DJ Uber Pig -- In the Haus

Posted By Uber Pig

Namaste,

-- Uber Pig

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Mission: To protect and promote the reputation and dignity of America's Warriors.
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Guess Who Joined the Soldiers' Angels Board of Trustees?

Posted By Blackfive

Soldiers' Angels press release is below:

Top Milblogger 'Blackfive' Makes Long Relationship with Nonprofit Official

PASADENA, Calif., July 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Leading military support nonprofit Soldiers' Angels announced this morning the appointment of military veteran, IT executive and blogger/author Matthew Currier Burden to its Board of Trustees, approved by unanimous vote on July 11. Burden is expected to focus on a variety of projects for Soldiers' Angels, using his skills and contacts in technology, active duty military and politics to help the 200,000-member organization continue to care for America's military personnel, veterans, and their families.

A longtime supporter, Burden has worked closely with Soldiers' Angels in an unofficial capacity since 2003. "I've been doing a lot of soldier support on my own and with SA on a variety of projects for the last six years, but I wanted to do more by taking an official role," he explains. "I'm looking forward to using my military and social media experiences to assist Soldiers' Angels any way I can."

After enlisting at age seventeen, Burden served in the 82nd Airborne, Special Forces and the Defense Intelligence Agency as he moved from enlisted to officer. He started the influential military blog Blackfive in 2003 to address the unreported stories of America's heroes and in 2006 edited Blog of War, a collection of essays from military blogs. Burden recently co-founded the Warrior Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit committed to protection and promotion of the reputation and dignity of America's Warriors, and is President of independent reporting and advertising production company SOG Media. He holds masters degrees in business and computer science and is currently an IT executive in Chicago.

Soldiers' Angels founder Patti Patton Bader warmly welcomes Burden. "It is truly an honor to serve wingtip to wingtip on the Board of Trustees with Matt," she enthuses. Board of Trustees Vice-chairman Richard M. John adds, "We are very excited to have Matt join the Board. His wealth of knowledge and contacts with the military, bloggers, and other military support organizations will be vital to Soldiers' Angels continuing to accomplish its mission. Matt has demonstrated time and again that his first concern is the welfare of our service members, and we look forward to having his formal input and participation as a Board member."

Established in 2003, Soldiers' Angels is a volunteer-led 501(c)(3) providing aid and comfort to the men and women of the United States Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard, as well as veterans and military families through a variety of hands-on projects and volunteerism. For more info, see www.soldiersangels.org or call 615-676-0239. Tax ID# 20-0583415. CFC# 25131.

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Mission: To protect and promote the reputation and dignity of America's Warriors.
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The Best Military Blog 2008

Posted By Blackfive

We would like to congratulate Mike Yon on receiving the most votes in the Best Military Blog category of the 2008 Weblog Awards.

As you know, we have supported Mike over the years and look forward to his posts.  (Right now, he's considering filing a law suit against Michael Moore so keep checking in on his site.)

Next, take a look at the other fine blogs that were in the running.  Keep them on your radar and visit them often.

  From My Position... on the way!
  The War on Big Tobacco
  This Ain't Hell
  One Marine's View
  Op For
  Army of Dude
  Milblogging.com
  Knee Deep in the Hooah!

Last, a big THANK YOU to all of you who voted for us (or voted for another military blog).  Every vote makes it more likely to retain the category for next year.

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Mission: To protect and promote the reputation and dignity of America's Warriors.
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My Christmas Eve in Fort Myers Childrens Hospital

Posted By Blackfive

Late afternoon yesterday on Christmas Eve, while playing on beach, my four year old daughter, PinkFive, accidentally scratched her eye with a piece of drift wood that she picked up.

Thanks to the great GREAT staff at Fort Myers Childrens Hospital she is okay.  BIG scratch (and her eye was full of pieces of the driftwood stick), and she's a bit grumpy today, but she'll be just fine. 

While PinkFive was being treated, Santa Claus was there to visit all the little kids in the hospital.  PinkFive got a special visit, in fact Santa helped get PinkFive to let the nurse practitioner look into her eye.  PinkFive was very brave.  Santa brought a sack with gifts for the kids and PinkFive made out like a bandit.  Little BlackFive was jealous that his little sister was going to get more toys than him this year...

So, today we are celebrating Christmas and I think that Mrs. Blackfive and I are espcecially grateful for PinkFive and Little BlackFive, not to mention the staff at Fort Myers Childrens Hospital.  Better gifts, no one could ever recieve.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

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Mission: To protect and promote the reputation and dignity of America's Warriors.
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President Little BlackFive

Posted By Blackfive

So, I'm going through my seven year old son's schoolwork tonight, and reviewing some older stuff too, in order to get ready for my turn at Parent-Teacher conferences next week.  And I find a campaign speech.

My son's second grader take on the Presidency:

President Little BlackFive

If I was president, I would give everybody lots and lots of Legos!  They are plastic and fantastic!  It is true but only at the famous LegoLand.  Hooray!  I would only give the people Star Wars Legos.  I would even give them the Lego Death Star or the Lego X-Wings.  Cool!  Legos rule!  Hooray for Legos!

The next thing I would do as president is make a law that people should stop smoking.  If they smoke, they will get a free ticket to jail.  Smoking has chemicals that have little viruses that can kill you.  Yikes!  I am not smoking ever!

The third thing that I would do as president is make the gas prices go down.  If we save money on gas, we can by other things like Legos.  We will get more toys!  The moms will love it too.  Hooray!  The gas price is going down to $1 a week.  I made a lot of changes and it starts this fall!

Damn.  Did he turn into a Socialist when I wasn't looking? (my SIL did work for Hilary in the WH) 

And does Dick Cheney know my son is giving away the Lego Death Stars?

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Mission: To protect and promote the reputation and dignity of America's Warriors.
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Blackfive goes pro

Posted By Uncle Jimbo

There is a flurry of frenzied activity going on behind the quiet, cultured facade here at Blackfive. The new logo is out, t-shirts are for sale, videos are flying left and right, and now I can announce that I work here. Tomorrow I am full time as the Executive Producer of Blackfive TV. That is a high-falutin' title and what it really means is we will have real pros doing the cameras and editing instead of me. Woo Hoo!. I suck as an editor, videographer and soundman.

We have a number of sponsors, advertisers and others who are making this possible and we are actively seeking more. You are our audience so think about anyone who would want to market to you. If you can point us to s specific person who has responsibility for marketing or advertising please point them in my direction. We are launching the filming of a tribute to the men who died in Afghanistan on Op Redwing, tentative title "The Men of Murphy's Ridge". Lone Survivor tells the tale of that battle, we want to tell the stories of the men who lived before that day.

We will start off in Denver for several days including the 4th of July to film with the Dietz family and friends of Danny. The Traveling Vietnam Wall will be in town and we will be throwing a fiesta at the combined fireworks/wall event. BBQ, Dead Tangos In HiDef, T-shirts me, Kev & the BBQ  Queen the righteous Tanker Babe. Oh and she dominated the rib challenge. Her ribs made me and Kevan cry like we were at a Disney movie. Mmmmmmmmm.

What does this change mean for Blackfive, I don't know for sure. We now are selling things and raising money, but we will donate good chunks of it to the charities we have always supported. We have expenses, but in short order we should have them covered by advertisers and sponsors completely. We are working out the details, but essentially we are making it up as we go along. Suggestions and comments are always encouraged, you all are the reason we have these opportunities. I will continue to update over the weekend and then have some kind of comprehensive post for Monday. Now I need to go take the dry rack of Tanker Babe's ribs and the homemade beans out to warm up for the Freefly in a couple of hours. This is livin'! Shot on the cam in my laptop.

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Mission: To protect and promote the reputation and dignity of America's Warriors.
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On the Beach

Posted By Blackfive

Here's why I haven't been posting very much:

Me and Pinkfive after Easter service (Chapel by the Sea) yesterday

It has been mostly rain and clouds here on Estero Island (Ft. Myers Beach), but it sure beats the hell out of this photo from Laughing Wolf:

I love Chicago, but right now I ain't missing it so much...

Anyway, posting from me will continue to be few and far between for the next week (as I am experimenting with Mojitos - the trick is to gently crush the mint).

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Mission: To protect and promote the reputation and dignity of America's Warriors.
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Eleven Million

Posted By Blackfive

So we breached the 11,000,000th Unique Visit to Blackfive at about 10:15AM CST today (and about 18,000.000 or so Page Views).  As usual, we report a few different items at the million visit marks:

Unique visit numbers 10,999,999 and number 11,000,000 came from Instapundit randomly.

And number 11,000,001 came from Canadian media source The National Post referring to our post honoring the courage and sacrifice of Staff Sergeant Rob Miller.

At this point we have:

5,808 Posts
89,480 Comment
23,637 Trackbacks (inbound links from blogs)
10 Authors (of which a few are too busy with things like combat to post right now)

And my Inbox continues to swell.  I had to buy more space from GMail to keep some of it.  I apologize if I don't respond to everyone.  I have a few hundred legitimate emails to answer later tonight.

We are continuing to raise funds to get more embeds into the war zones.  We are also looking at redesigning the site to reflect a more mixed media approach.  And we might be adding an author or two in the near future.  Your ideas and input are valuable to us so please email me if you have something you want to share.

As always, this blog is all about its readers.  Blackfive would be nothing without you.

So THANK YOU for giving the Blackfive boys an opportunity to make a difference.

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Mission: To protect and promote the reputation and dignity of America's Warriors.
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The Rose Bowl 2008

Posted By Blackfive

Having attended both USC and UofI for grad school, I graduate with an MBA from UofI in May.  Therefore...

I-L-L!!!! I-N-I!!!!

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Mission: To protect and promote the reputation and dignity of America's Warriors.
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Blackfive this week

Posted By Blackfive

I'll be on SpouseBuzz Radio on Thursday night at 8pm CST.

Join AWTM, as she speaks with fellow bloggers Matt Burden from Blackfive.net, and Author of the Blog of War, and Tim from Captain Patti, The Sweetest Woman on The Planet goes to Baghdad. Join us to discuss blogging. From the historical importance of sharing a story, to supporting those on the front, and a discussion of the new media.

And I'll be at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies on Friday and Saturday for its Front Line, First Person: Iraq War Stories Conference - a two-day conference that aims to create bridges for conversation across these new fault-lines and to understand better the capacities of different forms of storytelling to reach across boundaries and build connections at the human level.

My Panel will be:

The  Ground Truth from Iraq  to the Beltway and Back

• Colby Buzzell (blogger, author) “My War: Killing Time in Iraq”  Iraq vet
• Senator  Lincoln Chafee (Independent, Rhode    Island)
• Matthew Burden aka. Blackfive  (veteran, blogger, author) "The Blog of War:  Frontline Dispatches from Soldiers in Iraq  and Afghanistan;"
• Eric  Rodriguez, Iraq  vet & current Brown student
• Moderated by: Deborah Scranton

There will be an internet broadcast (live stream) of the conference and it is supposed to available for download after the conference finishes.

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Mission: To protect and promote the reputation and dignity of America's Warriors.
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