the Army, for a special edition of the weekly DoD Live Bloggers Roundtable. Secretary Geren and General Casey will take audience questions re operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other topics.

3:45 – 5:00p: Free Time (Sit in on other panels or stroll the vendor floor).

5:00 – 6:00p: The New Cadre of War Reporters. Reporting from the Green Zone is not an option for this gritty band of milbloggers. Today’s technology enables milbloggers and embedded reporters to report directly from the battlefield. We’ll talk with some of these milbloggers about their experiences in the combat zone.

6:00p: Closing Remarks

Ike Live Coverage

Like a moth to the flame, I can't stop watching. I found this link that streams 4 of the local TV stations from Houston an Galvestin live in one place. Plus the usual stuff at weather.com and CNN. John from Blogs of War has been live blogging all night. Some crazy stories coming out of the area, live and unfiltered.

Perhaps my wife has a good point with her hurricane fear.

I cut the cord

No, not that cord, I mean I’ve gone all of the way and switched over to cellular wireless internet.  My days of stealing WiFi signals are now over and I’ve signed up to Sprints mobile broadband service.  After all of these years of complaining about finding internet service while on the road and the crappy quality of unsecured wireless signals, I’ve taken the fatal plunge. 

From my apartment, my download speed is 1175 kb/s through speedtest.net in comparison to the California average of 5288 kb/s which is nothing compared to Japans 16,019 kb/s.  Even Russia is faster than us with 6512.  I’m basically saying that my internet is slow but worlds faster than 56k that almost everyone used a decade ago.  Plus, I can drag this anywhere I want and not feel guilty for mooching off of my neighbors.

Long Road Home

I pulled back into San Diego after 3 weeks of leave, 3000 miles on my new car and 500 on the truck. During the long drive, I finished the entire Twilight Series, it’s strange to think that the two biggest selling Mormon authors write SciFi and Vampire novels.

Anyway, it’s back to the grind, my wife is going to grad school in another part of the state which gives me some time to sink into the job and I’m beginning to think I’m going to need that time to polish everything up. One of the parts about being in charge of people is the responsibility you have for those underneath you. I have no problems with doing it but I seem to have a talent for getting blindsided by things that were totally out of my control. Guess I’ll just have to work harder.

On other news, I’ll be in San Diego till at least January 2010, I extended my orders here waiting for some other set of orders to open up to a very non exotic place. Blog world is going on in a couple of weeks and if any of you are going, keep an eye out for me. I’ll be with the pink haired girl.

Fans of Firefly, Buffy and Serenity check out Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, a supervillain musical directed by Joss Whedon with Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. While the writer strike was going on, Joss went out and grabbed some of the best talent with waivers and in 6 days came up with the video below and it’s great, no, it’s a work of genius. Even better, it’s totally free so what are you waiting for? It's right here and will bring a smile to your face (or if you want, it's on Itunes but not Zune).



Anyhow, I’m off to go empty out some of these boxes standing in stacks around my place, peace out till next time.

Road Tripping

Spent a couple of days in Prescott with my son Collin, selling one of my trucks a 98 S-10, I put it on craigslist and it was sold half an hour later. That’s what you get for putting it on for 500 under low blue book. I sort of fell into another truck a couple of weeks ago, a 97 Toyota Tacoma which I picked up for a steal, thanks Sandy. It wouldn’t pass smog in California, so I got a special power of attorney and a bill of sale, changed all of the fluids, aligned her and brought her over to Arizona, 21 miles per gallon and 127 bucks later, I was her proud owner, I think I’m going to keep her.

During my stay in P-town, visited my buddies Larry, Jason and their families and found my new favorite beer, Dogfish Head, 90 Minute Imperial IPA, mmm, very good stuff. Also met up with Carla from Some Soldiers Mom along with her soldier Noah and Jim, we had an excellent meal at the Iron Springs Café.

Now I’m down in Phoenix after dropping the son off at the airport, hanging out with my dad. Spent this morning doing some automotive work on my step-moms car and had lunch with one of my best supporters when I was overseas, Sherri and her husband, she’ll be at Blogworld with CC which I’m sure is going to be a blast.

Tomorrow, I have an appointment to pick up a 2008 Dune Pearl Ford Fusion that I ordered from Exchange New Car Sales while I was in Iraq.

Ack! (which is the first 3 letters of the license plate on the Toyota). I’m getting rather long in the tooth and it’s about time I had bought a brand new car, never thought I would see the day. When I get all of my stuff out of storage, I’ll be selling the Suburban at a very discounted rate, anybody interested in an 89 diesel suburban?

More fun in the sun, hope everyone is doing good out there, it's good to be home.

Two Weeks Back

It was around 8 Monday night when we got off the plane, I came back in a smaller group of 25 people who weren’t part of the greater bulk of Marines who filled the rest of the flight going back to the states so when we hit the ground, the rest of them were making a formation while we milled around for a second then broke for the crowd. My wife was standing out of the gaggle like a pink jewel and we flew into each other’s arms and I can honestly say, that was one of the happiest moments of my life because for a time I thought it would never reach that moment again. The past deeds had been washed away and all that remained from that forge of the fire was our love for each other.

We stated at the Old Town Inn for 89 dollars a night which was really a great deal considering Comic Con was about to go on. (Sorry to all of you romantics, this is also going to be a post about good deals in San Diego for the Military). No, we didn’t have tickets to the Con which I was mildly disappointed about but I wasn’t sure if I was going to be back in time, next year we’re going to dress the occasion.

Tuesday we went out apartment shopping, I had in mind this gettoish apartment complex close to base because the bride wasn’t going to be living down here because she’s going to grad school up north but managers never showed up which ended up being a blessing. We went from place to place no one had a place available till we got to the one I’m in now. I opened the door to the office and there was a big bookshelf filled with books and I know, this is it.

We sat down and talked to the manager and she just had an opening which she was saving for someone else but she broke her leg and the apartment was on the second floor. I took it, not only was it cheaper, larger and had a nice deck but was the only apartment complex in the area that let you have dogs (for when Gatsby visits). It also has some of the better tropical landscaping that I’ve seen in San Diego. Nothing could go wrong this week, I'm home.

After getting the apartment, we went to the local ITT office (Information, Tickets and Travel) and see what they had to offer, we picked up some first run movie tickets at 8.50 a pop, saving 2 dollars a ticket, Hornblower Cruise normally 25 dollars was another 8. One Zoo ticket for Heather 26.50 and I was in free with Military ID. That afternoon we went to see Hellboy II and the next morning was off to the zoo. We took the sky ride to rear of the park and zigzagged our way back towards the gate. Not a bad way to spend the day, let me tell you, it’s a lot of walking.

I went back to work on Friday to take care of some post deployment paperwork and get online to print a Heroes Salute pass. Military families can get one free family pass annually to SeaWorld with ID. Actually there are several places that are free from there, SeaWorld is just the closest for me, you’ll have to check the site.

Saturday we met up there with my other son Alec from Prescott (my hometown, Alec is not my real son but Collin and him do look remarkably alike and I claim him most of the time), his mom Lynnae (whom I’ve known most of my life) sister Karma and stepdad Alex . Good times, I’m glad Lynnae and the bride got to finally meet.

On Sunday we went on the 2 hour Hornblower cruise around the bay. Saw the seals over by Point Loma to the south side of 32nd Street, probably one of the best 8 bucks I ever spent, if you’re local, don’t miss it.

Stepping back into the LPO position Monday was a definite shift, I had done a switch-a-roo with the guy going out, new faces, new issues, new bosses, a lot to take in all at once. One issue at a time and don’t let any one thing take all of the focus. Lovely NMCI had messed up my computer access so I was a work computer for most of the week which gave me time to tackle the problems that needed face and foot time (normally the things I handle after the computer time) and it seemed to work. Took a lot of notes and got a pass down ready for the guy taking my place when I go on leave 9 days later.

Even though I got back in July, while we’re deployed forward we earn “combat leave”, we’re tax free when we’re out there and earning 2.5 days a leave a month and that leave you earn there is considered tax free. If you take it the same month you come back, it’s just a waste because you are tax free that month anyways.

Back to work, I think I got most of the fires put out and my replacement up to speed on everything that’s going on but in reality? He probably had a better handle on the issues then I did because he’s been here the entire year and I just fell off the turnip truck.

Now, I have came up for and going to be heading out to Arizona in the mornin to see the family, next week I should be a proud owner of a 2008 Ford Fusion and minus one or two of my other vehicles. I don’t try collecting cars, they just appear like magic. It’s late and I have to drive all day tomorrow and don’t look forward to paying for gas. Peace out till I get back to the internets.

P.S. We'll be hitting the Blog Expo in Las Vegas, have the room paid for and our seats reserved.