07 : Write a Letter to a US Military Hero

This is the seventh in a series of (hopefully) 52 posts related to the book Every Monday Matters. I'd love it if some other people wanted to go through the book with me. Contact me if you're interested.

I kind of decided to go in a different direction today.

Instead of writing a letter to a US military hero, I thought it would be fun to actually talk to a US military hero.

I interviewed Staff Sgt. Robert Warner about getting drafted to serve in World War II and some of his experiences

Hawks: So tell me a little about what went through your head when you found out you were getting drafted, and some of your early experiences in the service.

Warner: Mostly guys didn't think they'd ever come back again, me included, but you had to go.

We had lots of accidents in there. You've got a lot of young guys in there that had never been around guns and bullets, and lots of them couldn't drive. So now you're turning all those guys loose with all these deadly things, so we had some close shaves.

One incident out at Lowery Field we had a fellow come in and we went into the B-24, that was our bomber. So we went in there and he was showing us everything and he said "Up in the ceiling, this is the flair gun, and you pull the trigger like this, and you send down the flairs."
So this guy sets off the flair, but they had neglected to take the cover off of the flair and they set the plane on fire.
So that was one of the incidents.

Hawks: What happened when you got to your base in England?

Warner: We got off the train and they loaded us into trucks and took us over to Flixton, the base where we were going to be stationed. They marched us into the mess hall, a mess hall is where they eat.
So they marched us in there for a lecture.

The major in charge got up to give the lecture and he said "This is a very dangerous place, we have lots of troubles here. We're just 20 miles from the channel, and the Germans were on the other side of the channel."

So he was telling us how bad it was and how we had to be careful and then there was a big loud noise.
One of our planes came flying over the mess hall and crashed in the field outside. So we knew it was going to be a dangerous place.

Hawks: Did you experience any air raids?

Warner: Of course they were raiding London all the time.
So Jim and I got down in our hotel in London. Some of the rooms had been blown off, but there were some that were still pretty good.
So we got in there and, sure enough, that night they had what they called a little blitz. They came over with a little plane and they raided again.

Everything was on fire, they were dropping the bombs, and Jim said "What do we do, Warner? What do we do?"
I said "Cover up with a blanket."
So that's what we did.
That wasn't much protection, but we didn't get hurt.

We did it!

Wow.

I've been incredibly busy lately with my buddy Carl.
We kinda sorta started our own design firm called Dirty Suds Design
(Massive bonus points to anybody who remembers where the name came from!!!)

One of our first big projects officially launches tomorrow.
It's a website for the Hoover Challenger, my old high school newspaper.

During my years as a newspaper nerd (and I was the newspaper nerd in my day), I always dreamed of having a website for our school paper, but didn't have the time or the resources to put one together. Being Editor-in-Chief, it was enough of a headache to make sure the paper got to the printer every other week.

For the past several weeks (months?) I've been working with Edward over at Hoover to put this site together, and I'm quite proud of the end product.

Carl is a crazy design ninja, and did a phenomenal job with the "New York Times meets MySpace" layout.
I learned more about PHP and server side scripting than I ever really intended to, and ended up building the template from the ground up.

I really can't express how proud I am of this site right now.
It was a lot of fun putting it together with Carl and Edward, and I would love to do more high school newspaper type sites in the future

...so if you know anybody, give 'em my number.

06 : Get Rid of Junk Mail

This is the sixth in a series of (hopefully) 52 posts related to the book Every Monday Matters. I'd love it if some other people wanted to go through the book with me. Contact me if you're interested.

So every month I get credit card offers, information on how to subscribe to a magazine that I don't want to subscribe to. A sports magazine that whoever lived in my apartement before subscribed to. And it's still coming to me!
A couple air purifier catalogues, some coupons for stores I never go to, and a fitness catalogue.
Do I look like the kind of guy that reads a lot of fitness catalogues?

Junk mail is just a waste of your time, and a waste of paper.

Now I'm not saying I'm a 'tree-hugger', but waste is never a good thing.

The good news is there are some really easy things that you can do to cut down on the amount of junk mail that you get.

Whenever you need to give somebody your address, check and see if there's a box that says "Don't sell my information to anybody."
If you can't find a box, then below your address just write: "Don't sell my information to anybody."

Unsubscribe from those air purifier catalogues that you never read anyway.
Just call them up and tell then you don't want it anymore.

If you get a lot of catalogues that you just throw away, there are a couple websites that let you unsubscribe from big lists of catalogues, like CatalogChoice or ProQuo.

You're never going to totally eliminate junk mail, so just be responsible with what you still have.

Recycle!
And if can't recycle, at least find some other use for it.

05 : Eat Healthy

This is the fifth (I skipped one) in a series of (hopefully) 52 posts related to the book Every Monday Matters. I'd love it if some other people wanted to go through the book with me. Contact me if you're interested.

How often do you stop and think about what you're eating?
What you're putting into your body?

400,000 people die every year from poor eating habits or laziness.

You deserve to be in good health.

Recently I've really been trying to keep track of what I eat. How many calories I take in a day, how much sodium, trans-fat, saturated fat, cholesterol... The things that really matter.

For awhile I was really trying hard to work out every day. That didn't last too long.

But it's not difficult to just keep track of what you're eating. You know, even keeping a journal of everything that you eat for a week. You'll really be surprised and how MUCH it is.
I know I was surprised with how much I ate in a day.

And once you know you can work to change it. Making better habits, eating different kinds of foods.
Put down the ice cream scoop.

And being healthier feels better.

For the past six months or so, I've been really careful about the kinds of foods that I eat, how much I eat, and how often I eat. And I've noticed a little bit of a difference in my weight, but I've noticed a big difference in how much energy I have and even my attitude. I feel better during the day.

And drink a lot of water, because a lot of times when you feel hungry, you're actually just thirsty.

So try it. Keep track of what you're eating, and try and eat healthier.
Eat to live. Don't live to eat.

04 : Prepare for an Emergancy

This is the fourth in a series of (hopefully) 52 posts related to the book Every Monday Matters. I'd love it if some other people wanted to go through the book with me. Contact me if you're interested.

You never know when disaster will strike.

Tornadoes, earthquakes, giant squid attacks - It could happen any time.
Do you have a plan?

It's a good idea to have an emergency supply kit always ready, because you never know when disaster's going to strike.
Be sure to include things like flashlights with extra batteries, moist towelettes, a first aid kit...

Here I've got a three-day supply of canned food in case I get stuck in my house.
Just because there's a snowstorm outside doesn't mean I'm going to miss a meal!

Canned food is really good because it's really cheap, it'll last forever and it's really tasty!

Also in your emergency supply kit you should keep a few bottles of water because in the event of a flood sometimes the water plants can go down and water can become a scarce commodity.

Form a plan with your family: know how you're going to get out of the house and where you're going to meet up.
It's also a good idea to make sure that everybody always has change or a pre-paid phone card, because sometimes if too many people are trying to use their cell phones at once the cell phone towers can go down.

Also make sure that your family has a plan for who's responsible for getting the pets out because we wouldn't want to leave Fluffy behind, would we, Fluffy?

A disaster could happen at any time, but it's better to be prepared than to have to pay for it when the time comes.

Be prepared today for any kind of tomorrow!

There are a lot of folks who were recently affected by hurricane Gustav, and even more who will be affected by natural disasters in the future.
You can help!
To see how you can get involved, go to: www.everymondaymatters.com
We're praying for you guys.

Donate $52 to help a family devastated by the hurricane season.

Special thanks to Dr. Warner for helping me smash a TV.

03 : Have AMBER Alerts sent to you

This is the third in a series of (hopefully) 52 posts related to the book Every Monday Matters. I'd love it if some other people wanted to go through the book with me. Contact me if you're interested.

This week it's real easy, and really important.
Have AMBER alerts sent to you.
AMBER alert will let you know when a child has been abducted in your area, so that you can be on the lookout, and alert the authorities if you have any information.
AMBER stands for: America's Missing Broadcast Emergency Response.
The system was created as a legacy for nine year old Amber Hagerman, who was abducted while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas.
She was later found brutally murdered.
Over 300 children have been reunited with their families because of the AMBER alert system. YOU, can take action today.
Pay attention to AMBER alert signs on the highway or on TV.
Sign up to have AMBER alerts sent as a text message to your phone.
Or you can download the AMBER alert ticker and receive alerts right on your computer.
However you receive the alerts, the important thing is to take them seriously.
The predator may be closer than you think.
It's very important to follow through and contact the authorities if you have any information about the predator.
AMBER alerts are active in all 50 states. It's not difficult to sign up, and you can help save a child's life.
It's that easy...