One of the most famous Marine Corps Drill Instructors in history, by virtue of a captured moment of intensity, is feeling a bit under the weather. I'd ask that you offer your prayers and kind thoughts for him and his family.
Chuck Taliano was the subject of the above poster, and I have an autographed copy of it. I remember doing my best to be just as intense as him when I was wearing the big hat.
Chuck has been an icon, and a very generous individual. When I was doing my tour at Parris Island, he was at the museum quite a bit, and would autograph copies of the poster. It was sold there to raise money for the museum. I don't think he got anything out of the deal, except the satisfaction of helping the museum out.
Semper Fidelis Chuck; you'll always be a source of inspiration for Marines everywhere.
Chuck in 2004
Have you ever wondered how Google ranks the results that you get when you search for something? What about other search engines; how do they work? The mechanics of search engine rankings (particularly Google) may surprise you.
Google page ranking is actually big business. It used to be bigger, and here's why: Web-based companies used to make money by simply offering to optimize a web site for search engines, and some still do. They banked on the myth that page ranking is some sort of mystery--It's not (at least not any more). The one thing that remains a secret is the exact algorithm that Google uses to rank pages.
Google works in a complicated way, but it's really not as complicated as some folks make it out to be. Google routinely "crawls," or examines web pages for content. In other words, if you publish a web page, Google will eventually examine it, and then index it for search results. If you have any type of site monitoring application, like Sitemeter, installed, you will regularly find page hits (visits), from "googlebot." This is not a person visiting your page, but Google's automated crawler; it's examining, or crawling, your page in order to index it. It's looking for some particular things, and it uses a mathematical algorithm to rank your page, based on those things.
The debate over which things on your page will sway the almighty googlebot is intense; some argue that incoming text links weigh pretty heavy, while others simply stick to the old-fashioned key word content. Here's what those are in a nutshell: If I type a word in this post, and then make it a link to a site (like this: Write on the Right), I've created an incoming text link to that site. The more of those a page or site has, the higher it will be ranked by Google. In addition, if I include certain key words in my blog post (like search engine, Google, SEO, etc), Google will index my site based on those words. The more relevant key words I have in my content, the higher the ranking.
Someone recently said to me that they don't understand how Google can continue to offer such effective search results for free. Well, it isn't really free. Google makes money the same way television stations do, by advertising. How many ads have you come across that link to a Google search result? Probably more than you've really kept track of. Companies also pay good money to get their pages ranked higher in Google search results; that's big bucks for Google too. Also, Google has its fingers in much more than search results; they have their own browser, and many other applications (like Blogger). I wouldn't be surprised if Google fielded its own operating system soon.
One more thing that is often overlooked is the power of blog posts for search engine ranking. My blog, for example, gives every post its own unique URL. Try hovering your mouse pointer over the title of this blog post; you'll see that the post has its own web address. Since the web page for this post also includes a link to my home page (Write on the Right), every blog post that I publish will serve to slightly increase my blog's search engine ranking by creating more incoming links to the home page. Who's confused? In other words, more posts equals more links to everything that I link to on the home page, and the home page itself.
Here's another bit of trivia: Text links work better than image links. What that means is, the text links that I have on a page will cause the target site to be ranked higher (based on what the text link says), while a banner or image isn't as effective in ranking. Google will index and rank images, but it doesn't do a great job of associating key words with them.
Other search engines, like Yahoo, Ask.com, and Bing, use essentially the same concepts, but Google continues to be the heavy hitter. There are also search engines that are topic specific, such as medical and job search tools. All of this helps to make things easier for us when we need to find information, but it tends to dilute the effectiveness of optimizing your site for search engines.
Here's the bottom line: Links and keywords help ensure that people can find the web content that they search for. The next time you view a professional web page, try looking for the key word content that is intentionally placed there; you might be surprised how much you find.
It's that time again: I'm goin' to be a ramblin' man.
I'm heading out tomorrow on that wonderful flight from Okinawa to the land of real Mexican food, Southern California. It's a two week course that I have to attend, and I get a week of leave on the back end of it.
While I'm looking forward to the trip, I'm not looking forward to the trip. Traveling is, by its very nature, a pain in the ass. Some folks love living out of a suitcase, and shuffling through airports; most don't. I'm with the majority on this one. There is certainly a part of me that loves the adventure of the journey, otherwise I wouldn't be in this line of work. Mostly, though, international business travel is a hassle.
I will, however, get to see family, and even a friend or two. That will be nice. I enjoy the scenery of coastal California, as well. I'll miss my wife and kids, but that's part of the package.
See you on the other side.
Some of us have the luxury of observing things and asking, "WTF?" It's easy to overlook the fact that other folks have to actually participate in the WTF. The sheer stupidity of the WTF often overshadows the plight of those subjected to it.
Here's an example: Shortly before Christmas last year, I saw a unit running down the road in formation, with every Marine wearing a Santa hat. They were wearing typical "green on green" PT clothing, with the addition of a freakin' Santa hat. They all looked absolutely miserable, except for the CO, who was leading the parade of WTF. This was a fine example of epic WTF that I was able to observe, while others had to actually participate in it.
There are many WTF moments in the Marine Corps; that's just the nature of this line of work. I believe this is the result of a couple of factors. First, stupid people get promoted too. Some guys, and gals, get promoted for reasons other than their leadership abilities; there's no denying that. They can be complete idiots, but because they score high on the PFT, they get selected over a peer for promotion (or they excel in some other particular area other than leadership). Instant WTF generator! Imagine the dumbest kid in your high school class, and then imagine him or her in charge of 100 employees. Can you imagine the WTF moments that would ensue?
Next, some leaders, particularly in the officer ranks, don't give a flying f^ck about the Marines in their charge. They spend their entire careers trying to generate comments for their own fitness reports, and scurrying to cover their asses. When something bad happens in their unit, they implement the most idiotic and useless measures, just so they can say, "This is what I did to fix the unfixable." If they can generate enough items to put on their fitness reports, they get selected for promotion. Yet another WTF generator.
Don't get me wrong; there's no shortage of great leaders in the Corps, but there's also a growing supply of bad examples. This is saddening in the worst kind of way.
Thankfully, my wife made it back to Okinawa on Saturday night. She's glad to be "home," and I'm glad she's here. I think that my kids were growing weary of my cooking, if you can really call it that. My greatest culinary success was probably the night I went to Taco Bell.
My son had two track meets this week. On Friday he ran the 3,000 meter, and Saturday morning he ran the 1,500 and the 800. He did well in all three events. He wasn't first, but he wasn't last. He worked hard, and he improved over his times from last week. It's good to see him getting better.
We had a power outage at work, and I had to move my class to the officer's club for the morning. We set up a projector and screen, and I used my laptop to give a presentation on, of all things, public speaking. By the time I was done with my presentation, it was PT time. Big, big fun.
I took this morning off of work to get some administrative tasks accomplished today. With my personnel office being located on an entirely different base than where I work (or live), it creates some logistical hassles when it comes time to handle such things as travel claims or pay problems. I guess there is a silver lining though: I get to have lunch with my wife today.
How was your week?
I guess this is a "two for one special." I didn't update last week, and much has happened. My wife had to fly back Stateside for a family emergency. I am now "Mr. Mom." In addition to missing my wife, I also have the pleasure of trying to do her job; I'm not as good at it as she is.
My son had his first track meet today. I dropped him off at 0800, went and got a cup of coffee at the PX, and got over to the field by about 0900 (when the meet was supposed to start). At 1420, he was finally done with his last event, and I was sufficiently sunburned. Since I was wearing sunglasses, I now have that stupid raccoon look.
My sis had a speaking engagement, and it sounds like she hit it out of the park. Way to go.
I had to drop one of my students for unprofessional conduct. It's disappointing when that happens, but the sheer odds of somebody doing something stupid almost guarantee that it will happen again someday. I hate to say it, but maybe some folks just need to pack their trash and find another line of work. I say that one moment, and then remember how we used to handle such matters several years ago; things have certainly changed.
I took my students on a little "intro run" around the base. Some of them are here from other locations (Korea, main island of Japan, etc), and they are unfamiliar with the layout of the base. I made sure to run by the chapel, the chow hall, the medical clinic, etc. I had my Garmin Forerunner watch on, and when the smoke settled, we had covered 7.1 miles. I felt great and wanted to keep going, but the students were not feeling it. It was good to get them out there and challenge them. Most of them are unaccustomed to running more than about four miles, and this was a good "welcome aboard" moment for them. They can curse me at their leisure.
How was your week(s)?
I think that the words for the week are, "What the hell."
I tried to renew my family members' passports today, and that was a cluster f^&k. There is a form that I didn't fill out properly, and the reference even states that my command is supposed to fill that sucker out. What a shock. How about if the folks that are in charge of such things publish the instructions somewhere?
I had a nice day off with my wife yesterday, and we went to a neat park. The park even has a pond, and the fish in there think that anything with a heartbeat will provide them with food. Sweet.
My son needs special track shoes for his high school track team stuff. Super. More money to spend.
It could all be worse. I have a roof over my head, my kids are healthy, and we have food in the fridge.
Update: We were shaken out of bed by a 7.0 earthquake this morning at 0530. I guess it was time to get up anyway. The loudspeakers in the area were broadcasting some sort of announcement, but it must not have been important enough to wake up the bilingual person, since it was only in Japanese. If I were a betting man, I would have put money on it having something to do with "tsunami," but that's just a guess.
The previews for this movie looked interesting, and the idea is pretty neat, albeit unoriginal. The movie is set in the near future, and stars Gerard Butler as a convict being "played" in a video game. Gamers have the ability to control real people in combat, with our hero being a wrongly convicted soldier, fighting for his life.
The only real star of the movie is Michael C. Hall, known for his role in the hit series, "Dexter," on Showtime. He plays an excellent psychopath, but the whole thing just stinks. I almost fell asleep a couple of times, and there's just too many points in the movie where I asked, "Why in the hell are they doing that?" There's even a creepy song and dance number near the end that just seemed way too silly for the mood of the film.
Overall, this was 95 minutes of my life that was completely wasted. Don't spend money on this movie. Poor plot, poor acting (with the exception of Hall), and a predictable ending. This one should be renamed, "Lamer."
I get email updates from a site called, Lifehacker. They currently have an interesting piece that points out the above pictured flow chart, with a link to a previous article about phishing attacks.
It never fails to amaze me how some folks, who seem to be fairly intelligent people, can get taken by scam artists. The guy emailing you from Nigeria with a subject line of "Dear blessed friend," probably doesn't really have 50 million bucks to share with you!
Here's a few tips that I hope are not new for anyone, but the recent article on Lifehacker tells me that some people just don't see the runaway dump truck heading for them:
-If a strange email has an attachment, avoid it! Only open attachments from trusted sources, and when in doubt, send a separate email to that source and ask them if they meant to send you a file, what it is, etc. I doubt if your freind or relative will cry too terribly hard if you don't watch the video they sent you of some kid crashing his bike into a porta-pottie.
-If you get an email from a company that you do business with, and the email asks you for personal information, report the email to the real company, because they won't do that! Popular methods for this scam include asking you to "update" your info, due to some sort of security "alert." A real email from a reputable company will ask you to simply go to their website, or call them. No reputable company will ask you for your personal information in an email.
-If an email sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Emails telling you that you have won something, and then asking you to send them a fee of some sort, are scams. Don't do it! If an email asks you for your bank account number and routing information, avoid it.
-Thanks! If an email thanks you for a recent contribution to a charity (these are popular after natural disasters, like the Haiti earthquake), and asks you to confirm your credit card number, and you don't hear alarm bells, you should get your hearing checked. Don't send your credit card information, or any other financial info, via email.
-Never give your email password to third party applications, or anybody else for that matter. I know that some sites ask for your email username and password, so that they can more efficiently provide you with some sort of functionality. Don't do it! There used to be some reputable sites that use this feature, and I think that a certain social networking site does the same thing ("help us invite all of your contacts!").
This list is not all-inclusive, but it hits some of the wavetops. If you're unsure, avoid the urge to click with that mouse button. There's more info out there, so do your homework, and don't get taken to the cleaners by an email/online scam.
It seems like I blinked, and my weekend is over. It's Sunday evening here, and I just finished up some school work, enjoyed a plate of pork curry, and now I'm browsing some of my favorite websites. What a wild life I lead, right?
I did a "run-swim-run" workout on Friday, and it was a good time. I was able to beat most of my students to the finish point, and that was a good feeling. I expected to be sore Saturday morning, but it just never materialized. Next time I guess I need to push myself harder, right?
My wife and her friend went to a local Okinawan salon to get pedicures. I don't personally get the fascination with it, but it seems like "nail art" is all the rage here. With the low prices and large number of businesses that provide that service, it's rare to see a woman walking around here without something creative painted on her toes. My wife got cherry blossoms, given the time of year that it is.
It has been raining all week, all weekend, and is supposed to clear up in time to go back to work tomorrow. Isn't that how it usually works? We had planned a trip to the city of Nago to go check out all of the blossoming cherry trees, but the weather has been far too poor for that. Maybe we'll luck out next weekend.
At work, I have a bunch of staff sergeants as students, and one of the current batch is a prior recruit of mine. In other words, I was his drill instructor. It's very interesting to discuss his experiences with him, and learn about my time as a DI from the "customer's" perspective. I think he is exaggerating some of his memories, since I don't recall being quite as mean as he describes.
