Year Of The NCO

This is the first of a 36-spot Ad campaign for the Year of the NCO. The Army has designated 2009 the year of the NCO. More to come.

I shot/produced this spot, and my awesome graphics dept made the...well graphics.

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!

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

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.

What's In A Name?

To increase blog traffic, you need to know who you you're writing for and what you're writing about! My friends at audio'connell and The D-Ring both just wrote interesting blogs on this topic. I currently have three different blogs. One hasn't even started, the other is dependent on me being on the radio...and this one...Broadcast This! I think lately, it has been a bit scattered...at best. Does this draw people in? Or does it only feed my current friends and family? Well I think I should keep Broadcast This! focused on all things, well, broadcast! New media, challenges, tips, tricks, VO... Kasbah Radio will be focused on all things RADIO. Likewise, Opposites Attract will one day be about...well, I'm not sure yet.

So that brings us up to the present task at hand. What should I call my new blog? It will be about everything else I like to blog about. My day in the life type of stuff. I want to keep it sort of branded with Broadcast This! I'm thinking________________ This! Since, I'm a big fan of new media, and citizen journalism, I WANT YOU TO PICK THE NAME OF MY NEW BLOG! That's right! YOU! Send me in your name for my new blog, then I will post a poll on the side bar. Then starting 1 Jan 08, I will change the name. Are you in? Send your response to my e-mail: afnbroadcaster@gmail.com

Let the fun begin!

Drop Case Trick

I was cruising around the interweb today and went to Beautiful Beta! A cool website where you can learn some slick tricks. There are other tricks and widgets and other cool sites you can hit on. If you're in the mood to see something funny, check out my good friend Chris' latest post. I think there are at least four child labor laws broke, but his little boy is probably better than most of my co-workers. (E-mail me and I'll tell you which ones! HA-HA)

Digital or Analog?

I always thought there were two types of people in this world...Journey fans...and liars. Well, my good friend Chris from jacksnupple believes I'm wrong. He may be on to something. Chris believes folks are classified into two different categories: ANALOG or DIGITAL


In a blog titled Secrets Chris claims to be an uber-digital.

I am digital. I am Bobby Friggin' Digital. I'm borderline nerding out most of the time. You should see me in an Apple retail store–my geek meter peaks.

The blog is pretty funny and it made me think? Am I a digital or an analog? Well I know for a fact I'm no analog. That was easy...or was it? In today's world, everyone is labeled and then sub-labeled...and sometimes even sub-sub-labeled. Long gone are the days of being a a simple something! It is impossible to be just a Democrat, or Republican. You're a leftist, or conservative. These labels even reach into religion and nationalities. Are you a Southern Baptist or a light skinned brother?
With this new found knowledge of being either analog or digital...I asked myself: Are there different levels of classification within these two categories? I know I'm not a analog, but I'm not sure if I'm a digital. Maybe digital-lite. Possibly, I'm a Hack Hag...totally analog, but I hang around a bunch of digitals, because I feel safe around them. I have a lot of friends who are totally digital. Maybe I'm a closet digital? How do I tell my parents I'm a digital? Is it best not to come out of the closet? I surround myself with digitals and can dork out with the best of them, but when in mixed company I'll claim I really don't know what all this 1 and 0 stuff is all about. I'll never admit openly I know the secrets, however, know most of them, or at least I know who does!

So...ARE YOU AN ANALOG OR A DIGITAL?

A Day Off...And No Trouble...Well Kind Of!

Today was my day off. In 2003, my first day off was really BAD! October 26th 2003 will forever be apart of my life. (The flak vest Paul Wolfowitz is wearing is mine!) My second day off in 2003 wasn't as bad, but it too was cut short. December 13th was an emotional roller coaster. In a packed press conference room, Ambassador Paul Bremmer spoke the following famous words, "Ladies and gentlemen...we got him!" The room exploded with emotion. For nearly 20 minutes Iraqis screamed, shouted, cursed and cried. It was an incredibly intense moment. After that day off, I told my boss, Erik Brazones, I no longer wanted another day off!

Well this day off wasn't nearly as bad as 2003. In fact, it was no where near as bad. I had a ton of homework to make up since I've been in transit for the past nine days. First on the docket...math! I HATE MATH! The deal is, if I pass a pre-test, then I don't have to accomplish the homework. Sounds like a good deal. The bad news is, I missed two, too many questions. The worse news is, I challenged them with the instructor by e-mail, only to work them out again to figure out, I indeed did get them wrong. (WAH WAH WAAH!) I know it is hard to complain about the extremely slow Internet, (I keep waiting to hear those old 54K modem dial-up noises) because last time I was here...there was no Internet. Well the math work took all day to do. I still have a paper to write on Security and Privacy on the Internet. I have to use two different search engines and a library database, compare and contrast the two, and use criteria from a reading lesson to answer several questions.

I had to clear my head, so I took a yoga class. There are nine different classes here. The one I took was billed as "power yoga." I've taken several power yoga classes in the past...well this was different. It was a "combat" power yoga. Not what I really wanted, but definitely what I need. It was really tough. I think it had a lot of pilates included. Half way through the class we did 400 crunches non-stop. (I didn't do all 400...more like 100-150-ish.)

Say Hello to Webcam Chris!

Today there are three things I'm happy about! (Really there are more, but for the sake of good blogging...there is only three.)

1) Haley finally got the boot. I feel vindicated because Gina went home last week.
2) I get to eat Mexican food today for lunch...it's my going away lunch and I love, love, love salsa verde.
3) Shelly and I set up the webcams last night.

This is me this morning in my favorite place these days...on the couch with laptop on my...well...my lap.

We are using MSN Messenger for our webcam video calls.


You can download this for free HERE!

Webcams are pretty cheap and you look really funny on them.
My Messenger name is: broadcast_this
If you'd like to chat, or web chat...add me to your list of friends.

PS...Don't be scared! It is really easy to get a Messenger account and set up a webcam. And you don't need a webcam to use Messenger.

Say Goodbye to 867-5309

One-hit wonder Tommy Tutone had everyone yelling, "Now that I got her number...I'm going to make her mine!" The song peaked at #4 on the Billboard Charts in 1982. The song spun plenty of men and women into a frenzy. Wanting to have that number, giving that number as their own to some would-be partner, and my favorite...on the bathroom wall...

Well those days are over...Say hello to 2007. For people with ADD, there are plenty of options to keep you communicating and still have time to...oh look, something shiny!

My friend Jason posted this: "WOW... I think I may need to slow down as well...What have we come to... No more phone calls, just MYSPACE,e-mail and BLOGs..."

From Jacksnupple: "p.s. I love how your mom left a permanent comment to tell you to fix something before someone sees it.I wish my mom knew what a blog is."

And from my cousin Greta: "I don't know what a blog is! All I can do on the Internet is: check e-mail, pay my bills, and buy airline tickets."

That used to be me too! But, the world around us is changing...and changing fast! I really felt stuck in the middle of all of it. Hell, my dad changes operating systems, upgrades, and tweaks performance output values on his computer as often as I wash my clothes. My oldest son is an Administrator on several Tech Forums. Even my youngest son can change wallpapers and is a whizz on the computer. Like my cousin, I mostly checked e-mail, and surfed the web for useless info, like cocktail recipes, men's issues, and happy news! Not anymore.

(Now for my Carrie Bradshaw-debut)
So I started to think...are the people uptown having more sex...err! Sorry...ADD again!
Really, how are people communicating these days? Do girls still have "sucker boards" in their apartments? This is a cork board with the telephone numbers of all the guys who hit on them and bought them drinks all night...and got nothing in return, but a place on the board! Do people really call anymore?


evn wen we do cll n 2k7, chncs r, u won't evn heA my voiC. Nstead somit wl Itha buz n yr pocket, or play yr fav song... myn S Wind It ^! thN sme kinda freaky lukin combo of wrds n #s appear on dis tiny 2x2 screen. BRB, LOL, B4N, FYEO, WDYT, GTG, TAFN, TTYL...ME!

Everybody is doing it...My mom has a blog! There's no content, no cool widgets, put...15 people have visited it. I know because that's how we assign value in today's communication. Traffic on your site...number of hits...number of visitors...number of other sites your blog is linked. It's all about the social networks these days.


Really, does anyone use a phone anymore? OK! Maybe in cases of emergency, or by obligation
because of guilt...(not to be taken serious by anyone who shares my family lineage...just a humorous line...you see...I'm trying to be funny...not that funny anymore since I had to explain it!) Otherwise, Check out my new widget. ...AFNBroadcaster has posted a new blog. ...You got Mail. Most importantly...learn about your future. How will you vote? Republican or Democratic? Who is running? (I'm working on a blog about our future...this is a little teaser...doesn't really pertain to this post....oh look shiny)

So, where do you stand? Can you hyper-link? Do you dial-up? Or do you SKYPE? This is FREE. I can call my friend Big E for free...using my computer. That is pretty cool. ME! Well, I'm somewhere in between...put climbing fast. Just this week, I've learned about widgets, embedded code, and hyperlinks. I also watched five hours of American Idol....SHINY!
OK QUIZ TIME....
1) What is this?

2) What is this?

ANSWERS:
1) A trendy through-back stylized coaster for your drinks. They are really cool...keeps rings off your table.
2) A pre-historic dinosaur bone called handhelda oratator. Discovered in 2007 in Lickskillet Alabama.