American Babble

Veteran’s Day at Applebee’s

Ms. Babble — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:11:28 +0000

I never thought I’d write this because who thanks a chain restaurant but, “Thanks Applebee’s!”. I admit that I was a little skeptical when I saw a commercial announcing that they were allowing a free meal to all military veterans on Veteran’s Day yesterday. If anything I thought it was just going to be a tiny appetizer or something.

When my class got canceled last night, I decided to go check it out with a few old friends who were also in the Army at one time or another.

We arrived to a PACKED restaurant. Most of the vets who came with a hat or shirt announcing their unit and term of service. Armored Divisions from WWII. Infantry Company from Vietnam. Many came with (what appeared to be) half their unit too. The Army had literally invaded Applebee’s! And a few gentleman came quietly by themselves and ate their free meal while observing their fellow veterans enthusiastically talking about their service with each other.

It was a mixture of young and old merging together on the one day that we all have something unique in common with each other: service to our country.

And the funny thing is that the trick to getting us to come together was a simple free meal to enjoy and reminisce about days past.

What a free meal too! They gave us massive entree’s. Special menu’s were made for the vets who showed up which offered six different choices including a 6oz sirloin steak, pasta, chicken, salad, they had it all covered.

A wonderful gesture and concept. Thanks again, Applebee’s.

Pictures taken on KC’s Blackberry at Applebee’s.

Signed, Sealed, and Preserved

Ms. Babble — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:31:24 +0000

I finally got around to adding my “Overseas Service Stripes” underneath my “Uniform Service Stripes” to the display pictured below. Last month was my three year anniversary of landing back in the U.S. from Iraq. I’m not sure why it took me so long to get around to updating my “military wallpaper” but it’s better late than never. It’s important to preserve these moments in history.

Each diagonal stripe equals 3 years of military service (I served nearly 7).
Each horizontal stripe equals 6 months engaged in an overseas war. I’m authorized 2.

Other awards listed:

Army Commendation Medal
Army Achievement Medal
National Defense Service Medal
Global War on Terrorism Service Medal
Iraq Campaign Medal
Overseas Service Ribbon
Army Service Ribbon
Armed Forces Reserve Medal with “M” Device
Rifleman Sharpshooter

BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas Days 2 & 3

Ms. Babble — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 03:16:46 +0000

My first blogging convention has come and gone so quickly! It feels like I just landed in Las Vegas and now the Blogworld Expo is over already.

On Friday I arrived bright and early to listen to “The State of the Blogosphere” keynote address by Technorati’s own Richard Jalichandra. The energy in the room was bubbling! Having never attended a conference of this magnitude (and subject matter) I got a big kick out of everyone mashing away on their laptops during the sessions. I was equally entertained by the large screens displaying a live feed of everyone Tweeting about the event in real time.

Real time Twitter feed on big screen

From there I dove right into the many presentations offered and kicked things off by sitting in “The State of Technology and the Real Time Web” by Louis Gray. It was great to see Louis in person as his face is definitely a familiar one throughout the blogosphere.

Then it was straight into “Affiliate Marketing Blogging Secrets” which featured an array of panelists. While I admit it wasn’t particularly enlightening, I did find Kim Rowley’s talking points very interesting and she gave me a great idea for e-mail list building.

I also had a chance to experience Jim Choma’s Flash Animation lecture. He’s the prolific creator of Showbiz Newsy News. Crude. Hilarious. Downright smart. Check him out.

What else. What else.

Oh! I missed most of the celebrity keynote address this morning but made it over to the convo center just in time to see Anthony Edwards make his first Tweet on stage! Remember him? The dude from ER? Mr. Goose from Top Gun? Yep. We’ve sucked him into our new media world. mwahahahha!

One thing I have to point out is the United States Army booth on the exhibit floor. Military blogs (like this blog was originally) have exploded exponentially since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were initiated. In response, I think the Army has done an amazing job in recognizing both the benefits and drawbacks of milbloggers and are working hard to build a relationship with us.

With that being said, I made sure to take a photo of their booth this weekend at the Blogworld Expo. They really went all out in their efforts to reach out the blogging community with a lounge area, complimentary food, free swag, and drinks. Two officers (a major and a colonel) were there to answer all the questions people wanted to ask them. And believe me, they were busy! I never once saw them NOT talking to someone.

So a big thanks to the effort of the U.S. Army for making a big impact on the convention.

Overall it was a great experience and one that I’m eternally grateful for having been given the opportunity to attend. In the end this experience has inspired me to make a vow to myself: The next time I go to Blogworld, I’ll be a presenter instead of an attendee.

At BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas Day 1

Ms. Babble — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:14:25 +0000

I arrived in Las Vegas yesterday (Thursday) and didn’t have an ounce of strength in my fingers to mash out a “Hello I’m Here!” blog post. But today it’s on!

I’m here in Las Vegas for the BlogWorld Expo and even though it technically started yesterday, my pass (courtesy of John Chow) gives me access on Friday and Saturday. Yesterday was my travel day and what a travel day it was!

My flight from Chicago had me up at 3:30am and when I arrived in Las Vegas, I couldn’t check into my room for 3 hours. In that 3 hours I went to four different casinos, lost $20 on the stupid Star Wars slot, and ate breakfast at McDonalds. It’s definitely not as fun doing Vegas alone. Brilliant move on the hotel’s part to make everyone wait to check-in. I decided it was simply a way to get us all into the casinos earlier than we intended.

By the time I got into my hotel room, I was spent. The lack of sleep had caught up to me and I couldn’t find the energy to do anything else but collapse. So, I did. For five hours! Yikes!

But Day 1 in Las Vegas wasn’t all for naught. I had tickets to the Cirque du Soliel LOVE show at The Mirage that night. More about that next time.

For now, I’m excited to head out to my first day of speakers at the convention center. Till next time!

Thinking About Days Served

Ms. Babble — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:31:42 +0000

There’s been a big fuss this last month about the post 9/11 GI Bill from veterans across the country. Many of us jumped on the opportunity the moment it became available which was August 1st. All veterans have a right to the GI Bill just for having enlisted in the military but a special educational benefit was enacted for those who served in response to the attacks on 9/11.

Long story short, there’s a lot more money available for those who decide to change their educational benefits to the post 9/11 GI Bill.

Many of us who served in response to 9/11 are Reserve or National Guard soldiers so a sliding scale of benefits needed to be calculated based on how long deployments are for those people. The theory being a person who served for 6 months shouldn’t get the same amount of benefits as someone who served for 24 months. It makes complete sense to me.

I got my Post 9/11 GI Bill confirmation paperwork from the Department of Veterans Affairs yesterday. The most important thing about this paperwork is how they calculated the exact amount of benefits I should receive under the new GI Bill law.

And here it is in black and white in the middle of the page:

The reality of how much time I had given in response to the 9/11 attacks hasn’t ever been so blunt to me before. Of course I knew the dates of my deployment and still have the memory of the time I was away from home but never had I really looked at that total number of days.

Five hundred and twenty one days.

Away from home. Away from family. Away from the comforts that we take for granted. Simply away.

30 days plus another 30 days plus another 30 days plus another 30 days …. on and on and on up to 521 days.

But something that’s more shocking is that my total service only qualifies for 60% of the post 9/11 GI Bill benefits. That means that there are people out there who had to do almost TWICE as much time as I did to qualify for 100% of the benefits.

Madness.

I honestly don’t think any other country has the burden of sending their young citizens overseas on deployments for as long or as often as the United States. It’s a burden not only to the soldiers but also the families and friends who must endure such massive amounts of time away from their loved ones. Such is the life of Americans.

P.S. I was only one month away from the 70% threshold of benefits. bummer.