Category Archives: To do with writing

Bookworm traits – all 46 of them!

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I scored this idea from Children’s Books & More – perhaps a clue to the blogger is in the URL ‘passion 2 read’ – after they liked my Comfort post… Bookworm Traits I think that 46 traits is probably too much for one hit but here it goes…

1. People often find your nose in a book spending hours at the library or bookstore.

  • Not really – I actually hate people who read books in bookstores: if you’re that interested in it, then buy it! I don’t really go to libraries that much, more secondhand book shops than anything else. I may spend hours browsing if I don’t know what I’m after of if cash is a little tight… sometimes i won’t buy at all, others I’ll walk out with am armload.

2. Amazon.com is bookmarked and frequently used when you can’t get to the library or bookstore.

  • The shipping cost here from the US is a major killer for online book shopping now – yay! the day that the restricted digital rights for e-books gets sorted so that geographical location is no longer a major road block. I might research through Amazon but rarely buy now unless I am passing through the US due to the shipping cost.

3. Who cares about the next DVD release? When can I get the latest book release?

  • Don’t really follow either…I think the last time I really waited for a new book release was for the final chapter of John Birmingham’s Axis of Time trilogy; before that it was probably Mark Berent’s Court Bannister series on the air war over Vietnam; before that it was years of fruitless waiting for Jerry Pournelle to conclude Janissaries and David Gerrold to polish off War Against the Chtorr…still waiting, guys…Not that fussed about new release DVDs either as the release price is way more than they will be going for in a month’s time…

4. Books are on your Christmas or birthday list.

  • Kinda but probably no more than anything else.

5. You’d rather read a book than watch television.

  • Often true but this may be just as much a comment on modern television that anything else – used to do both before that necessitated twp pairs and glasses and didn’t uber-challenge my ability to multi-task.

6. You argue that the books are always better than any movie based off a book.

  • Not sure but probably not – this is not the same as arguing that the book is always better than the book of the movie…and even then I think each has to be considered on its merits. I’m not sure that a problem really exists except for those who might believe that movie must = book .

7. You get a thrill when you open the book for the first time and feel its pages with the promise of a next favorite.

  • 100% author-dependent – some authors can grip you in the first pages; others can take a while. for me, few books are likely to be considered for ‘fav’ status until I have read them through at least once…

8. You smile when you see children reading rather than playing video games or watching television.

  • Yep.

9. You cringe when you see watermarks, torn pages, and vandalism to books.

  • Yep.

10. It’s normal to leave the house with some reading material.

  • Yep

11. It’s not a vacation unless you have a supply of books. (If not, you can always visit the town’s bookstore.)

  • Pretty much – hooray for Nook which allows me to take so much in such a small package…

12.You listen to more audio books than the car radio.

  • True but again that could be just as much a comment on local and national radio…reminds me that i must get some more headphones so that I can re-acquire the Audible book habit before extended exposure to Radio Live turns me into one of those that call in…

13. You dish out recommendations and welcome any in return.

  • Luke-warm – happy going my own way and letting others do the same – having said that, was disappointed that Facebook didn’t migrate WeRead over to the secure site…

14. You constantly add books to your to-read list.

  • Kinda – refer back to walking out of the secondhand book shop with an armload of acquisitions; just as likely to have a longer re-read list.

15. You stay up past midnight to finish a great book.

  • Regularly – driven by my habit of making myself read just a little before I kill the light each night – started to do this when I wasn’t reading regularly to re-introduce that habit. Have to discipline myself to not burn the candle too long so as not to have a grumpy morning.

16. After you finished the great book, you wish you slowed down to savor it.

  • Nope – just re-read it…

17. You imagine meeting your favorite book characters.

  • Still enough in touch with reality to avoid this…

18. You’d like to jump into your favorite book to fully experience it.

  • See above

19. You don’t have enough shelves to hold all your books.

  • Used to not but now we have enough shelves (for now) for all books – feel sorry for people who don’t have their own libraries…it’s still a little messy as the post new shelves tidy up has yet to occur…

20. You analyze and discuss books with fellow bookworms.

  • See 13.

21. You look forward to school and library book sales.

  • Targets of opportunity but not crying myself to sleep if I miss ’em.

22. You ‘browse’ books in a bookstore and come back each week.

  • Absolutely – stpre books need lovin’ too…

23. You read The New York Times’ Bestseller List for new books to read.

  • Not ever or any other such…

24. You have a bookstore membership for book rewards.

  • Yes with Borders…oh, uh-oh….

25. Rainy days are good reading weather days.

  • Yes but also good ironing days and other hobby days – pretty good for catching up on movies too.

26. You enjoy any reading, even what some consider ‘junk mail’.

  • Nope.

27. You feel lost without a book to read.

  • Nope, can always find something to do. Having said that though, Vulcan’s Glory was the only English book I had when I was in Vietnam and I lost track of the number of times I reread it because other things to do started to run out.

28. You love hearing stories read to you.

  • Only by virtue of Audible books and the difficulties of traditional reading while driving.

29. A long flight, car ride, or train journey is the perfect time to read a book.

  • Yep.

30. You keep a journal of the books you’ve read and plan to read. (record books on goodreads)

  • Nope, but as at #13, I do miss WeRead on FB – will check out goodreads as I like to review sometimes…

31. You remember quotes and passages from your favorite books.

  • Yep.

32. You compare individuals to characters in your book.

  • Nope.

33. You have an endless supply of bookmarks and battery replacements for book lights.

  • Nope – I am one of those bad people who bends over the corner of a page as a book mark – Nooking may cure me of this.

34. You’re not afraid to laugh or cry while reading.

  • Laugh sometimes, cry TBC when something sad enough comes along…

35. You read the book that made you laugh or cry again.

  • If I enjoyed it, most likely I did – unless I was laughing AT it…

36. You spread the word to everyone to read a book.

  • Nope – each to their own.

37. You take literary trips that connect to your book. (Blog post about a children’s literature tour in New York, abroad a train for Agatha Christie’s Orient Express, visit Forks, Washington, for Twilight, explore Concord, Massachusetts,  for Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, or even visit Hogwarts at Universal Studios)

  • Not specifically but it is always interesting to visit some place that one only knows from a book.

38. You cook dishes similar to foods in books. (Blog that relates books and food)

  • Nope, my main catalyst for new recipes if stuff I stumble across online

39. You try skills and hobbies as characters in books.

  • Huh?

40. You’re sadden when bookstores and libraries close.

  • Yes!!!! Hopefully B&N will fill the physical gaps left by Borders.

41. You have difficulties picking just one favorite book.

  • Does that make me a bad person?

42. You know that reading will never die, even with more e-readers and technology.

  • E-reading is still reading – I imagine the same question when pupled wood started to compete with papyrus and onion skins…

43. You feel bad for those who don’t enjoy a good book.

  • See 36, each to their own…

44. You wish you could talk to the author after finishing a book.

  • Sometimes but probably to suggest some improvements…

45. You attend book signings and author discussions.

  • No, but lack of opportunity is probably as big a reason than anything else.

46. You know that reading is your ticket to anywhere your heart desires.

  • No….I think that this is faux-positivism…your ticket towards anywhere your heart desires, is getting your nose out of the book and making it happen…JFK might always have been a sickly boy dreaming of Camelot…
I’m not normally a big fan of over-sciencing anything – I love to read and that’s good for me – I prefer it over some other things and that’s up to me but I think that you really do have to make sure you keep one foot firmly in reality land and be aware that because it’s written doesn’t make it any truer or any more real than reality…
Still was a good spur to take some pics of the library and play around with panorama shots – might be time for a new camera though because this one will only link three shots into a panorama and I need 5-6 to get all three side of the library…joining two panoramas didn’t come out that flash so I’ve bannered with the same shot section twice

Pacific Dreams

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Just perusing Facebook during one of my breaks and noticed that the New Zealand short film, Pacific Dreams, is an early announcement for the Show Me Shorts Film Festival here in November. Although I support most NZ film initiatives, Pacific Dreams is of particular interest because it is the brainchild of an old friend, Dave Strong and his company, Morepork Films. There’s nothing quite so satisfying as seeing someone leave the service and actually do what they set out to do and quite successfully too.

PACIFIC DREAMS was also accepted to compete in the Mobile SIFF Competition at the prestigious 2011 Shanghai International Film Festival in June, and screened at the recent 2011 New York City International Film Festival.

PACIFIC DREAMS was a recent winner at the 2011 Rhode Island International Film Festival, with Dame Kate Harcourt taking home first prize for Best Female Actress for her role.

Even though my part in the Lord of the Rings trilogy was minor and administrative, I have a healthy respect for the time, effort, resources and skills it takes to bring even a  short film to the big screen and so have nothing but respect for Dave for having the courage of his convictions and staying the course with his dream. Hope this is but the start of an illustrious and developing career in film…

For those interested and geographically able, the 2011 dates and locations for Show Me Shorts that are confirmed so far are:

Capitol Cinema, Auckland – 3-13 November

Bridgeway Cinema, Auckland – 3-13 November

Waiheke Island Community Cinema, Auckland – 3-13 November

Matakana Cinemas, Matakana – 3-13 November

The Internationalist, Rothesay Bay – 3-13 November

Paramount, Wellington – 10-20 November

Hollywood, Sumner, Christchurch – 10-20 November

Rialto Cinema, Dunedin – 10-20 November

Bay City Cinemas, Tauranga – 17-27 November

Mayfair Cinema, Kaikoura – 17-27 November

The Regent, Taumarunui – 17-19 November

The Monkey House, Whitianga – 5-15 January (2012)

Rapt to see the screenings planned for Taumarunui but, curses!! I will be shivering in European snow that week…will have to keep any eye out for any other local-ish screenings – or make sure I pick up the compilation DVD when it comes out…previous years DVDs are available here

An interview with me

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Best Friends

One of the suggestions in the WordPress Daily/Weekly Post challenge is to Conduct an interview for your blog, with some tips and a suggested question list on SuccessBlogNet. I have a short but slowly evolving list of potential interviewees and I’m thinking of maybe making this a periodic feature…first up, though, I thought I’d interview me to see what it feels like…

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Brought up in a small town in South Island of New Zealand; long time military career…really…most of its in the ‘about me’ tab just up there ^…

Why is there a picture of two dogs at the top of the post?

I always like to have at least one picture in every post, usually at the top. That’s Lulu and Kirk, my two helpers when I work from home…

How you first got involved in with blogging?

Just bumbled into it…have spent a lot of time over the years since the internet became really accessible here around 96 or 97 on discussion boards but hadn’t really spent much time in the blogosphere until 2009…my biggest inspirations were the blog used by the COIN Center at Fort Leavenworth, Travels with Shiloh (link just over there on the right), and Peter Hodge’s much-missed The Strategist (sadly Peter pulled the pin on this when he went overseas last year). Since I found WordPress, it’s really just been a trial and error fumbling-in-the-dark process…

What do you find most challenging about blogging about your topic?

Having the time to write…it was OK late 09 and early 10 when I took a sabbatical from full-time work and could devote 2-3 hours a day to researching and writing mini-essays but once I returned to work mid-10, I have had to work really hard to maintain an output. Of course, to a certain extent that is self-inflicted as I am still a bit of a blog fuddy-duddy and keep forgetting that I can draft and pre-schedule posts instead of writing them live…the ability of Windows Live Writer to draft posts offline is slowly getting me more organised in this area…

Tell me about some of the people you’ve met while working on your blog?

I’ve ‘met’ a bunch of people through the blog as brief contacts…I’m not much good at keeping in touch unless I have something to say…Dean and Peter mentioned above would be the two main long-term connections I have maintained since starting to blog – until Peter broke up the team by putting real world before blog! Just kidding! But of those I have ‘met’ briefly most have only added to my positive experiences of the blogosphere – the exceptions really being a few minor acolytes of Mike Yon who break out the torches and pitchforks every time someone offers a differing opinion to his…

How would (someone) describe your blogging style?

Structured…I probably think too much about what I’m writing instead of just emoting directly into the blog and that does really slow me down (not always a bad thing!) – I still feel like I should be writing as for an essay or formal paper and that’s NOT what this form of communicating is really about…

What do you do when you aren’t working on your blog?

What my wife tells me to do!!! As above, the blog takes a back seat to work although there are some logical cross-overs in the COIN/Irregular Activity area. When I work more from home in the summer, there is a ton of (mostly self-inflicted) work to do around the house and when the weather’s nice, blogging also takes a back seat to that – I’d love to do more after dark but after a day’s working (work work) online AND some solid hours working outside, I’m pretty shagged…last night I didn’t even make it through Bones and work up on the couch around 1pm…fortunately it’s a very comfortable and large couch so no back pains or anything…

Are you a full time blogger? How did you get into blogging and why?

Define ‘fulltime’…does blogging rule my life or is it my number one activity…nope. I’m aiming at one decent (yeah, define ‘decent’) post a week (the WordPress post a week challenge is a great catalyst) and normally make that. Decent = a substantial proportion of my own thoughts/work not just a bunch of pictures or borrowed material. If I could, I like to write a 1500-2000 word post twice a week…

What networking do you do that you feel helps your blogging business?

Hmmm…trick question? For me, blogging’s not a business although I occasionally use it to promote business’ that I think are worthy of attention, and those I am connected with like Hawkeye UAV and FX Bikes…am a bit of a sucker for cool Kiwi entrepreneurs…to promote the blog, I have the url in my signature in places as diverse as Paper Modelers and Small Wars Journal, in my email signature block, and also most places where I might offer up some comment from time to time. I don’t actively promote the blog other than through those means and being aware of key words that the searchbots like…my biggest ‘hits’ days have been through searches for Masterchef, quadding my hit rate for over a week when Masterchef 2011 kicked off here…

How do you keep coming up with material/content for your blog? Many people struggle with coming up with different articles/posts and they only have one blog.

I subscribe to enough feeds from around the place to get more than enough stimuli to write…although we ding-dong occasionally, I find a get a lot of good cues off Mike Yon’s Facebook page; next after this would probably be items posted for discussion at the Small Wars Council…

What’s your strategy with your blog in general?

Ummm…you think I should have one…? Will give that some thought…it’s more a tool or a means than an end in its own right so I’ve never really thought about in that light…it’s not like I’m planning on using it to take over the world or anything…plus Dean (aka Dr Karma) already promised me a good job when he makes his bid for world domination…although, your Karma-ness, overlord of Australia…? I was expecting something a little more up-market, you know…longest serving minion (after Shiloh) at all that…in-humour, I’m sorry to any not signed up to Dean’s FB page and all of that will mean nothing and he probably meant for it to be a surprise…

What would you prioritize? Content? SEO? Traffic? Readers?

Content because it’s my soapbox and it’s all about me; then readers – one always likes to feel if not needed then at least not totally ignored; then the rest of that stuff…

What’s the best thing a blogger can give to his readers?

A. Entertainment. and/or b. something that might in some small way be useful to them…

A lot of people are interested in blogging for the money earning potential. What are some tips for people interesting in making money from blogging? What are some realistic expectations in regards to what can be made?

Don’t know…not really that interested…the big turn-off for me are those sites that are so dominated by ads, that it is difficult to determine what is content and what is mere marketing spam…

Do you think Pagerank plays a vital role in a blog’s life?

Honest answer…don’t really care; an even more honest answer would be I have no idea what you just said…

What has been your strategy for creating visibility to yourself and your blog?

Are you listening to me…really…? See what I said about re networking – that applies here as well – so does the strategy bit…please pay attention…I notice you’re not taking any notes – do you have a super-memory or am I just boring you…?

What was the most challenging moment in your blog content development process and why?

When I disagreed with a paper that Adam Elkus wrote and he came to my blog to discuss it…a real crisis of confidence: if that hadn’t gone well, I probably would have binned the blog and gone back into my hole. he was really good though and just wanted to put his POV…second would be when they added me to the blogroll at Snall Wars Council and that was like, wow, big leagues…I really need to up my game now…or just run away…so far game-upping seems to be working…

Everyone has a favorite/least favorite post. Name yours and why?

My favourite, because of the picture and not some much my content would be The Big Gun – Michael Yon’s up close and personal shot with the cannon on the A-10 is brilliant…least favourite? There are a few that I was less than satisfied with for one reason or another but no specific ‘un-favourites’…

What’s your take on sponsored reviews?

Paid advertising – I hate them…

Name some of the bloggers whom you look up to and why?

It’d be those in the blogroll – I’m not interested in a blogroll four miles long so I keep it pretty short and think long and hard before adding another one to the list…all of those bloggers are people who in one way or another inspire me…

If someone was interested in blogging, what would be a few things you would suggest?

Shop around the blog hosts before you commit – if you want a good soapbox, WordPress is tops; if you want to try to blogging for money, try elsewhere unless to want to self-host right from the start – NOT RECOMMENDED for noobs…

Start small and slow…don’t unload all your best ideas in the first week.

Stick with it and don’t given up because your daily hits seem stuck in single figures.

Write about the things that you are passionate about…eventually, if you write it, they will come…usually, so long as your passion is not so obscure that you’re the sole member of the groupie club…

A Bath?

Yep…like to finish with a photo too…this was in a house we looked at buying over Napier way a couple of years ago when we wanted to get a bit closer to civilisation. Decided that civilisation was over-rated so stayed where are near the Spiral…a good bath really makes a house though…

Getting back on top

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Nobi XF-103 and XB-51

I didn’t build these and that’s part of the problem: just like with blogging, sometimes it is all too hard to just get on with things (I should be mowing the lawns at the moment but I’m telling myself it is too hot) and so one just keeps putting them off again and again and again…

I bought these two models from Thaipaperwork when I first discovered paper models in 2008…they are both well-designed models and the scale of 1/48 makes for impressive completed sizes. They print out in grey but can be printed on silver-tinted or aluminium-coated paper for the results you see above…I started off with a big hiss and a roar and never really went anywhere with them. Of course, part of the problem is that the selection of paper models that are legally available is amazing and it is also to easy to be distracted by new releases, more so when many are free downloads or inexpensive in either digital or printed forms…my largest one to date, an unstarted Tu-160 Blackjack that is 1.7 metres long when complete was only US$20….

But the real issue is really one of motivation, of committing to doing at least one smaller thing each day…a senior officer for whom I have a ton of time once advised me to aim to do two things each day – I very likely might do more but achieving two things a day is always mild progress…

So when WordPress kicked off the Postaweek and Postaday challenges for 2011, I felt I really had to rise to the challenge – or maybe give up the blogging game is I couldn’t do it justice…

WordPress has The Daily Post that contains, each day (as the title may suggest!), a challenge that a blogger may or may not take up. It was Erica’s post on 8 February that really invigorated me to give this Challenge a shot – she quotes Jamie Wallace of Live to Write – Write to Live:

I had intended to get back to journaling…I had meant to get back to work outlining my novel, working on character studies, and creating a fabulously retro “map” of my story using markers, sticky notes, and some very large pieces of paper. But, these intentions were all summarily slaughtered by the demands of my Real Life.

I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream. I felt disappointment, anger, and guilt.

Yeah, baby…tell me about THAT feeling!!! Been there and got a drawer full of T-Shirts…fortunately, I’m not a criminal mastermind bent on taking over the world (I’ll leave that to Dean and the Squirrels to do all the hard work first!) but am prone to monologuing my ideas but often not really going much past that point…something always comes up, I’m too busy with this or that, or have deadlines for someone else to meet…first lesson, I guess, is that if it’s worth monologuing it might be worth recording is some form…just like the old tip to keep pen and paper by your bed for those world-beating ideas that come to mind at 3am…the second lesson is that it is quite definitely OK to set deadlines for yourself to meet for your projects i.e. deadlines are just not things that other people can set for you – just keep it all practical and achievable – it is unlikely that you will achieve world peace by next Tuesday…

Jamie Wallace covers it pretty well in A confession and 7 steps to better writing habits summarised here from the Daily Post’s coverage of it the following day:

1. Find, make, or steal writing time
2. Have a purpose
3. Avoid the shoulds
4. Start small
5. Be consistent
6. Measure progress
7. Find your joy

For the detail read the full text on Live to Write – Write to Live….it’s worth the effort…

And the ‘so what’ for me…well….

1. I’ve been letting everything else steal writing time from me – time to reset the balance…I need to spend at least as much time as I give myself each day for reading – guarantee myself 5-10 minutes each night for recreational reading: writing will be the same…Make better use of the tools that I have – more on this in a future post – there’s more to it than just a desk and a PC…

2. Have a purpose? Yes, but if not one, then only a few – Vegemite’s mean to be spread thin not writing skills…

3. I should avoid the shoulds – ha! Joke(tte)…Jamie defines shoulding really well in her post…something to identify and avoid…sense and avoid is as important in the study as it is in the cockpit…

4. Start small – as above – work within your limitations…

5. Be consistent – form (good habits) for writing as you should(!) for healthy eating, physical fitness or financial prudence (if you are a guy)…

6. Measure progress – hey! I know this one – right out of COIN 101…keep your measure of success and performance practical, relevant and well-grounded in reality…

7. Finding my joy? Hmmm…once upon a time it was telling stories (in a good sense, of course)…I think we’ll just have to see where the journey takes us on this one…

Some of the blog post ideas on The Daily Post leave me cold but that might be a tinge of comfortzonitis kicking in…we’ll see…there are some that appeal and there’s a new one every day…my travel routine won’t let me do one a day but I can certainly do a post a week and grow from there….

Masterchef Update

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Serious advertising for NZ Masterchef 2011 has now kicked in…hopefully I’ll be able to schedule myself to follow it again this year – due to work commitments, I missed almost all of the last Aussie Masterchef except the final…

Meanwhile, here in the heartland, we continue to investigate buying a local cafe so that Carmen can live at home again and also do what she is so good at for a living…

In Colour Me Scared last year, I mentioned my foray into the scary world of combining chili and sardines – pretty safe really as chili, like tomato sauce, is a great ‘coverall’ for culinary not-quites…I hadn’t actually tried it again since then but late last night after a crap afternoon wresting with connectivity issues and losing the better part of a day’s productivity – and thus forgetting to take something out of the freezer to thaw – I gave it another shot… definitely a great but very simple and fast (longest thing is waiting for the rice to cook) meal for when you really don’t want to put yourself out…what’s left will be combined into a fried rice tonight…so is one less thing to worry about while I’m doing the home alone thing…

The big difference between home along last year and this year is that this year I actually have work to do and don’t quite so much have the luxury of time to spend in the kitchen experimenting…the absence of any fast foods in easy distance means that I still have to look after myself and plan ahead…my major culinary issue at the moment is what to do with so many damn eggs …

Secret Stash

Since we keep stealing, them the chickens have taken to concealing their eggs around their run…this one was buried beneath layer of blackberry and is a good week and a half to two weeks work for them…24+ eggs recovered here! Carmen took a bunch back up the road but, combined with what we had already, I’m really scratching for good simple egg recipes…had a great omelette on Friday night after I got back from a meeting with Hawkeye in Palmerston North that afternoon (and resisted the temptation to treat myself in Mr Models) that meet two key objectives: a. it took five eggs and b. it very neatly wiped out most of the leftover vegetables and venison left in the fridge…I can see scrambled eggs coming back onto the breakfast menu which will go nicely on a slab of freshly-made bread, followed up with muesli and homemade yoghurt (well out of the packet but just as good, if not, better than the prepackaged stuff)…just so long as I don’t become a creature of habit…

As you probably guessed, I having a  bit of a no news day today – I’ve spent most of the day doing ASIC administration, psyching myself up to complete the draft doctrine review I had planned for yesterday…we’ve taken to using the NATO doctrine review template, which, although, involves more typing, promotes a far deeper review of a publication and which also provides the author feedback in a standard format that can be combined with similarly-formatted feedback from other reviewers…one of these days, I WILL complete that touch-typing programme…

Not quite

I mentioned in My Fellow Americans that I had first met Martyn Dunne while working on a number of Army clothing and personal equipment projects; one of these was reviewing the camouflage pattern then in use, especially the colours (of which there had been 17 distinct variations since it was first introduced)…needless to say, our testing and evaluation wasn’t as dedicated as this…talk about taking your work home with you…

Still…I guess if you’re looking at optimising for urban combat…

You turn your back for just a second…

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Exhibit 1

Exhibit #1 – authorities believe Grasshopper is just an innocent victim, in the wrong place at the wrong time…the usual suspects (both of them) are being lined up…

We had the twins for the weekend – it’s always fun but full-on and this is just a none-too-subtle reminder of how quickly they are growing up (literally)…the jar was only about one-third full when one of them swiped (the evidence is difficult to argue with) it off the kitchen bench after lunch. It was quite a good effort as they managed to keep most of the jam off themselves (something they refuse to do at actual meal times) and were only busted when the penny dropped for me that there was simply way too much jam around the house to have come from the jam on toast we had for lunch (with healthy stuff as well) in the lounge…

It’s a lesson that one can never become too complacent that little hands will not extend their reach, the guy you install as president of Afghanistan will not decide to go his own way, or that the service you dedicate 18 years to will not dump you like a hot and embarrassing potato…I refer here to the case of Royal Marine Sergeant  Mark Leader [PDF: Two war-weary Marines with a size 10 wellington boot] who was court martialed and dismissed, after 18 years of top quality military service five times decorated with campaign medals , after throwing a Wellington boot at a Taliban terrorist. The Taliban in question had been found burying an IED just 50 metres from base  where Leader had witnessed his best friend and two other mates blown up by an IED just prior to this.

It’d be interesting to see the full facts of this case – perhaps there is way more to it that was has been reported to date – but this certainly seems to be yet another application of the perception that we, the good guys, can fight nice wars. Unfortunately the price of niceness is the blood of US and NATO soldiers…The opposite of ‘nice’ is not ‘brutal’ – it is ‘practical’ and ‘pragmatic’ – and this seems to be totally lost on British leaders who seem think this war (lower case) is simply an over-resourced exercise in flag-waving and a great gesture of unity with the US (which, after all, might be required to sail across the Atlantic and bail out the UK for a fourth time)…

Eon

I’ve just finished a great book, Greg Bear’s Eon, which is one of the main reasons that blog updates have dried up over the last few days. Carmen picked it up for me at the Sally Army shop in Hamilton for a dollar at the same time as she bought me The Star Trek yarn Garth of Izar…I must have read another Bear story in the dim dark past as I have always avoided his books for well over two decades but Eon really gripped me right from the start and I will probably have to go off and ferret out some others once the ‘have-to’ reading list gets a little shorter….

The fractal guy…

Benoit Mandelbrot’s The  (Mis)Behaviour of Markets was recommended to me as a fresh look at irregularity and uncertainty, and as such, a possible source for some out of the square illumination on the complex contemporary environment…I haven’t even got to the end of the preface and already I a. love it, b. have dredged out some really good material, and c. taken off on some wild tangential thoughts…once the employment situation becomes a little more stable, I think that this one will be a permanent addition to the library.

Kilcullen again…

The other recent tome that I have decided to add to the physical library is David Kilcullen’s The Accidental Guerrilla. I am speaking on doctrine, COIN and Kilcullen this Friday and have had to wait for the library to reloan me a copy to use as an aid for any parts of my review notes that I can’t, read or remember why I wrote what I did. Dr Kilcullen has secured a place for himself as one of the most influential figures of the last decade and as such is deserving of a place on the shelves in the study here at the Raurimu Centre for Thinking About Stuff (CTAS). He’s just released a new book but I think I’ll test read this from the library first as the abstracts for CounterInsurgency @ Oxford University Press and Small War Journal sounds a little too much like a rehash of previous works…

Ginga Ninja

Andrew Inwald released his 1/33 Yokosuka P1Y Ginga at Paper Models last week…and it surpasses even his Judy and Il-14…those who are into this sort of creative expression might want to download it just to see how it’s done…you can do that here at Paper Modelers although you will need to register and make one post on the forum to get to the downloads…

Yes, it’s paper…!

In other paper news, Ken West of XB-70 Valkyrie and B-58 Hustler fame has announced the start of the design phase of a 1/32 Lockheed SR-71, although the exact model or models is still TBC e.g. A-12, YF-12A, D-21 drone carrier etc…

The Little Orange Book

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I visited the Centre for Defence and Security Studies (CDSS)at Massey University a week or so ago. The nice people there loaned me a copy of Roberto J. Gonzalez’ American Counterinsurgency: Human Science and The Human Terrain so that I might gain a better understanding of those who oppose Human Terrain Systems (HTS). Gonzalez (RJG) is one of the main opponents of HTS and the application of social science techniques in counterinsurgency campaigns.

I started to read this book, The Little Orange Book, at Massey while I was waiting for a meeting to wrap up (not one that I was in!). It’s only 130 pages and I managed to chew through 80-odd then. I use the term ‘chew through’ deliberately as some of the first three chapters was pretty difficult to digest. It’s published by Prickly Paradigm Press which claims to give “…serious authors free rein to say what’s right and what’s wrong about their disciplines and about the world, including what’s never been said before…” The result, certainly in this case, is not as the Prickly Paradigm website claims “…intellectuals unbound, writing unconstrained and creative texts about meaningful matters...” This Little Orange Book, is more a soapbox for a rambling rant than a considered exposition of  RJG’s professional or intellectual opinion.

There are many logical disconnects and inconsistencies in the first three chapters and I think that some rigorous external editing could have helped make this flow and read much better. Part of the problem is that RJG does really define his objections to HTS until the last few pages of the book, forcing the increasingly frustrated reader to wonder ‘where’s this guy coming from?’.

It was a week later that I took a deep breath and dove into the second half of the book. Chapter 4 is certainly a step up from the previous chapters, possibly because I found myself in broad agreement that the US DoD is in cloud-cuckoo-wonderland in its desire for a technologically brilliant system that will take in all the relevant information and punch out all the answers for the complex environment. Maybe it will – someday – but only once a person gets off their butt, gets their boots dirty and figures out what the questions are.

Such a system might have been possible in the heyday of the Cold War when the moving parts were mainly based on platforms with easily quantifiable measurables – had the necessary computing power been available. In fact, had this system been available to Cold Warriors, it probably would have foreseen the Soviet invasion of Iceland that so surprised Pentagon planners when Tom Clancy and Larry Bond released Red Storm Rising in 1986. But the Cold War is over and, as Michael Scheiern identified in 2005, we have now shifted from platform-based tracking to tracking individuals. Not only has the number of trackable entities increased by a factor of hundreds but the individual ‘measurability’ of each entity has increased by a similar amount, and the entities lack the centralised direction inherent in platform-based conflict.

This is not to say, though, the social sciences, anthropology and HTS’ don’t have a role to play in the complex contemporary environment – anything but. What it does mean is that we will have to accept and take risk, develop and rely upon judgement to employ and apply this information. It also means that we need to evolve away from thinking of complex intelligence as being predictive in nature as it may have been around the Fulda Gap. In their place we must develop more responsive intelligence systems support responses to the largely unpredictable activities that erupt across the operating environment.

Organisations like the FBI’s Behavioural Analysis Unit are founded upon a blend of the principles and practices of social sciences and this responsive philosophy. Rarely if ever will the BAU predict the first in a series of attacks, although once on the trail of a specific adversary will often very rapidly develop accurate profiles of that adversary, be it an individual or group. Yes, I watch Bones too and am well aware of the timeless struggle between the forces of anthropology and psychology to prove which isn’t merely pseudo-science. This is a false distinction and both disciplines must work together, focusing on individuals AND groups in order to provide a commander with employable insights.

Herein lies the problem with This Little Orange Book. RJG is so intent on ring-fencing social sciences that he can not see that no science or discipline can usually function in isolation. He is so fixated on HTS in Iraq and Afghanistan that he forgets that social sciences are subject to (potential) abuse across society every day: as I remarked at Massey after reading the first half of this book, it would be interesting to compare the outputs of the schools of marketing, politics and anthropology at Massey and see whether they are more alike than different.

RJG states again and again that the deployment of HTS to support military operations breaches various understood ‘contracts’ in that social science should do no harm. He totally misses the point that, regardless of how or why these wars started, HTS might actually be doing more good than harm in adding elements of precision, if not perfection, to campaigns where blunt force may be one of the few viable options.

It is not until the Chapter Five that the readers finds the real reasons for this. RJG is making a standing on moral principle – he’s up on a political soapbox to attack the American Empire which he sees as an evil bent on taking over the world. If the evilly bad American Empire was not involved in its evil wars in the Middle East , RJG would be quite happy for social sciences to feed the same predictive machine he denounced in Chapter Four – which would of course only be used for good.

It’s ironic that an ardent proponent of social science is intent upon suborning these tools that focus upon ‘the people’ to the same technological philosophy that drove the platform focussed Cold War. Conceptually this evolved into the Powell doctrine that built upon the false lessons of the 1991 Gulf War and culminated in the ‘shock and awe’ campaigns that failed to produce the goods in Kosovo, Serbia or Iraq. RJG’s campaigns against HTS has driven the Government to seek more technical solutions towards understanding the contemporary environment and to steer away from the blindingly obvious truth.

That truth is that it’s all about people and that includes people doing (at least some of) the collection and people applying judgement to that information, raw and processed, to develop useful (timely, relevant) information. An example is the enhanced Video Text & Audio Processing (eViTAP) tool that was successfully trialed on CWID in 2007. Evitap is a very sharp tool that processes video, audio and digital files for predetermined cues that have been identified (by a person) as potential indicators of an impending incident. When those cues are identified, a person is notified in order to make a decision on actions that may or may not be taken.

Where is all goes wrong is that we have become so fixated on the technology providing the answers that we have stopped teaching people to think critically, to apply professional judgement, make a decision and run with it. By using This Little Orange Book as a soapbox for a raving rant (or ranting rave) instead of coherent consideration of the issues, RJG has actually scored more points for the technocrats and undermined his beloved social science…

Promises, promises

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@ Small Wars there is a new article by Wilf Owen rather provocatively proposing that a ‘horde’ of 4WD armed with modern guided weapons could inflict significant damage to an Anglospheric brigade size force i.e. a Stryker Brigade or Armoured Cavalry Squadron. I’m not convinced – we have always been susceptible to myths of uber-weapons from the other side of the fence – remember the Hind super-helicopter killing machine that was going to sweep all before it in the 80s? – and think that we shouldn’t be selling ourselves short…

Wilf’s article is well-written and if the aim was to promote professional discussion, then it is probably successful and more power to anyone prepared to publicly put pen to paper rather than just lip off in the Mess/ O Club (if such things still exist).

If however, the aim was to actually promote a viable capability, then it has a long way to go. What really got my back up was the comment “…if any officer reading this cannot conceive of ways to inflict significant damage to a Stryker Brigade, or Armoured Cavalry Squadron; given 100 SUVs, 100 x ATGM + MANPADS and maybe 500 men; then they probably have no place in their chosen profession…” To me this is an unnecessary and somewhat arrogant (ignorant?) throwaway line that adds no value whatsoever. To turn it around, any officer that would allow such a force to do significant damage to a Anglospheric brigade probably needs to be relieved immediately, as does any unit commander in one of those formations that could wipe the floor with a Toyota horde.

The horde, if successful at all, would be a one hit wonder (anyone remember ‘Promises‘and Baby It’s You from the 70s – not just the lead singer’s ‘attributes’?) that would be easily countered. The terrain necessary for the horde to have any sort of practical mobility would also act against it and unless it could shelter behind the skirts of a large non-combatant population, it would be vulnerable to both ISR and engagement systems. Where the horde might be employable, would be a follow-on force to a more conventional ‘hammer’ to mop small outposts and stay-behind forces.

There is/will most likely be a place for swarming in near/far future conflicts but, at the moment, the concept still awaits some conceptual and technical developments. Ultimately, it could take us a number of steps closer to Heinlein’s Mobile Infantry concept that we aspired to in the mid-90s with the Empty Battlefield et al…

I had a long discussion with a compadre last night and one of the topics we touched on was the paucity of professional papers, other than those extracted by force as part of staff college compliance rituals, on topics of contemporary relevance, from authors down under – certainly there doesn’t seem to be any shortage of serving and former officers prepared to launch themselves into the arena in the Northern Hemisphere and the US Army probably leads in the development and publication of professional discussion, regardless of whether the concepts espoused follow political or doctrinal party lines. Having been privileged enough to have been invited to attend the Chief of Army’s Seminar at Massey University last year and corresponding with some of the speakers and attendees, I wonder, of the 200 or so uniformed attendees, how many have progressed any of the subjects discussed at the Seminar? It probably doesn’t help that the Massey web page for the Seminar exhibits a rather minimalist design philosophy and only links to recordings of the presentations with no transcripts or even speaker bios, let alone forums for further discussion – come on, guys, I think you need to up your game for the contemporary environment and the information age…!!!! It might be an interesting experiment, as I assume planning for the 2010 Seminar looms, to ask all the attendees for their two most enduring memories of the 2009 Seminar…

Oh, what to do…?

It’s all so confusing…I’m looking around for a portable computing device that lets me make notes and sketches away from the desktop PC in the study e.g. when I am away from home, even just popping down to the shop, or watching TV in the lounge so that the notes and sketches can be ported/synced directly back into the main PC. At the moment, I make a lot of my review notes on the good old legal pad and then manually transcribe them which takes more time that I have and eats significantly into productivity. I often forget to take a notebook with me when I leave the house as it always ends up back by the PC for transcription and stays there for my next foray out into the world…

I had thought that perhaps the iPad might be the answer but following up a link from Paper Modelers I’ve found that there are a range of new and impending technologies that might meet my needs…my gut feeling is that I’d be better off with something closer to a tablet than an iPhone so that I can read papers in closer to a traditional page format (am I turning into a fuddy-duddy?) and also so that I can also have a decent-sized work area for graphics…

Mmmmm….

Those from the Wellington IPMS community especially will know that I am a bit of an attention-seeker in my modelling procurements…in 2007, I was allowed to buy the Soar Art 80cm Railway Gun in 1/35 scale. It is very big and impressive – I can only just manhandle the box on my own – and I have been slowly assembling it. Like most people, I built the barrel first…

Yes, folks, the breech block is really the same size as a contemporary tank!! The barrel assembly is now painted and as complete as it needs to be for now and I have psyched myself up to start on the railway trucks that bear this monster but…somewhere in the course of domestic re-orgs that comprehensive instruction manual has gone west – no doubt it has been placed somewhere ‘safe’ – and I went to the Soar Art site to ask for a new manual. While there, I surfed through some of their partnered companies and stumbled into the world of Dust, a “…what-if world, a fictionary world based on our true history and mixed-up with science fiction…” and found this…

KV-152I Fury of Ivan – WOOF!!!!

…and I want one!!! Damn New Year’s resolutions….

A alternate slant on history

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Peter @ The Strategist has begun a series of short stories and has published the first two on his blog:

The Doomsday Device

Beggars Can’t Be Choosers

I found both stories to be insightful and just the right length to provoke thought i.e. much longer and the reader would develop a serious nagging urge for more, more, more, give me more!! Along with a number of others, I hope that self-publishing via his blog is only the first step and that Peter will take heart from his first two stories to develop more for more formal publication as an anthology….publishing online is nice but it’s not quite the same as a title on the physical book shelf.

Peter has indicated that he would be interested in other short stories on his current themes so out goes the old gauntlet for anyone who thinks that they might be able to string a few words together – no more than 2000 – and spin up a yarn relating to…

What-if Germany won World War One? The circumstance, effects and extent of that ‘victory’ are entirely up to the budding author…I’m personally in favour of anything that involves that great European sport of slicing and dicing up France…

What would happen if civilisation as we know it collapsed? Again the circumstance, effects and extent of that collapse are left to the author to determine…although Aucklanders, please note, being forced to use public transport instead of driving everywhere does not constitute the end of civilisation we anyone knows it…

The one caution I would give is that developing an alternate history is a little more than shaking up the actual timeline and rearranging the characters – that becomes trite and mundane very quickly and you can see examples in the various discussions on building the Birmoverse – from the point of deviation from actual history, the author really has to sit down and consider how that new timeline will develop, identify key milestones and then flesh out the story to link those milestones. It is not outside the bounds of possibility that an alternate timeline might actually rejoin the actual timeline at some point as a story plays out in conjunction with great events.

As with the numerous discussions on developing the Birmoverse in the last few months, considering alternate and future histories can help us understand and place ourselves better in our own timeline but considering events and issues from a new perspective. I enjoyed Peter’s first two stories in their own right and am seriously considering having a crack at some myself. Of course, the last time I wrote any fiction (other than military doctrine!!) was when I had a short short story published in the Sunday Times when I was seven…