Jeff also continues to write at his "Life, Love and Truth" blog, which I've added to the Red Bull Rising blog-roll, at right. He seems both willing and able to take on the Big Questions and Changes of Perspective that soldiers seem to encounter during and after a deployment, and I look forward not only to finishing his book (I'll post a review at Red Bull Rising later), but also to keeping up with his blog.
He's a Midwesterner, and a National Guard guy, and a veteran. Basically, he had me at "hello."
Jeff's use of the comment feature caught me with my blog-administrator's trousers down, however. For reasons related to: (1) a potential deployment in my immediate family, and (2) Uncle Sam's bipolar orientation toward blogging, I've chosen, for now, to publicly identify myself only by callsign (aka "handle," "nickname," or "alias").
I was in the middle of sanitizing Red Bull Rising of all personal data when Jeff knocked on my blog-door. In replacing and reposting everything with an almost-exact but now-anonymous duplicate, I unfortunately had to delete his original comment. (The Internet giveth, the Internet taketh away.) I did figure a way to copy-and-paste his remarks under my own identity, but, admittedly, that's not quite the same. The bottom line? The first Red Bull Rising lesson-learned on blogging:
"Never change the identities of your horse midstream."
Aw shucks, brother Sherpa. My bad. Guess I jumped the gun with my comments on your new site before it was fully baked. Shoulda just done the old-school point-to-point backchannel via email. But I wanted to give you public props for your hot new site! (Hell - I still do. Great job!)
ReplyDeleteObviously I haven't learned my "blogging for dummies" lessons yet! (Hence the big, nasty, real-name target on my blog's back!) So, once more with feeling - let me say thanks for your interest in my commentary (blog AND book). But moreover, thanks for adding to the collective contributions of milbloggers.
It's a brave new world, eh? I choose to believe that whatever our outreach does to raise military eyebrows is more than offset by increased awareness and support for what citizen-soldiers and others are doing to serve the interests of our nation - at home and abroad.
You certainly have my attention.
Rock on!
Jeff
(BTW - if you'd like a digital reviewer's copy of "Afghan Journal" let me know. I have a friend at the PDF factory.)
Actually, you're doing a fine job, particularly helping me validate my blog administrative set-up. I just learned, for example, yet another thing regarding the "comments moderation" functions on Blogger. Couldn't have done it without you!
ReplyDeleteZap me an e-mail and we'll exchange contact info. I might need to pick your brain for milblogging lessons-learned and TTP in the next couple of months.
I'll also take you up on your kind offer of a PDF review copy of "Afghan Journal," but please also know that I've got a purchased copy already in route.
You might say I believe in "voting with my bucks," or "putting money where my boots are," or something like that. This New Economy thing isn't going to support itself, you know ...