JACK ARMY

Misc. Stuff

1.  Got a great note via email from a Soldier who spent some months on Rear Detachment working in our S-1 section.  Poor guy lost part of his trigger finger in an accident which is why he was sent home early.  Smart guy, which is why we put him in the S-1 shop, did a great job.  Very proactive, took initiative and exerted his authority to a level two or three above what was expected for someone in his pay grade.  Anyway, he thanked me for guiding him and giving him the opportunity to learn so much during that time.  Little does he know, the opportunity wasn't by design, but I am glad that he took it as an opportunity to learn and grow as a Soldier instead of feeling put upon that he was asked to do something outside his MOS.

2. This is something that makes me scratch my head: why is it that I can't get into AKO using Firefox?  I have to use Internet Explorer but then I get half-a-dozen certificate errors.  I try and try to download the certificates, but every time I keep getting errors and have to tell IE to go ahead and go to AKO anyway.  Strange.

3.I'm going to post about my running and anything I feel like discussing running-wise over here: Run with Jack Army.  I want to keep this here blog primarily a Milblog with a smattering of current events/politics, particularly when I'm fully retired.  Since I'm getting more and more into running and such, and wanting to blog about it more and more, I figured a blog focusing on running would be more appropriate.  I'll let y'all that are checking in here know about some of the posts I'm putting up there, but not every single post, just the ones that I want more people to check out.

What's Going On

Have I gone off the deep end?  Taken a long vacation?  Quit blogging?

No, none of the above.  Having a hard time finding things to blog about.  I've been relegated to the sidelines at work, due to my impending retirement.  Which is great!  I have plenty of time to take care of my stuff, instead of putting off my appointments, etc.  I'm running a lot now, which is what I've always wanted to do but let my procrastination/laziness/bad attitude get in the way of.  But I've thrown all that to the side and am running between 5 and 7.5 miles a day.  Ultimately, I'd like to run an ultramarathon, 100 miles.  That's a few years down the road though.  For now, I'm aiming at the Great Aloha Run in February and a half-marathon on Maui (if I can find out more about it) in March.  There's a couple of trail races in Texas in the latter half of the year and then the San Antonio Marathon in November.  Of course, all that barring injury.

So, retiring after 22 years in the Army, not sure what I'll do next but I've got a few things to look into.  I'll let you know how that goes.  Also, I intend to blog more about politics, a topic I've tended to avoid while on Active Duty.  That whole 'conflict of interest' thing, I guess.  Anyway, more to come.

Anything you'd like to see me write about?  Questions about life in the Army?  I've been doing it for a little while so I might be able to say a thing or two about it.

2010 Milblog Conference

Just a little before my "available" date...

I will "final out" on 21 April, the date that I start my Permissive TDY and Terminal Leave which will last until 31 August.  So, officially, I'm out of the Army on 1 September 2010.  That'll put me at 22 years, 14 days of service. 

It goes by quick.

But, the Milblog Conference is 9/10 April so I'll still be in Hawaii.  I'll shoot for the 2011 conference, though.  And maybe I'll make it to the BlogWorld Expo in the fall.  We'll see.

Go Home? Revisiting a Post Through Blackfive Archives

You can't follow any links to my original JACK ARMY blog because Google and/or Blogspot killed it for reasons unknown to me.  But, someone popped onto the current incarnation of JACK ARMY through a Bing.com search that also gave this result:

Blackfive: Jack Army in Iraq - "Go Home?"

Like I said, the links to the original post are dead, but the poignant part is there on Blackfive and the comments are pretty interesting to follow.

While I still believe... and stand by... what I said then, I have to admit that I'm glad to be finishing up this 21+ year odyssey next spring.  Unless, that is, by the smallest of chances that I'm on the E-8 list generated by the board that just finished up.  I truly don't believe my name is on that list, and that it will be on the QMP list to be generated here shortly, but if by miracle of miracles it is, I give this Army thing another couple of years or so...

Maybe.

Regardless, I'm proud to have served, proud to have deployed and proud of my fellow Soldiers, seniors, peers and subordinates.  It amazes me that people, and not just Americans, are willing to serve our great country by donning the uniform.  Whether for one tour or many, I pray for them daily.

Valour IT

An awesome idea to support our Wounded Warriors, Valour IT is worth your time, effort and a little bit of that hard scratch you get to bring home the bacon.  I ponied up $100 this year and intend to increase that amount every year until it is no longer needed.  Find out more about all this at Blackfive.net.

Oh, and go TEAM ARMY!

Update

I know, I know, I'm neglecting the blog.  Sorry, just finding it hard to force myself to post.  Ugh.

Regardless, there is stuff going, of course, so I'll give you a little update.

1. Finished several books lately that I'm eager to review, so look for that here shortly.

2. Participated in an Army blogger roundtable a couple of weeks ago, very interesting, will post about that as well.

3. Officially started my career as an "ultra-runner" and have put in a few miles on the trail.  This is my new "passion" and I'll post more on that later... may even start a blog specifically about that.

4. I have a few ideas for my advice posts, one or two for senior Soldiers as well as for new Soldiers.

5. The march toward retirement continues.  Planning on starting ACAP'ing in January, with terminal leave starting in April.  My last day in the Army should be 1 September 2010 which will put me at a few days over 22 years.  That's a long time, I don't care who you are.

So, I've got some work to do to get y'all caught up.  I'm on it, just need to plug in the ol' selfdisciplinator and get to it.

Git-ta-gether

Gonna round up some bloggers and Facebook pals all in one spot on Oahu.  If yer interested, let me know, either in the comments, by email or on Facebook.  I know we can't make everybody happy with a location and time, but I'll try to make it as convenient as possible for most.

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Oh, and I've finished Shadow of the Sword.  Excellent read, Jill Army has read it and now her mother is taking a gander.  I bought a copy to give to a Soldier of mine who I think has some issues that this book might help him see that he's not alone and that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Back Up!

In case you haven't noticed, gojackarmy.blogspot.com is gone.  I don't know why.  I started getting messages that there was something in my blog being reported as "an attack site" but I couldn't figure out what.  I went through the template code line by line and everything was pretty much the same as it has been for the last two years.  Only the little changes that I made recently, but that was to the blogroll, mostly and changing colors.  Nothing significant.

I wonder, though, about that very last post that I put up that was about Obamacare.  I feel like I've read about Google being pretty liberal and big ol' Obama supporters... and kinda down on milbloggers, but maybe I'm just feeling the conspiracy theory because I don't want to believe that I messed up my blog.

Regardless, the old JACK ARMY is gone, and thanks to Code Monkey who blogs on Chuck Z's blog, From My Position, On The Way, I may be able to salvage some of the old JACK ARMY posts and archive them here.

So, the moral of the story?  Back up your blog.  Just like you do your hard drive. 

You do back up your hard drive, don't you?

FTC to Monitor Blogs

FTC to Monitor Blogs (via Outside The Beltway) is an interesting post about how some bloggers are making money while blogging and how it is going to be monitored by the Federal Trade Commission.  The original article (linked at OTB, follow link above) describes bloggers as receiving thousands of dollars or free items such as laptops to blog about certain products, trips and cruises, and the like.

In the interest of full disclosure at this point, I'll let you know that I have received 2 free books in exchange for a blog review.  One book I gave away, the other I have yet to review (sorry!) so it is still sitting on my bookshelf.  Also, I initially used Google's Adsense and received one check for $100.  However, I stopped using Adsense at some point when some policy or public remark from Google irritated me (I can't recall what it was, but that doesn't matter to me any more, now it's just the principle of the thing that I'm hanging onto like a dog with a bone).

I really like James Joyner's point that "journalists employed by someone else get paid.   That’s the nature of employment.  Independent bloggers, by contrast, are entrepreneurs.  Actually, most make no money or barely cover expenses, making them, in effect, hobbyists."

At this time, I fall into the hobbyist category, but I would love to make blogging an entrepreneurial enterprise (hint, hint!).  So, I feel no guilt for the very little that I have received for blogging.  My expenses to blog far outweigh the "income" I've received, so if the FTC and/or government would like to know about it, then I think I should claim both the income and expenses on my IRS return and the current tax laws will cover it.  Right?

Input and Feedback

As I rebuild JACK ARMY, I'd like to know what you'd like to see as well as how you like what you are seeing so far.  I know there isn't much, yet, but I'm working on that.  In the meantime, though, what did you like about the old JACK ARMY blog, what would you like to see new or different on the new JACK ARMY blog and what can I do to make you want to come back?

I'm open for some good ideas and some constructive criticism.  Whatcha got?

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By the way, I have tried to re-register the "gojackarmy" name on Blogger, and despite the initial notification, it tells me that "gojackarmy" is unavailable. I'll keep trying, as well as trying to find out why it was deleted in the first place. In the meantime, please update your links, bookmarks, etc. to bring you here. I'll be working hard to get JACK ARMY back up to speed and your help is much appreciated!

Technorati Claim

Update:

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