Even though my Panthers didn't come out on top in the Battle of the Expressway last night, I was extremely proud of how well Bradley Ross played and gave his all for his team. This video can be accessed from his website at http://www.brad-ross.com/brad-ross-sacks-pco-qb-during-battle-of-the-expressway or you can view the video right here via youtube.

This is the first movie I ever made with iMovie so please don't judge me! In this movie I have compiled all the video and still photos we took at Miles Holladay's Army Basic Combat Training Graduation on August 19, 2010 at Fort Leonard Wood.

The slow motion clip in the middle was taken when Miles was marching in formation from the graduation hall to Dragoon Park--he was not supposed to divert his gaze or smile but he did both when he saw Lorelei Decker.

I used Metallica's "...And Justice For All" as the background soundtrack because it is Miles' favorite.  In some places it was a bit eerie how perfectly the music lined up with the images in the video.  (Notice the music during the display of the lovely woman with the bleached blond mullet--she is in the foreground of the shot where I was trying to picture Hannah, Gretchen and Lorelei standing against the wall for the ceremony.)

There were 266 Soldiers who graduated.  They were divided amongst four platoons.  Miles' platoon was the 2nd platoon.  Miles will begin AIT at Fort Leonard Wood next week.  His MOS is 88M (Transportation.)  He and Dustin joined the Army on the same day as battle buddies and had hoped to go through all of this together but Dustin's injury caused a delay for him.  Dustin is grateful for Miles who led the way through Basic Combat Training and shared invaluable advice with him.

Dustin and Miles will overlap for about 1.5 weeks at Fort Leonard Wood during their AIT.  Then, once both have returned to Oklahoma they will serve monthly Army National Guard Duty together.

The video was loaded to YouTube in two formats: HD and mobile.  Here's the HD link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-GodHgKgIQ. 

Here is the mobile version link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9E3q8oUot0

Here is the mobile version embedded:

Here is the HD version embedded:

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Family and Friends,

Attached is the week 4 newsletter. For those who thought they missed last week, there was no week 3 newsletter, due to me being on paternity leave. Therefore, this one includes week 3 and 4.

Sincerely,
CPT Brett Ketchum
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Dear Family Members and Friends,

Weeks three and four have come to a close and the Soldiers of Charlie Battery have completed their first phase in Basic Training. Red phase has come to an end and the Soldier move into White phase where they are extended a few more privileges. One of the changes is that the Drill Sergeants now implement student leadership. Soldiers are given the opportunity to develop their leadership skills by being placed in positions over their peers, which proves to be one of the more difficult leadership situation.
Most of the last two weeks have been spent in more in depth training on their individual rifles. After adjusting the sights to make sure they were aligned properly, the battery conducted ranges to enhance their shooting skills. The learned how to engage targets at different ranges, how to acquire a pop-up target and engage quickly, and how to transition from one target to the next when multiple targets appear.

With their skills acquired the Soldiers then had the opportunity to qualify with their rifle. The qualification range is a 300 meter long range with targets that pop-up between 50-300 meters. Soldiers must actively scan their lanes in order to acquire their targets, take proper aim, and accurately place a round into the target before it falls back behind it’s berm. In order to qualify Soldiers had to hit a minimum or 23 out of the 40 targets. For those who hit 30 or more they were given the honor of being Sharpshooters. For the very few who hit 36 or more they could proudly call themselves Experts with the M16/M4 rifle.

Along with shooting their rifles, the Soldiers were trained on how to use a rifle if the enemy got close enough to engage in hand to hand combat. After the basic moves were taught, the Soldiers were allowed to harness the true warrior spirit in bouts against one another using pugil sticks instead of actual rifles.

Following rifle marksmanship, the Battery conducted the first obstacle course during Basic Training. The Combat Conditioning Course is designed to allow the Soldiers to test the limits of their physical ability as they negotiate the 17 obstacles on the course. The obstacles include climbing ropes, a horizontal latter, climbing over walls, rope bridges, low crawls, and gate runs. The platoons were timed on the course and the fastest platoon time was awarded the CCC streamer.

The weeks ended with a brief introduction into Advanced Rifle Marksmanship, which will be the main focus next week. Now that the basics have been taught, the Soldier will truly learn what the M16/M4 rifle can do.

Sincerely,

Brett Ketchum
CPT, FA
Commanding

Download the PowerPoint for these weeks

Since I started posting these newsletters from Fort Sill, I will continue to post them each week for those of you who want to follow along and be praying for Dustin according to his current challenges.

In true "Unclassified" Army fashion I am unable to detect in any of these photos (in the attached powerpoint) if any of these soldiers is actually my Soldier Dustin Decker.

Here is what Captain Ketchum wrote:

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Family and Friends,

Greetings from Charlie Battery. The Soldiers have now completed their second week of training. This week we were able to get outside and conduct more realistic training. The schedule will really pick up from here on out, so you can expect the Soldiers to remain busy. Thank you for the support you have been giving them through this time. Attached is the Week 2 Newsletter.

Sincerely,
CPT Brett Ketchum

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Just got an email from CPT Brett Ketchum at Fort Sill.  This document was attached.  I guess the Army likes PowerPoint.  Click on the link above this picture to download it.

On Monday July 12 I released my baby boy into Uncle Sam's care.  He's one step closer to fulfilling what he believes is God's calling on his life to serve his country and fellow soldiers on the front lines in Afghanistan. 

Driving up to the gate at RTI is when it really began to hit me.  (Dustin was in driving his girlfriend's car in front of me.)

We were yet unaware of the change in his orders.  We thought he'd be shipping out to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri but instead he received orders to report to Fort Sill in Oklahoma.  (This is actually good news to us since it increases the likelihood we might be able to see him during brief visitation hours after he gets out of "Red Phase.")  He'll complete his AIT at Fort Leonard Wood and will hopefully get to see his best friend Miles Holladay some time during that overlap.
 
None of us was crying until Samantha lost it (and so did we as we watched Dustin tenderly console her.)  Every one of us had tears in our eyes--even Dustin.  (The last time I remember seeing Dustin with tears in his eyes was when I mercilessly beat him at Monopoly when he was only five years old.)

Dustin was able to pack every personal possession he could carry into this single back pack from which he would live over the next four months.

Everyone asks me if I'm "okay" with all of this (as his mother.)  I have to be.  God loaned this precious baby boy into our care for a while.  All along his father and I have prayed that we would be used by Him to prepare this young man for service in His Kingdom.  We trust God who holds our son in His loving hands--the very God in whom Dustin has placed his own trust.  We claim Psalm 91 for Dustin:

Psalm 91

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

3 Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence.

4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

5 You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,

6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.

7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.

8 You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.

9 If you make the Most High your dwelling— even the Lord, who is my refuge—

10 then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.

11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;

12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

13 You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

14 “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

15 He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.

16 With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

I've always been a proponent of a website's utilizing breadcrumbs for clear navigation.  Drop down and Fly-out menus drive me crazy and frustrate me often as tests of manual dexterity (which I frequently fail.)  So when Site Reference recently cited that the use of breadcrumbs can actually help in SEO efforts, I was excited to read the article.   Here it is for your reference.

Here is the link to Scott's follow up article: http://blog.newsok.com/highschoolsports/2010/06/10/catching-up-with-pc-norths-dustin-decker/

This article ran in the Oklahoman on October 9, 2009.  Here is a link: http://newsok.com/friday-night-lights-when-duty-calls-pc-norths-dustin-decker-ready-to-serve/article/3407449

      I would tune in and listen intently for that silver Tundra to pull into the garage and the strong framed man maneuver around his Harley on his way in. The creaks of the 1930's house got closer and closer until finally, my grandpa, beer belly and all, was home. I could never help but laugh seeing him with his full gray beard, looking like a mountain man, knowing he was a good looking boy in his prime. But that was years ago. The years when it wasn't so bad to have a stash of jack in the cabinet and a little vodka tucked away in the freezer, and they were long gone.

      I'll forever remember the little things about him. How he always sat in the same place at the little round dinner table. How he wanted just one slice of lime in his coke. How he breathed through his nose when he contemplated something. How we shared a love for Cheetos. I'll forever remember the rides he gave us on the back of his Kawasaki, so proud of his little grandchildren. My grandpa was the most brilliant man I knew. He knew things that others couldn't understand in a lifetime; little secrets between him and God. And the one thing I'll never understand is how someone so smart could do something so selfishly stupid.

      I remember the day like I'm still living it. It was a Sunday. That weekend my church had held a retreat and my faith was stronger than ever. Rachel, Nathan (my youth pastor) and I sang an amazing trio that morning, and after church I was innocently content. I remember looking for my parents, as someone grabbed my hand and said “Lorelei, I need you to come with me.” in a voice like a doctor, who knew something the patient didn't. Seconds later I found myself amongst a crowd of people, throwing me glances of pity. They knew. I saw my mom. She was crying, relying simply on the wall to hold her up. I thought to myself “God, no. Don't do this.” as she told me “Ponka killed himself..”

      I never knew. I never knew that my beloved grandpa wasn't who everyone let me think he was. I never knew that the joke was on me. Of course the bottles in the back of the fridge only really stayed in the back when I was there. How could I have been so naive?

      That moment, the moment by the wall, was mine. At that moment I felt like the world was personally attacking me, but I wasn't going to let that take me down. I was stronger than that. That was the moment when my faith became my own. Just me and God. That day was the day that I decided that no matter what anyone tells me, no matter what makes up my genes, that won't define me. So what, it runs in my genes to be an alcoholic, so does depression, bi-polar disorder, cancer and heart attacks, but that doesn't stop me. My God is bigger. My God is stronger, and I'm along for the ride.

I have a client who is trying to understand how to offer video from their website.  I have recommended they offer video through a streaming service that will convert their video to Flash and make it available on the web so they can embed it on their website.

Here is the video as it has been uploaded to YouTube:  (It was 43.5MB on my computer before I uploaded it to YouTube.)

Here is the video as it has been uploaded to Blip.tv:  (I don't know why it is showing "sideways" when I loaded it directly to Blip in the same manner as I loaded it to YouTube and it was vertical on my computer.  Plus, it took ten times as long to load to Blip than it took to load to YouTube.)

And here is a video that has been attached to this post as a quicktime file:  (Since this CMS allows a maximum file size of 20MB to be loaded to the site, I have loaded a different (smaller) video.

I've been so busy micro-blogging (via Twitter) that I have completely neglected my "real" blog here.  I was reminded of this today when I found a link to my blog on the Oklahoma Women's Network Blog.  I didn't even know they knew I existed!

I hereby resolve to apply more effort to balance my personal Blog/Micro-Blog scale.

If you have any interest in learning about online reputation management, I highly recommend these two articles by Justin Boeckman:

Online Reputation Management

Online Reputation Management Part 2: Responding to Negative Remarks

This is a PDF of that article.

This is a Word document list of a few resources I found.

And below is that list:

Election Day 2008 was a fun filled day.  Even more fun for one using Twitter and Brightkite.  No matter where I went I was always connected to a community of people I respect and trust.  I learned about the length of voting lines, who was where for lunch, the latest exit poll results, and where to go with my "I voted sticker" so I could get free coffee, or a doughnut or a Chick-Fil-A sandwich.  I was even able to torture my 18 year old daughter by posting a photo of her as she left the middle school after voting for her very first time.

 I FINALLY decided to update my website since it had been using the same design for over two years.  I really started grooving around midnight (since the trick or treaters were no longer coming around.)  Now it is 3:11am!  I can't believe how the time flew.  But I got a bunch done.  Much more productive when nobody else is up to interrupt me!

Silly Cuisinart; they should know better than to vend a defective coffee pot to a woman who loves her coffee!

Recently as part of Element Fusion's hot Summer 2008 Heatwave, we rolled out some very "cool" new features.  One of these allows you to accept payments through the form element.  Check out Chad's tutorial on how to use this to create a mini shopping cart. 

Boeckman thinks the traditional email newsletter is preferred by owners because it is delivered within an html design that the sender can control.  Plus, most email newsletter solutions (even like Breeze which is offered by Element Fusion) offer sophisticated reporting for tracking purposes.  So, he’s probably right in thinking that this method of communication will be with us for a while.  But in my experience, many email services block the html design elements from going through anyway.  So why not let people come to your website to read your news if they want to see it all “pretty” or simply read the guts that get sent to them in their email program using Feedburner and the blog?

I am inclined to think that many business owners (especially those using a content management system like Water or Sky that includes an integrated blog) will love being able to communicate news out to interested parties in this new manner.

Another reason I like the idea of using email fed blog subscriptions better (and think the users of the worldwide web will to) is that it allows for a steady trickle of information in bite sized chunks rather than a once-a-month delivery of a newsletter that is too big to read all at once.  I don’t know about you, but I just archive the newsletters that come my way and promise myself I’ll read them later.  But I never do.  However, I think I’ll actually read a quick blog post on a single subject when it is delivered to me. 

Please let me know your thoughts.  I’m trying to blog as soon as I think of something rather than waiting till I think I’ve got it all figured out.  So, if I’m way off base here, please let me know.

Website Analytics Software

1. The user interface is awesome. I enjoy how easy it is to get information about the site visitors and where they are going on your site.
2. The Visitors section gives you a cool view of where each site visitor is from, how they got to your site, as well as the Operating System and Browser they are using. If you click on a visitor you get more in depth information about them as well as a Google map that shows you where they are located.
   
3. The Actions tab allows you to view the what people are doing on your site. Neat, but I am not 100% sold on this as being a "Must Have" feature without being able to target some actions as goals.
4. A Content section that lets you see the most popular pages, entrance/exit pages and downloads.
   
5. The Links section shows the top incoming links, Outgoing links (Another Cool Feature) and the overall top referrers.
6. Searches allows you to see the keyword phrase and what search engine a visitor used to get to your site.
   
7. Another cool, totally useless, feature is the Spy tool. This allows you to view people that are on your site and watch the path they take as they navigate through the site. Totally cool yet I have yet to find a practical use for it.
   
8. One of the coolest things it offers is the ability to White Label the app so it looks like it is your application. Very Cool!