AFNBroadcaster & Friends Weight Loss 2009

I just started a new group on Facebook called AFNBroadcaster & Friends Weight Loss 2009. I hope this will be a fun and motivating method to keep me and anyone else who wants to regain physical control of their waist, or body fat, or whatever this year. Please join the group. If you don't already have a facebook account...maybe you should get one of those too! You can also follow me on Twitter.

Happy New Years!

Santa 2.0

Found this on the internet and it made me laugh! So I had to share! Merry Christmas! Still looking for something to buy? Check out my Green Christmas ideas!

Super Connected...Not Really...and...IT Defined

I'm sitting here right now with four different social media sites open, blogging on what I think is an open-source program; while listening to free streaming audio on Grooveshark. (Adele...Shelly's current fav!) I've already made four hyperlinks...five now! This morning I started off by catching up on my 30 RSS feeds...find out I'm not the only one suffering from a GMAIL slow down...and I start feeling sad! (Maybe it's because my oldest son isn't home) I realize although I'm somewhat super connected, I'm no where near as smart as I should be after spending countless hours on the internet. I guess I rely too much on my IT friends. (And my oldest son!) What would we do...err what would I do with out them. THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Turns out, IT has always been there to help people like me!

Make sure you take a few minutes to thank your local IT!

Suburbia...Smooth E Style

Smooth E is a very funny comedian! He has produced several viral video's and I think once had the hottest vid on the net. Something like 10 trillion hits. I don't know...sometimes I make numbers up. Anyway, I like Smooth E, not only is he funny, but he is also generous! He produced several audio packages for use on Freedom Radio (page hasn't been updated in a long time) a couple of years ago. Anyway...he's done it again. And although the song he has made his own is one of my favorites...I think he once again did a great job! For you to enjoy:

Suburbia

Iraqi Medical Center Goes Green

In a country where four-six hours of continuous power is rare, The Ameriya Clinic in Baghdad now has continuous power. It's source...SOLAR power. Why doesn't the entire Middle East use solar? Everytime I've been in Iraq it has been hot and sunny!

Here is the link to the TV story over on AFNEurope

Pentagon May Have Mixed Propaganda With Public Affairs

Straight from the Washington Post :

The Pentagon's inspector general said yesterday that the Defense Department's public affairs office may have "inappropriately" merged public affairs and propaganda operations in 2007 and 2008 when it contracted out $1 million in work for a strategic communications plan for use by the military in collaboration with the State Department.

OOPS! My bad! Sorry? We must find a better, legal way to win this information war. Where are all of the military bloggers?

Rest of the story!

3-D Football Game...And...How I Really Need To Win FF!

Everywhere you look...HD! I love it. Unfortunately living in Italy means all of the HD content I watch comes from dvds or whatever we download. SKY does offer a few HD channels. SKY Sports has more, but we're not big European Football fans.

The National Football League wants to take the game to another level...a third demension if you will! Next week's game between San Diego and Oakland will be shot in 3-D! If only they picked two better teams. The Wall Street Journal has the rest.

AS for my Fantasy Football game. This weeks matchup is HUGE! It is a battle of 1st place teams. Multiple Scorgasm leads PACAF by one game at 9-3. My team: AFNBroadcaster P.A.B. (ask via e-mail and I'll tell you want it means) leads ACC by one game at 8-4. If I win...I take ACC and get a first round bye. If I lose...and Russell's Regulators wins, (which he will) then he wins the ACC on points. In years past, this is always where I lose and then get bumped out in the first round. Fingers crossed. OBTW: I was banking on my Brady/Moss combo to take me to paydirt.

Public Affairs Forced To Combine With Psy Ops

For every step in the right direction made with the proper use of strategic communication. For every gain made by applying the proper key message...building trust, friendship....

LOST!

KABUL (Reuters) – The U.S. general commanding NATO forces in Afghanistan has ordered a merger of the office that releases news with "Psy Ops," which deals with propaganda, a move that goes against the alliance's policy, three officials said.

Taliban militants, through their website, telephone text messages and frequent calls to reporters, are also gaining ground in the information war, analysts say.

How is it possible with all of the technology we have...with all of the training we have...with all of the intelegent, capable people...we can't win the information war? Maybe we should try to win using this tecnique: Leveraging Citizen Journalism

Deployed For The Holidays

I want to thank all of the brave men and women who won't be home for the holidays. Your service is admirable. May where ever you end up celebrating the holidays this year be safe. If you happen to be at the International Zone. Stop by and tell Mr. Lee "hello" for me. I've spent two Thanksgivings with him. (Manager Int. Zone DFAC) For those of you who haven't deployed over the holidays...or know of someone who has...there is some good news. Besides the less than desirable location...DFACS (Dinning Facilities) across the land really go above and beyond to make it fun. Here is a video from a fellow FJI co-worker from last Thanksgiving:

Check out my Easter blog from several years back to see how they celebrate Easter in Iraq. The picture on the bottom is funny and disturbing at the same time.

I also want to say a special "Happy Holidays" to my co-worker who just left for my home away from home. He will be gone over several big holidays. Feel free to contact me if you'd like to contact Jeremy directly.

You can also see and hear the stories of other brave men and women on Faces of Freedom.

Guitar This!

Is this the new peanut butter cups? Heidi Klum and Guitar Hero???

Voting...The American Way

It seems the American way of showing approval or disapproval of a person or product has once again worked. My trusted blog sydication service was VOTED...not needed anymore. The good news is, I've found an even better service. BlogPatrol will allow me to know exactly who is reading my blog. I'll know everything shy the persons social security number. This is great data to have. Knowing who reads my blogs will enable me to craft targeted messages. If it turns out people from differnt countries like Korea, Sudan, or maybe even Georgia are subscribing, maybe I could add a few words in that language. Not sure where this will go, but I'm VERY excited to see who is reading and more importantly how often.

Don't Forget To VOTE!

Be American and VOTE!

Motivation - A New Broadcast Task II

Well...I took all of the advice from you...and a lot from a good friend of mine, Keith Reed and I think the class went very well. For sure I was motivated. In the process of preparing for this class I came up with another "Chris Eder tip of the day!" I shared my 20-60-20 rule. I believe only 20% of our current broadcaster pool really want to be broadcasters. 60% are along for the ride, and the last 20% is waiting for someone in the first 20% to show them how. Now, these numbers aren't exact science, rather another tool I can use to try and shake things up...stir the pot...and hopefully motivate folks to get fired up about being a broadcaster in the AF.

Motivation - A New Broadcast Task

I'm working on a guided discussion class on how to motivate for a class I'm teaching/coaching/leading/mentoring with my good friend Chris Vadnais. Here is our motivation...behind the motivation:

Our career field, Broadcast Journalist merged with two other career fields: Videography and Graphics. For the first time, there is a possibility our co-workers may or may not want to be apart of this new job. Additionally, there are many perceptions, desires, work-flow issues, fears...that could affect the work climate. The bottom line there are folks at every echelon who may or may not want to be doing what they're slated to do. This is a challenge.

I ask you...my friends, champions of truth, knowledgable sages for help. What topics should we make sure we discuss? How do we capture the need for supervisors to make sure everyone is on-board? How do we mentor the supervisor who doesn't believe? How do we mentor the worker who doesn't believe?