Ah, Labor Day. The official end of summer. Most of us will celebrate with family and friends enjoying backyard barbecues or even a dip in the pool. While we celebrate the working men and women, let’s not forget those who keep us safe while we frolic in the last of the summer fun. For example, the hard working firemen who not only put out fires but start a few burning sensations as well;   and remember to thank those who stand in places we don’t want to know exist   and have given everything for our freedom.

Let Freedom Ring!

Enjoy a little bite of THE ORDER OF CHAOS, the second book in the SINS Novel Series, Available October 4th at www.LiquidSilverBooks.com.

One man possessed her heart. The other possessed her soul.

Both had betrayed her.

Leah Wolfe, a federal agent for SINS, Supernatural Investigations of Non-Human Species is determined to move on with her life and master her own gifts, including the ability to speak to the souls of the dead. Her ex-fiancé, Joaquin Wildhorse, was unable to accept her gifts and gave himself to another. Ian Nightwalker was more than willing to soothe her broken heart.

With a prominent member of The Marquis, the vampire ruling council, intent of coming to Leah’s hometown, the threat of Chaos touching everyone she loves brings her down a path that leads to Joaquin Wildhorse and Ian Nightwalker once again.

Is Leah willing to risk her heart to save the small desert town she loves?

Excerpt:

After one particularly long night, I poured myself a glass of wine and filled the tub. As I was about to ease into the rose-scented water, the bathroom light went out. I reached for the gun I had left on the counter before I realized that only the bathroom light had gone out. The hallway was still lit and I could still hear the soft music I’d left playing in the living room. The bulb had to be broken.

Making a mental note to pick up some spare light bulbs tomorrow, I pulled matches out of a drawer and lit the scented candle on the counter. I sank into the tub as the candlelight flickered and the scent of jasmine filled the room. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. That’s when I realized I was no longer alone.

List yourself as a follower of this blog to be entered to win a free copy of NIGHTWALKER: A Leah Wolfe SINS Novel. Check back often for updates and excerpts from Rhonda L. Print’s latest novels.

Happy Reading!

Short Timer’s Letter

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American Heroes Radio

If you enjoyed this article and want to learn more about the Vietnam War – subscribe to this blog and get each new post delivered to your email or feed reader.   Click on the title at the top of this page to be redirected to my main page – a directory on the right side lists similar articles and points of interest.

The Army paid for the transportation and hotel, providing it was on the “approved” list.  When arriving at your destination, there was a briefing by the local USO (United Service Organization) and if you chose to stay at an approved hotel, you received a voucher to cover the expense.  Otherwise, you went where you wanted, but had to pay the bill out of your own pocket.

Reasons and choices for these destinations were many, but as a rule, those wanting cameras or electronics went to Japan and Taiwan, others wanting hand-made clothing went to Hong Kong and Singapore.  Hawaii attracted the married soldiers and engaged couples, who rendezvoused during that week.  Those travelling to Australia said it was the best.  Unrelated, round-eyed women met the soldiers at the airport and took care of them for the entire week; they went sightseeing, participated in wild parties with the locals, swam in the ocean, and took care of their young hormonal needs.  Most of these women were in their mid-twenties and the soldiers still in their teens; they were especially grateful to these young fighters and were not afraid to show it.  It was the next best to being home.

I signed up for Bangkok, as I thought it to be the most intriguing of all the countries.  I found the cities and countryside filled with pagodas and Buddha statues of all shapes and sizes, a floating market on the river was something I’ve never experienced before or since, and dozens of tailors created masterpieces from a bolt of material within only a couple of days.  Even the rural villages were neat, orderly and full of activity – nothing like those I’ve encountered in Vietnam.  

Four of us shared a personal taxi driver, who was on call and at our beckon 24 hours a day and slept in his car in the hotel parking lot.  Local dance clubs and bars lined the downtown streets.  These were locations where the visiting soldiers could find a “guide” for the week.  These ladies, aged from 18 to 25, danced on the bar dance floor and wore numbered tags like today’s marathon runners.  When spotting somebody nice, the headwaiter was summoned and the young lady appeared moments later with the head Mama-san of the establishment.  If you wanted her services for the week, Mama-san traded her for a $72 payment; this was more money than I cleared per week as a civilian working in an auto factory.  Some soldiers were only interested in sex and usually traded their “guide” in daily for a new one at Mama-san’s bar – no questions asked.  It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.   The three friends that I hooked up with during that first day were never seen again until we were all together on the plane – returning to war.

I was very happy with my guide and we got along like long lost friends.  She took me all over the country on tours – both on land and on water; we went to the movies, visited her village in the countryside, and met her family.  At the movie theater, I was surprised to see the screen fill with a giant picture of Thailand’s leader.  The audience respectfully stood and collectively sang their national anthem.  Afterwards, everybody sat down and the movie began.  Their culture loves to haggle over pricing and the listed price for goods was the starting point.  My guide was an expert at pricing and made all of the purchases for me.  She still had to haggle, but only paid a portion of what I might have settled for.  She took me to a tailor, where she purchased a suit for me – made by hand for $25 USD.  Of course, my guide never left my side, 24 hours a day for the entire week.  Suggestions made by former visitors informed us to give our guide all our money up front, this allowed her to set a budget and decide upon the activities for the week.  Yeah, it was a trust thing, but nobody ever complained they were ripped off.  Hey, it was money you were planning to spend during the week anyway, so whatever amount was left over, she was able to keep as a tip.  As a nineteen year old at the time, the experience left me with memories that I still remember to this day.   Bangkok definitely lived up to its name.

How about you, where did you go?  Would you do it again?  Please add your comments below.

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What about the rest of you? It doesn’t matter which war you were in…do you still remember? Click on the comment link below and share your experience.

If you enjoyed this article and want to learn more about the Vietnam War – subscribe to this blog and get each new post delivered to your email or feed reader.   Click on the title at the top of this page to be redirected to my main page – a directory on the right side lists similar articles and points of interest.

“Yeah, I think about it. I can’t stop thinking about it. I never will. But, I’ve also learned to live with it. I’m comfortable with the memories. I’ve learned to stop trying to forget and learned instead to embrace it. It just doesn’t scare me anymore.”

A lot of my “brothers” haven’t been so lucky. For them the memories are too painful, their sense of loss too great. My sister told me of a friend she has whose husband was in the Nam. She asks this guy when he was there.

Here’s what he said, “Just last night.” It took my sister a while to figure out what he was talking about. JUST LAST NIGHT. Yeah, I was in the Nam. When? Just last night, before I went to sleep, on my way to work this morning, and over my lunch hour. Yeah, I was there.

My sister says I’m not the same brother who went to Vietnam. My wife says I won’t let people get close to me, not even her. They are probably both right. Ask a vet about making friends in Nam. It was risky. Why? Because we were in the business of death, and death was with us all the time. It wasn’t the death of, “If I die before I wake.” This was the real thing. The kind where boys scream for their mothers. The kind that lingers in your mind and becomes more real each time you cheat it. You don’t want to make a lot of friends when the possibility of dying is that real, that close. When you do, friends become a liability.

A guy named Bob Flanigan was my friend. Bob Flanigan is dead. I put him in a body bag one sunny day, April 29, 1969. We’d been talking, only a few minutes before he was shot, about what we were going to do when we got back to the world. Now, this was a guy who had come in country the same time as me. A guy who was loveable and generous. He had blue eyes and sandy blond hair.

When he talked, it was with a soft drawl. I loved this guy like the brother I never had. But, I screwed up. I got too close to him. I broke one of the unwritten rules of war. DON’T GET CLOSE TO PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING TO DIE. You hear vets use the term “buddy” when they refer to a guy they spent the war with. “Me and this buddy a mine.”

Friend sounds too intimate, doesn’t it? “Friend” calls up images of being close. If he’s a friend, then you are going to be hurt if he dies, and war hurts enough without adding to the pain. Get close; get hurt. It’s as simple as that. In war you learn to keep people at that distance my wife talks about. You become so good at it, that forty years after the war, you still do it without thinking. You won’t allow yourself to be vulnerable again.

My wife knows two people who can get into the soft spots inside me – my daughters. I know it bothers her that they can do this. It’s not that I don’t love my wife. I do. She’s put up with a lot from me. She’ll tell you that when she signed on for better or worse, she had no idea there was going to be so much of the latter. But with my daughters it’s different.

My girls are mine. They’ll always be my kids. Not marriage, not distance, not even death can change that. They are something on this earth that can never be taken away from me. I belong to them. Nothing can change that. I can have an ex-wife; but my girls can never have an ex-father. There’s the difference. I can still see the faces, though they all seem to have the same eyes. When I think of us, I always see a line of “dirty grunts” sitting on a paddy dike. We’re caught in the first gray silver between darkness and light. That first moment when we know we’ve survived another night, and the business of staying alive for one more day is about to begin. There was so much hope in that brief space of time. It’s what we used to pray for. “One more day, God. One more day.”

And I can hear our conversations as if they’d only just been spoken I still hear the way we sounded. The hard cynical jokes, our morbid senses of humor. We were scared to death of dying, and tried our best not to show it.

I recall the smells, too. Like the way cordite hangs on the air after a fire-fight. Or the pungent odor of rice paddy mud. So different from the black dirt of Iowa. The mud of Nam smells ancient, somehow. Like it’s always been there. And I’ll never forget the way blood smells, sticky and drying on my hands. I spent a long night that way once. That memory isn’t going anywhere.

I remember how the night jungle appears almost dreamlike as the pilot of a Cessna buzzes overhead, dropping parachute flares until morning. That artificial sun would flicker and make shadows run through the jungle. It was worse than not being able to see what was out there sometimes. I remember once looking at the man next to me as a flare floated overhead. The shadows around his eyes were so deep that it looked like his eyes were gone. I reached over and touched him on the arm; without looking at me he touched my
hand. “I know man. I know.” That’s what he said. It was a human moment. Two guys a long way from home and scared to death.

God, I loved those guys. I hurt every time one of them died. We all did. Despite our posturing. Despite our desire to stay disconnected, we couldn’t help ourselves. I know why Tim O’Brien writes his stories. I know what gives Bruce Weigle the words to create poems so honest I cry at their horrible beauty. It’s love. Love for those guys we shared the experience with.

We did our jobs like good soldiers, and we tried our best not to become as hard as our surroundings. You want to know what is frightening. It’s a nineteen-year-old-boy who’s had a sip of that power over life and death that war gives you. It’s a boy who, despite all the things he’s been taught, knows that he likes it. It’s a nineteen-year-old who’s just lost a friend, and is angry and scared and, determined that, “some *@#*s gonna pay”. To this day, the thought of that boy can wake me from a sound sleep and leave me staring at the ceiling.

As I write this, I have a picture in front of me. It’s of two young men. On their laps are tablets. One is smoking a cigarette. Both stare without expression at the camera. They’re writing letters. Staying in touch with places they would rather be. Places and people they hope to see again. The picture shares space in a frame with one of my wife. She doesn’t mind. She knows she’s been included in special company. She knows I’ll always love those guys who shared that part of my life, a part she never can. And she understands how I feel about the ones I know are out there yet. The ones who still answer the question, “When were you in Vietnam?”

“Hey, man. I was there just last night.”

So was I.  How about the rest of you vets – hits home doesn’t it!  Please leave a comment below and then tweet, Digg, etc. this article to others so they may understand why many of today’s veteran’s behave the way they do – be it Vietnam or other conflicts, this is a common thread shared by all.

If you enjoyed this article and want to learn more about the Vietnam War – subscribe to this blog and get each new post delivered to your email or feed reader.   Click on the title at the top of this page to be redirected to my main page – a directory on the right side lists similar articles and points of interest.

If you enjoyed this article and want to learn more about the Vietnam War – subscribe to this blog and get each new post delivered to your email or feed reader.   Click on the title at the top of this page to be redirected to my main page – a directory on the right side lists similar articles and points of interest.

Image via Wikipedia

This is from Cat Connor via a friend:

On 22nd February, Christchurch, New Zealand, and the wider Canterbury region, was rocked by another round of serious earthquakes. This time they struck during the middle of the day causing more devastation, and loss of life, to a city still trying to pick up the pieces from last September’s quakes.

Author Cassie Hart asked immediately what can writers do to help – and came up with Tales For Canterbury. She and Anna Caro with help from Random Static and DesignEm have pulled together an anthology. ALL proceeds will go to Red Cross.

We need your assistance to spread the word and help us get as many pre-orders as possible, so that we can start getting some money through to the Red Cross Earthquake Appeal. Pre-orders are also important to determine how many of the print edition we initially order. If you head over to http://randomstatic.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_10&products_id=51, you will find the pre-order information.

You can find out more about this project and the contributors here:
http://talesforcanterbury.wordpress.com/

Mariejoe Raidy, print creative director and business woman, is known for multi-tasking creativity and social entrepreneurship. The print jobs she produces with Raidy Printing Group are each very unique, with one thing in common: quality printing and eco-friendliness. The Photography work she was first known for (before joining the printing world), is also very diverse, with one thing in common: the image decapitation and collages that give a new dimension to each subject. Yet when it comes to Mixed Media Illustrations, we notice they are very focused on Portraits and have one Style all across. So why this lack of subject and medium diversity only when it comes to paintings? Here is a short conference call conducted with MJR.

Graphic Novel Book Cover

WHAT IS THE BOOK ABOUT?
“The Book was an experimental project I worked on for my thesis. Through it I tried to combine text and images to form one entity. The illustrations in this book work as text, and show an evolution of shapes, colors and emotions, mainly through portraiture. My intention was never to publish this book, but to play around with it, as I was always fascinated by what paper and ink can do.”

The Birth

WHY ONLY PORTRAITS?
“Faces are very expressive, I personally don’t find it surprising as every expression tells a new and different story, and portrays different emotions. I actually challenged myself to express so much in something so small and so limited. I was fascinated by how much a face, an eye, a smile can tell about a person, his/her story and feelings. This is where it all started, and the more I created, the more it kept evolving into new dimensions. Portraits are political, musical, artistic, emotional, fun, serious, to name a few. Faces are the essence of everything else around us. And without faces, we wouldn’t be able to see, hear, smell, taste or touch what surrounds us.”

Lips

WHERE CAN WE GET A COPY OF THE BOOK?
The book was only released it in 5 copies, and is no longer available. Some of the artworks in it are available today, in Limited Prints Each. You can find them on my website [www.mariejoeraidy.com].

WHY JOIN THE BUSINESS WORLD?
“I found myself in the business world, and love to work with people. The unique energy each client brings, and working in teams, is a different form of professional creativity to me. We all work together for the same goal, with one same vision, always aiming to get the best outcome while being as socially conscious as possible. Art lies in everything we do, and as much as I like to spend time alone, I, as most people, breath through others and grow with them. Together we all make one better person.”

Life Evolution

YOUR BOOK WON AWARDS. WHY NOT MAKE IT PUBLIC?
“The book is a graphic novel, and images are the main element in it. If it got awarded, it is for the images and medium used, not the text. The paper choice texture and color, the ink density, and how the illustrations were combined in print, made it win. The book itself, was work in progress, it was more of a playground for these images. It was never finished. This is why images are available today, but the publication is not.”

WHAT IS NEXT?
“A book I am currently working on, that will actually be published on a much larger scale this time. In this book you will have no images, yet the text works as images. So in my first experimental unpublished book “images worked as text” and in this new totally different one, “text works as images”. Even if it has no image in it, it is actually very visual.”

Lebanese Press

WHY DIFFERENT? WHAT IS THE NEW BOOK ABOUT?
“hmm… Business  :)”

American Press

WHEN IS ITS RELEASE DATE?
“The release date will be set in April, but most probably end of 2011.”

This Week’s Giveaway: 3 Free Postcards by the artist for each New Subscriber to Our Blog! Just Type Your e-mail address in our “E-Mail Subscription” form at the right side of the page, and we will follow-up for delivery.

Does your work often get delayed by poor resources, clients who take too much time to send the needed logos, or by images that are being sent to you in the wrong format?

Here are 10 Links that can help speed up your work process, in different print-related areas. We are also sending out 1 free chapter from David Airey’s Book “A guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities”, to every person who Signs Up to our Newsletter within the next 2 weeks!

1. Is your client late on sending out his company’s original logo, or does not have the right format for you to use? Don’t wait any longer, you can now download Any International Brand’s Original Vector Logos for Free!

Just Click On: Brands of the World

2. Do you have a project to print, are you looking for a good and eco-conscious printer with fast quotation handling? Look no further, ask for your fast Same Day Printing Quotations, by filling out the online form at the right of the menu, including the option to deliver your product anywhere worldwide!

Just Click on: Raidy Printing Group

3. Are you bored with your current font library, and just feel like some new typefaces with a twist? Here is your source! Free Fonts for Download!

Just Click On: 1001 Free Fonts

4. Has your image library become too limited? Are you looking for High Resolution Images to Use for your next Printed Job? Look no further, Download High Resolution Photos for Free Now!

Just Click On: Free Pixels

5. Are you Re-decorating your apartment and are looking for eye-catching, unique Mixed Media Paintings to hang on your walls? Here is a Resource with award-winning affordable Limited Edition Print on Demand Artwork to Purchase!

Just Click On: Mariejoe Raidy Online Art Gallery

6. Are you a curious photo-effect lover, and do you feel like experimenting with your photo library, by adding some spicy and fun effects on them? Look no further, Run Your Pics in the Funky Photo-Effect Mix!

Just Click On: Be Funky

7. Are you bored, do you have some free time on your hand, and do you feel like a good laugh? Here are Some Free and Funny Photo Effects for you to enjoy!

Just Click On: Fun Photo Box

8. Are you back to serious work, and need some Limited Quality Images for your client’s next brochure and catalogue? Are you tired of free images websites, for they are just available for everyone to use and abuse? Here is a link with Affordable High Quality Images for you to purchase!

Just Click On: Getty Images

9. Are you looking for visual inspiration, pictograms, cliparts, logos, fonts and design forums to help you improve your design skills, with forum dedicated to QuarkXpress,Photoshop, to Indesign, and Illustrator? Look no further, Here is your Free Vectorial Resource Website!

Just Click On: La Logotheque

10. Now as a reminder, Write your e-mail on the right side of this page, to subscribe to our newsletter and receive our latest design and print related posts, as well as receiving One Free Chapter of David Airey’s New Book About Logos! Chapter Title: From Pencil to PDF!

Have a Colorful Day!

we-love-print.com and so do you…

Below are 10 Videos we came across on the subject of Printing in the Middle East and Printing Tips, that we found Informative, Educational and Fun to Watch.

1. French > Past and Present News on Printing in Lebanon for World Book Capital. The Evolution of Printing in the Middle East Explained.

2. English >  The Machine that Made Us, The Printing Press

3. Arabic > LBCI TV station, Profile on Printing Press, with a Visit in the Different Departments of a Printing Press

4. English & Arabic > A History of Printing and how it Evolved in Lebanon

5. English > Gutenberg and the Impact of the Printing Press

6. English > A Book Lover’s Fun Way of Explaining the History of Printing.

7. English > A Visual and Musical Animation on the History of Print

8. English > Why is Bleed Needed When Printing? Here is a Visual Demonstration of the Issue.

9. English > Print Designers, Some of the Important Criteria to Consider When Designing for print, by a Creative Critic.

10. English > How Publication Printing Works, taking an image from your Computer and Processing it to Print.

The above fact makes us wonder more about “you”.
Help us by answering the below few questions.

1. What top 3 topics make you want to buy a book?

2. What do you expect to “get” out of a book you purchase?

3. How much money do you invest in average, per book?

4. If you were to go to a library right now, what would you like to find one about?

5. Name one book that has changed your life.

Thank you for your input, we look forward to reading your comments!

P.P.

MarieJoe Raidy is  Creative Director and Print Expert. She is most-recognised for her Strong Business Acumen, bold mixed media work and being the first to launch the “Eco-Friendly and Quality” printing concept in the Middle East.

What Phases does a Print Job go through, from the first idea to the product delivery? How can you be more time and (hence) cost-effective?

To avoid coming back and forth once too often, having mistakes ending up being printed (from type to fonts corrupted to images in low resolution or wrong colors, etc.) , here are 10 important steps that can save you time, effort, money, and can help you get the best outcome for your printed product.

1. IDEA PHASE
This is where you brainstorm, put the silliest and smartest ideas together on the table, until you decide what it is that you need. Is it a brochure, a flyer? (each gives a different impression and serves a different purpose) what first impression does each of them give? who is your target audience? (age? sex? location? profession? financial income?) what message are you trying to convey? (buy me! help me! I can make you beautiful! I can save your life! I can cure your heartache!)

2. PRODUCTION OF ORIGINALS
Once the product type has been decided (What I need is a brochure!),  you will need to start “producing” or gathering its content. From taking photographs, to writing the text, to creating the illustrations, hire the right people to create each element needed for your end item, and make sure they are produced in the right “format”. For example, if a website is what you are doing, then image resolution needs to be of 72 dpi. If you are producing a brochure which will be offset (quality) printed , then your images resolution needs to be between 300 and 400 dpi.

3. COORDINATION MANAGEMENT.
Pick the right printer and right designer at the right time for the right job. It is advised to visit your printer in advance and choose the type of paper that would be best for your product. During that phase, you can also ask to be informed about the different and latest technologies in printing, which can inspire you while designing the job. This can affect the direction you or the designer will take for your corporate image creation. Remember, Not every Design is suitable for every printing technique, and the right design printed on the wrong paper (and vice versa) can kill your product.

4. PREPRESS// CONVERT TO FORMAT
At this phase, you need to convert the images, and the text to the right format (by typing the text, scanning your images in the right resolution and the right profile, so on so forth)

5. PREPRESS// DESIGN
This is where through the visual language, the graphic designer finds strategic business solutions to her/his client’s problems. This is when designers and print experts should meet to choose the most appropriate techs to the job’s needs and purpose. For example, you may not want to print a one color (black on white paper) 2 pages flyer on a thin paper for a project on how to promote Luxury Apartments in the Center of New York City or another Prime location, for it would not be showing the impression needed to impress the right audience and make them want to “trust” the product and want to “buy” the item.

6. PREPRESS// PHOTO MANAGEMENT AND COLOR SEPARATION
This is where images are reworked to comply with print requirements, using state-of-the-art color management tools, on calibrated screens.

7. PREPRESS// PROOFS
Having a printed proof before sending your job to print is Absolutely Crucial!  for this is where you can proofread for the last time before the job is sent for execution. If a typeface has moved, or is corrupted, if colors are not up to your expectations, if any error has been omitted, this is where you can catch it and fix it. Make sure to demand to “sign” on the proof you approve on, to avoid misunderstandings.

8. PRESS// PLATEMAKING AND PRINTING
Once the proof is approved, this is where plates are produced and sent to the printing room, for your job to start.

9. POSTPRESS// BINDING AND PACKING
This is the phase where everything after “printing on the paper” takes place, such as: folding, cutting, die cut, hot stamping, lamination, hard case soft cover binding, sewing, spot UV, numbering, creasing, to name a few.

10. DELIVERY
Your item is packed and ready to be delivered!

These teenage students were in awe during the presentation, they stared at the screen – faces exhibited a mix of emotions. There was no stirring in the room; the students sat transfixed by the images before them and remained extremely attentive during the one hour we were there.

When informed that the soldiers in the slide show were only a year older than they were, the students all looked to one-another in disbelief. Heads began to shake negatively, and comments like, “no way, not this kid!” turned into a chorus. Video games had not yet been invented, so this was new territory for them.

It was difficult for them to fathom that food, water, clothing and personal hygiene functions were not readily available in the jungle. In the food department, all meals consisted of canned c-rations; your menu and amount of food depended upon how much you wanted to carry on your back.

Doesn’t sound like much, but try going to the supermarket and collecting a dozen various sized cans of spaghetti, veggies, fruit and meat. Weight meant everything in the bush and having to carry any more than what was needed was senseless; average weight of a filled rucksack was sixty-five pounds.  Why add more?

It’s the same for water – you have what you carry. During the dry season, water sources were not readily available and each soldier had to carry a minimum of six one-quart canteens just to get him through to the next resupply – three to four days later. So, without water, the ability to take care of personal hygiene needs such as washing your face, hands, hair or feet was a rare occurrence.

During the monsoon season, it rained daily for months, and water was plentiful. Bomb craters would fill with water and were sources for both drinking water and bathing; not in the same one.

Canteens filled from these craters must be treated first with iodine tablets to kill parasites and other “swimming stuff” before it could be consumed. The water was murky colored and had a slight smell, but after thirty minutes, it was supposedly safe for drinking. There really wasn’t a choice.  Packets of Kool Aide always helped to camouflage the metallic taste when iodine was used.

The jungle fatigues worn by the soldiers were lightweight and designed to dry quickly. However, during these humps through the jungle, fatigues were usually soaked with sweat, ripped by thorny vines, worn by repeated sitting and crawling on the ground and were never available in your size. Extra clothing came out on the resupply every three to four days, but only enough for usually half of the men. As a result, only the worst cases got replacements. Everyone else had to wait until the next resupply. It was not uncommon for us to wear the same fatigues for three weeks or longer. By that time, most are a whitish color from evaporating sweat, stiff and brown from dried mud, and torn throughout. The standing joke was that once removed, the trousers could stand on their own accord.

Returning to the firebase after a month in the jungle was well received by everyone – except those who were on the firebase. They gave us a wide berth and tried to stay as far away from us as possible. The stench of the returning warriors was unbearable to those greeting them at the gate. Many of us laughed because we didn’t notice anything different in the way we smelled, however, we were quick to notice a clean and sterile, soapy smell as we entered the compound. It’s weird but true.

Food, water and clothes were in abundance at the firebase – everyonecould now eat, drink and shower to as much as they chose.  This short visit only lasts for three days. Then, it was time to leave on another month-long jungle adventure.

These are the simple things in life that most people take for granted. Have you ever had to go a day or two without food or water because you didn’t pack enough? What about the need to wear the same clothing continuously for a couple of weeks or more? How about not being able to bathe or wash up for weeks at a time? It is difficult to imagine living like this, but to the young soldiers in the Vietnam jungles, this was a way of life.  Unfortunately, these conditions contributed to a malady of skin diseases such as boils, ringworm, jungle rot, severe rashes and infected cuts and lesions.  Nobody was spared.  It was not pretty!

The school asked us to return the following year and informed us that they were going to expand it to the entire high school student body.  That was great news!

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Please click HERE to see the interview.

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I wasn’t a Rambo. Instead, I was confused and unsure of what to do next. Sure, shoot at the enemy they say, but how do you do that when you can’t even see them – which was most of the time! In my haste of finding shelter, my rifle lodged between some tree roots and I wasn’t able to get it free to protect myself. Of course, I pissed myself – just like every other Cherry had done. This turns out to be one hell of an initiation!

The firefight itself is just a small part of losing your virginity and much of the time it only lasts a few moments before the enemy retreats. It’s what you see afterwards that stays with you forever. Soldiers you just met are laying seriously wounded or dead, flesh and body parts are strewn about, blood is everywhere! Your gag reflex was on overdrive. Rarely did I see a dead enemy soldier in Vietnam as bodies were normally taken when the enemy withdrew. And this made life frustrating!

There is some comparison between a Cherry and a freshman in his first year of high school. Just think about it. You are scared, apprehensive, don’t know anybody, hope you fit in, and you know there is much to learn before you are able to graduate. With this in mind, add the threat of death or maiming to your daily routine – somebody may jump out of a locker in the hallway and shoot you (although today that’s not really far-fetched). You must be hyper vigilant  just to survive 365 days in this school.  And still the learning continues.

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No other club in the world has a football shirt history as colourful as Tottenham Hotspur. Lilywhite & Blue is a visual history of every glorious shirt design since the team was founded. For this unique limited edition book, memorabilia collectors have opened the doors to their private collections. Buy it here.

This insightful and often hilarious romp charts the dramatic ups and downs of Tottenham Hotspur, as seen through the eyes of one of its most unlikely heroes: Roy Reyland, the local kit man who served the club for almost thirty years. Buy it here.

Let me preface this post by saying that over 2.5 million U.S. men and women served in Vietnam during the period of 1959 – 1975. However, only 10% of the total were in the Infantry and ‘humped the boonies’ in search of the elusive enemy, the remaining 90% supported them in various capacities, their tasks, at times, more dangerous than those searching through the jungles.  Helicopter crews were held in the highest regard and seen as “saviors” by the infantry soldiers, at times, watching in awe and disbelief while pilots braved enemy onslaughts to transport, rescue, supply and protect those on the ground.  Crews were always there when needed – losing many of their own while performing in this role.  Other supporting groups, stationed in rear areas or fire bases were also at risk of enemy mortar and rocket attacks, ground assaults or ambushes when traveling outside the base along roads in supply caravans.  The ‘grunts’ or ‘booney rats’ had to contend with enemy ambushes and booby traps, sometimes walking directly into well-camouflaged enemy bunker complexes, only to be pinned down for hours in the middle of the jungle.  It was deadly tour for everyone – no one group was safer than the other!  This article will focus only on those Cherries within an infantry unit.  Certainly, each military unit received new replacements throughout the war; their indoctrination to war may or may not be the same as what is written here.

Imagine, if you will, that most Cherries in Vietnam had graduated from high school within the past year; some never finished high school and were quickly drafted into the military. Now these eighteen year olds are thrust into a hostile environment where they had to do things never imagined in wildest of dreams or even thought to be humanly possible in accomplishing.  Nineteen year old Corporals and Sergeants were in charge of squads and twenty-one year old Lieutenants and Captains ran the platoons and companies. Turnover was rampant and a soldier with experience in the jungle was highly respected and was in most cases a lower ranked enlisted man and not an officer.

I had a difficult time over the years in trying to explain to my family and friends what it was like to be a grunt in Vietnam. It was only when the movie ‘Platoon’ came out that I was able to ‘show’ them. I could relate to the role played by Charlie Sheen in the movie. That first hump in the bush (patrol in the jungle) when he passes out from exhaustion because of carrying more than what was needed on his back.

The average weight of a grunt’s rucksack and supplies was about sixty-five pounds. Now if you also had to carry either an M-60 machine gun or PRC-25 radio on top of that, then you had to add twenty-six more pounds to your load.

Humping all that weight was difficult in itself, let alone, looking everywhere like a chameleon; eyes darting about looking every which way to make sure you spot a booby trap or an enemy soldier before either of them find you first.  Finally, the stress of getting ambushed at any moment also took its toll on these young teenage soldiers. The adrenaline was pumped up and standing by, but when nothing happened during a patrol (which happened often), the bleeding off of this extra energy took time and made you more anxious than you already were.

I can also remember the scene of Charlie Sheen’s first night in the bush when the enemy soldiers were walking straight toward him in the pitch-black darkness. You are on watch and the only one awake, every sound is amplified ten fold and your mind and the shadows are playing tricks on you.

To understand this feeling, imagine yourself waking up in your bed during the middle of the night and you are thinking that a burglar might be standing near your bed. You break out in a cold sweat, your heart beats so loud, it can be heard in the house next door. You are paralyzed, frozen to the spot and too afraid to move your head or sit up to have a look around. This is real fear! Now multiply that feeling by twenty-four hours a day and three-hundred-sixty-five days. You have just experienced how a Cherry felt on his first day in the jungle.

more to come later…

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If you are on a budget during this recession, you are probably eliminating many items you used to purchase.  One of them may be the “Book of the Month Club” or perhaps one or two magazine subscriptions.

Don’t fret.  There is one place you can obtain books, magazines, and DVDs for free!  Yes, your local library.

You are probably thinking, “But I love to collect books and DVDs!”  That’s fine if you can afford it, but with the economic crisis looming over everyone’s head and since we do not know how long it will last, now is the time to save.

You can always purchase a book or a DVD later on.  Amazon.com has sales every day on new and used DVDs and books.  The last thing you need (and can’t afford) is to buy books and DVDs only to have them sit on a shelf and collect dust.

Moreover, what if you get to a point where you can’t pay a bill?  Then your only recourse will be to sell these items online or at a garage sale for less than half of what you paid for them.

Libraries have changed dramatically over the years.  They have emerged as a one-stop treasure trove of books, magazines, DVDs, newspapers, and other printed material.  Besides, supporting our local libraries is a community endeavor and one that should be taken seriously.

During these hard times, we can teach children a valuable lesson about saving money – by example.  Remember how thrilled you were when you received your first library card?

Visit the library with your children; take out books; read to them at night.  Support your local library as a way of thanking them for the many years of enjoyment it has offered you and your family.

Salt Publishing - Chris Hamilton Emery - the idea girl says linda randall

Chris Hamilton-Emery July 14 at 9:23am

I hoped I’d never have to write this note. The recession has continued to have a very negative impact on sales at Salt and we’re finally having to go public to ask you to help support us.

Our sales are now 60% down on last year and have wiped out our grant and our cash reserves as we continue to market and publish what we can from what we believe is a great list. We’ve plans in place to help secure the business from November 2010 — though the books we’ll be publishing won’t deliver any real revenue until 2011. We’re sorry to ask, embarrassed to ask, but we need your help to survive until then and if you were considering purchasing a Salt book, we’d dearly love you to do it right now. We’ve less than one week’s cash left.

If you can help us, please do two things:

1. Buy one book from us — we don’t mind from where, it can be from your local bookstore (they need your support, too), it can be from Amazon or the BookDepository. It can even be directly from us. But please buy that book now.

2. Please tell everyone you know to do the same. Buy just one book and pass it on.

If money is tight for you, too, you can simply write a review of any Salt book you love on Amazon. Or recommend a book to a friend.

You can visit our Web site right now, simply go to
http://www.saltpublishing.com/
and buy JustOneBook.

Remember too, that every book you buy directly from us gets a raffle ticket in our Big Summer Raffle — and you could win one copy each of the next 20 books we publish from 1 September.

Thanks for continuing to support us.

Chris

chamiltonemery posted this video on youtube and sent me the url on facebook

Wena Poon and Roberto the matador discuss how they could go about raising money for Wena’s publisher, Salt. Roberto’s old, torn and bloodied matador outfits are out of the running, but he has better ideas. Find out what they are!

So this has been a super fun week in publishing. No denying that. Posts from Nathan Bransford and Moonrat, while informative, have left me wanting to tear my hair out a bit. Their silver lining? Publishing isn’t going to wither away completely. Great. Their advice? Buy new books.

Sure, you might feel that, as an individual, you don’t have much to offer. To which my response is not “See a therapist” but “Buy a book!”

I promise you can skip the chinese takeout this weekend and go out and purchase one book. Because as much fun as nibbling at your nailbeds whilst mulling over the future of your publishing career might be, proactivity is almost always more satisfying. (I’m very grassrootsy today)

Give book stores your vote of confidence today (or any time in the next two weeks). Go buy a book and slow down returns to the publisher.

First, click the poll and tell me how many books you plan to buy. Second, feel free to add the poll above to your blog and to ask people to buy books. If you have a book out that you’d wouldn’t mind people checking out provide a link to amazon in the comments section. If you have decided to ask others to buy books, link to your blog in the comments section.

I will add any links I get to my sidebar.

Today, I bought the first House of Night book, Marked, for  a friend, and Nate bought Chosen, the third book in the series for himself.

Get out there and buy those books!