Posts Tagged ‘images’
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Mary Ann
Wednesday Hero was started to put a face to the men and women of the American Armed Forces and what they do for us. Vary rarely has there been a member of a foreign military profiled. In fact, in the two years Wednesday Hero’s been going on it’s only been done once before. Here’s the second.
Lance Corporal Matt Croucher
24 years old from Birmingham, England
40 Commando Royal Marines
L/Cpl Matt Croucher is not only one of the bravest men alive, he’s also one of the luckiest men alive. On the morning of February 9, 2008 L/Cpl. and his unit were searching a compound near Sangin in Afghanistan that was suspected of being used to make bombs to be used in attacks on British and Afghan troops. Walking in the darkness among a group of four men, Croucher stepped into a tripwire that pulled the pin from a boobytrap grenade. His patrol commander, Corporal Adam Lesley, remembered Croucher shouting “Grenade!”
As others dived for cover, Croucher did something nobody expected. He lay down on the grenade to smother the blast. Lesley got on the ground, another man got behind a wall, but the last member of the patrol was still standing in the open when the grenade went off.
“My reaction was, ‘My God this can’t be real’,” said Lesley. “Croucher had simply lain back and used his day sack to blunt the force of the explosion. You would expect nine out of 10 people to die in that situation.” L/Cpl. Croucher was that 1/10. Not only did he survive, amazingly he only suffered shock from the blast and a bloody nose. He was saved by the special plating inside his Osprey body armor. The backpack he was wearing was thrown more than 30ft by the blast.
“I felt one of the lads giving me a top to toe check. My head was ringing. Blood was streaming from my nose. It took 30 seconds before I realized I was definitely not dead,” said L/Cpl. Croucher.
For his actions that day, L/Cpl. Croucher was in line for the Victoria Cross, the highest award for a British Serviceman, but it has yet to be awarded.
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here
Tags: 30, ack, amazingly, aspx, backpack, blast, blog, Blogroll, blogs, blogspot, boob, corporal, cpl, earing, ears, eed, england, eve, explosion, freedoms, god, heck, hero, ied, images, ing, ins, ip, logs, mak, military, morning, mp, nin, ot, prey, rig, rv, sacrifice, sear, shout, ted, ter, wh, ya
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Friday, April 25th, 2008
I am so bad. I have been so busy since I got back, I am finally now writing about this awesome event. I was contacted about this the day before my birthday (I know, what a great birthday present!!!). Sony wanted to talk to 15 mommy bloggers and give us some cameras (I didn’t know this last part till the day before I left for the trip!). All expenses paid trip, how could I say no?
I flew out on April 16th to San Diego. They got me an a flight through Midway (which I seriously needed since Midway is only 15 minutes away and Ohare is about an hour). Sitting in the airport always sucks, but I made due. My plane flight there sucked. A little girl screamed the whole way. This is why I don’t fly with my kids. I am terrified that is going to be me. The mom was by herself, and she walked up and down the aisle for the four and half hour flight. I felt so bad for her.
We then got to San Diego and I had a limo driver waiting for me. He had my name on a sign. It was super cool. I know I’ll never see that again. He took me to the La Valencia Hotel in La Jolla (it was about a half hour drive). The hotel was awesome (I’ll be writing about it on my travel blog, so I won’t go into too many details here). Sony had boxes set up in our room (to use to Fed Ex our cameras back). They also had left us headphones for our kids, a rose, and two chocolate candy bars. They obviously know the way to a woman’s heart. We were on our own for Wednesday night (though we did have a $50 certificate to use at the restaurant). I met up with Deanna and Anne Marie , and we went to dinner. I had filet mignon. It was super yummy. It was one of those steaks that you didn’t even have to chew it — it just melted in your mouth.
The next day we had to be at breakfast at 9:00. We had a buffet breakfast (which was awesome). This is the view we had from the room we were in. Beautiful, isn’t it? We spent the first two hours after that introducing ourselves. We then had lunch out in the beautiful sunshine. We were only out there for about an hour eating some of the best food ever and I got sunburned!!! Here’s a list of all the awesome ladies who were there (if you have more blogs that I haven’t listed, let me know and I’ll get them added):
After lunch, we got to learn about Sony and the impact of women on their business (Let me tell you, we have a huge impact!!!). We then got to start playing with the cameras we got. Oh wait, I didn’t show you the cameras yet —-
Camera #1: Sony Cybershot
Camera #2: Sony DSLR-A300K
Camera #3 – Handycam HDR-SR10
Yes, Sony gave us all three cameras! They also set aside time for us to work with their trainers so we could learn how to use them!
We then got instruction from photography expert Me Ra Koh. She gave us shooting instruction and tips of how to get specific results. She was really nice and she’s a blogger too!
We then got to go out to the beach and play with the cameras!
We then got a little bit of time to run up to our room and get ready for dinner. I took these pictures from my room!
We then met up with Sony and went to dinner at the Azul Restaurant. I got back to the hotel between 10 – 11 and went to bed.
On Friday, (April 18th), we met again for breakfast. Me Ra took some of our photos and critiqued them for us. She told us how to make our photos better. We then had a presentation from Rocket XL (the advertising agency who helped pull this all together). Us mommy bloggers ended up taking over that session with our opinions and thoughts.
After this session, we were able to do whatever we wanted till we caught our plane. Sony also gave us certificates for the spa, so I went and had a deep tissue massage. I then ate lunch and then had to get on my plane.
And that was my trip to San Diego!
Tags: 30, 300, 4d, ack, adi, Advice, ady, aisle, amazon, ava, babies, bed, bet, birthday, bling, blog, blogger, bloggers, blogs, blogspot, busines, cameras, candy, celebrity, certificat, chocolate, contact, cooks, dd, dsl, eed, eft, eta, eve, flickr, flo, fly, geek, girlfriend, headphone, heart, home, hose, ied, images, imo, ing, ins, ip, kids, ko, logs, lunch, mak, map, midway, mom, mommies, mommy, moms, mp, ot, pens, phone, photo, photograph, photography, photos, picture, rain, ramblings, rant, readable, sag, scream, smack, smackdown, sony, spa, stat, sun, sunburn, target, tea, ted, ter, terri, time, tina, train, umm, vent, wh
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Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
Want to get paid to talk about the things you love (and some that you don’t like quite as much)? Well, Izea (the company that brought you PayPerPost) will be shortly offering a new service called SocialSpark. This brings in a new era of blogging for advertisers and bloggers alike. SocialSpark is both a social networking site and a place to find things to write about. I had a sneak peak at it, and I am impressed by what I have seen so far. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot I can tell you since it hasn’t been released yet!
My Story
I often have been asked why I do this. Now, if you are a regular reader of mine, you may want to skip this section since you know all about my family and I. I have two kids. When I started blogging, we only had Madison (who’s 4 now). I was using my blog to keep in touch with my friends and family in Green Bay, WI. While blogging I became pregnant with my son Will (who’s 9 months now!). I am stay at home mom and am always looking at how to make extra money from home. We live in the Chicagoland area which means my husband commutes to work long distances and daycare is outrageous! Trust me, I have tried almost everything out there to make some extra money so I didn’t have to go work fast food or retail (no offense to anybody working in those positions. I have done it in the past and it sucks!). My husband is never home at the same time every night which makes things even more difficult to get a regular job of any kind!
Show Me The Money!
Onto the part that you really want to know about! Is there money really to be made doing this? YES! I don’t tell people what I make blogging, since it really isn’t anybody’s business. However, since you want to know, I can honestly tell you a pulled in around $7,000 last year from blogging. Now, I was able to do this on my own time be it midnight or noon. If I don’t feel like writing about a topic, I don’t. As many of you know, I do freelance work also, and I can easily work this around my freelance work and my kids. I don’t have to wait for my husband to get home from work either! For my family, this has been heaven sent.
What have we spent my earnings on? This year I was able to take the money I earned and enroll Madison in preschool. We used the money towards the vacation Bill and I took to Arizona. It is helping to remodel our basement, and we used it a lot last summer on house repairs. What do you need extra money for?
This sounds good. How do I sign up?
Currently, SocialSpark is still in Alpha testing. However, if you click the link, it’ll take you to a site that you can sign up for an email when SocialSpark goes live. Then you can be one of the first to try out this new platform and make some extra cash doing so!
Tags: adi, advertiser, advertisers, airs, amp, badges, basement, Bill, blog, blogger, bloggers, blogging, busines, daycare, eed, email, eta, eve, Green Bay, hasn, heaven, home, honestly, hose, ied, images, impress, ing, ip, izea, job, kids, love, madison, mail, mak, metrics, mom, mommy, money, mp, nin, ot, pairs, pay, preschool, rage, remodel, rust, rv, spa, ted, time, umm, wh
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Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
Have you visited the Izea Forum yet? If not, you definitely need to go visit the boards. Why? Well, first of all, they just completely redid them. They have a brand new look. It is a tad different looking than the old boards, but it only takes a little while to figure our your way around there. Another reason to check them out is because of the community. Izea posters are an awesome community to be a part of. These are some of the kindest most caring people I have ever met. Some of us have met in real life, but the majority of us have never seen each other ever. However, if you are having a problem with an opportunity you took, problems with your blog, or even problems at home, there is someone who is willing to give you a hand. For free. I know, it is hard to believe, but it is true. When I was pregnant with Will, there was even a thread guessing when he was going to be born! (I forgot who won that one — Amy, maybe?). All I know is that I have met some of my very best online friends on there. Another cool feature on the new boards is that you can report people if you have a problem with them. Instead of a discussion turning into a flame war, you can get a moderator to put a stop to it and reign everyone in. Speaking of moderators, I am one there, so that alone should make you check it out. LOL. In all seriousness, the Izea forums is your one stop shop for both information and community. Go check it out! 
Tags: amp, badges, blog, boa, bp, dd, eed, eve, flame, guess, heck, home, images, ing, ins, izea, lol, mak, metrics, mp, nin, ot, posters, prob, repo, seriousness, spa, tad, tea, ted, ter, utm, wh
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Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Mary Ann
Spc. Jeffrey Jamaleldine
Company C, 1st Battalion, 77th Armor
“How can I say to my sons, stand up for something, fight for what you think is right, if I don’t do anything myself?”
The Jeffrey Jamaleldine that you speak to today is a complete 180 from the Jeffrey Jamaleldine that you would have spoke to in the past. In 1991, Jamaleldin was living in Germany when joined in anti-American protests on Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm boulevard during Operation Desert Storm. “That was the way it was back then,” he says. He was 15 and “America was simply the enemy.” And today, Jeffery Jamaleldine is a wounded veteran of the U.S. Army. On June 6, 2005, after the terror bombing in Madrid, Spain, in the middle of the Iraq war, he showed up at the U.S. Army recruiting office in Little Rock, Arkansas, to enlist. His father, Bashir, told him at the time: “Son, this won’t be a picnic.”
On June 30, Jamaleldine was on patrol in Ramadi, Iraq. The patrol ahead of him had been ambushed by at least 70 combatants and were now under fire. During the fight, Spc. Jeffrey Jamaleldine was hit in the face by a bullet. In the end, the battle lasted into the next morning and the soldiers were able to stop the enemy from returning to Ramadi.
The article on Spc. Jeffrey Jamaleldine is five pages long, and I simply can not condense it down to only a few paragraphs. You can read the entire story here.
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.
Tags: 30, ack, adi, ants, battalion, blog, Blogroll, blogs, blogspot, bush, comb, dd, eed, eve, freedoms, germany, god, hero, ied, images, ing, ira, iraq, livi, logs, morning, mp, nin, ot, paragraph, poke, protest, ramadi, recruit, rig, ror, sacrifice, soldier, spa, ted, ter, time, vet, veteran, wh
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