This is an amazing book and I highly recommend everyone read it, the book is called War by Sebastian Junger.

It is a must read because:

1. You come away with the clearest understanding possible of what it means to be a soldier in their own words. A bit of a cliche maybe, but you realize what soldiers go through for “us” in the worst possible place in Afghanistan. And you get to follow them home, off the front, and see what it’s like to adapt to normal society after being put at the fringes by that society.

2. It is one of the most brilliantly written accounts of war I’ve encountered. The author has amazing way to place you right in the middle of everything and he writes like a video camera.

3. And finally, you get to see from ground level what it is like in Afghanistan, which we have been fighting in for almost 10 years. And we will probably be there for a lot longer… So important to read and understand what modern warfare has turned into, why it costs so much, and what tactics it takes to win in a place Alexander the Great got stuck in.

Here is the official description:

Junger spent 14 months in 2007–2008 intermittently embedded with a platoon of the 173rd Airborne brigade in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, one of the bloodiest corners of the conflict. The soldiers are a scruffy, warped lot, with unkempt uniforms—they sometimes do battle in shorts and flip-flops—and a ritual of administering friendly beatings to new arrivals, but Junger finds them to be superlative soldiers. Junger experiences everything they do—nerve-racking patrols, terrifying roadside bombings and ambushes, stultifying weeks in camp when they long for a firefight to relieve the tedium. Despite the stress and the grief when buddies die, the author finds war to be something of an exalted state: soldiers experience an almost sexual thrill in the excitement of a firefight—a response Junger struggles to understand—and a profound sense of commitment to subordinating their self-interests to the good of the unit. Junger mixes visceral combat scenes—raptly aware of his own fear and exhaustion—with quieter reportage and insightful discussions of the physiology, social psychology, and even genetics of soldiering. The result is an unforgettable portrait of men under fire.

I’m now up to 26 books on my 100 books in 2010 challenge! Short reviews next to them, not sure how helpful but it should be pretty easy to see which are good and which are bad. I hope more books by Bill Bryson make it to the kindle, that guy is hilarious. I also think the book “a short history of everything” should be required reading in school, I would have had a much deeper appreciation of science class I think. I wish I had read it a few years ago when Tony told me about it. I also strongly recommend Stones To Schools the sequel to 3 Cups Of Tea and it is a very moving book about Greg and his charity’s work to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

So up to 27 books, so just need to read about 8 books per month including March and I’ll be over!

Very cool place and having a great time so far. All the time on trains seeing the country has given me a lot of time to read, I’ve read 9 books in the last 3 to 4 days, reviews here! Just fun reads which is nice, almost like I’m at the beach.

My favorite Japanesism yet:

Ben: Do you have sandwich package x? (to train trolly girl)
Train Girl: (in broken english) Sorry we are out, do you want rice with crab flakes on it?
Ben: YES!!! (and i was thinking why did she even ask!!! I love rice with crab flakes on it!!!!)

They were delicious.

I’ve decided to stay in Denver for another year, so I’ll be here through June 2011 it sounds like. We are going to find a new place to live in April/May, hopefully closer to a neighborhood we like a little better. Next week I’m heading to Vegas for a big ultimate frisbee tournament plus it is going to be Dmarsh, BBustin, and my brother’s birthday. Should be fun. And then when I get back from that Rose and Steve will be here and going to spend a lot of that week skiing with them! And hopefully I’ll be going skiing during the week a few times after that, and working on cross country skiing as I would like to be good at that.

Work is going well, and just got really busy as we took on some additional business which is quite fun!

Travel wise the year is looking awesome. In a few months I’m taking a few weeks vacation to explore Japan! Then in April I’m going to Italy for a short weekend trip as Iris got a bid to Paganello (massive ultimate beach tournament), and I’m going to play with her mixed team. Extra fun as it should be a lot of Arkansas people and hopefully Daniel and Joel go. And then me and a friend scored tickets to the World Cup in South Africa which I will be going too in early July. South Africa is being nuts on airfare pricing but its a once in a life time opportunity, so worth it.

Oh, and I’m trying to complete the 100 Book Challenge for 2010, which means I’m trying to read 100 books in 2010. So roughly 9 books a month, so far I’m almost done with my 4th and almost on track. I’m posting mini reviews as I go too.

Also, here is an interview we did a few months ago for Work, I’m pretty proud of it as we don’t sound like idiots. Although I did repeat a lot of words over and over and over, oh well, she was really nice and it was fun!

I love the internet because a book on Amazon entitled “WHAT ARE THESE STRAWBERRIES DOING ON MY NIPPLES?: I NEED THEM FOR THE FRUIT SALAD!” is receiving hilarious reviews about the book. Which btw is listed as an import and not for sale.

Just read the 11 reviews left so far and you get such awesome lines such as:

“First of all, a warning. This book is packed with such useful and POWERFUL information, it should be approached with caution. Amazon has not provided a synopsis, and rightly so. I attempted to download a summary to my computer and my monitor EXPLODED. Normally, I would complain to the author and demand a refund, but the mere opportunity to witness this miracle of written word is payment for my loss ten times over. ”

“This book changed my life. Period. Colon: I have long had strawberries on my nipples. I also have had blueberries in my eye sockets and celery in my urethra. The celery remains, but I await the next book with eager expectations.”

“Not as good as the sequel “What are those bananas doing in my vagina I need them for my fruit salad” or the prequel “Popped Cherry Pie – where have all the fresh cherries gone”. But this serves its purpose of telling you where the strawberries go when they are missing from your fruit salad. With the color and shape of strawberries it is easy to see that you can misplace them on your nipples. Vanessa Feltz is truly the girl next door. She is just a woman trying to have a dinner party with strawberries on her nipples. Once she actually gets them off of her nipples she makes a great fruit salad and all the guest love her nipple salad “oops a nip slip”, I mean fruit salad.”

“There are two kinds of people in the world: those who divide the world into two kinds of people, and those who don’t” – Robert Benchley (American Humorist). This book, while laced with divine comedic interludes, divides the world into two difinitive subsections of society. This divide tears at my frail emotions when realizing that I myself am in a group of people who have been repressed and belittled; those of us with megaareolasis, also known as BNS, or Big Nipple Syndrome. I am disquieted to finally come to the stark realization that there is a class system in this country. Those with nipples that can at least be fully covered by a mulberry or rainier cherry are considered acceptable, those enveloped by a blueberry are hailed, and those the size of a mere red currant are revered as Gods. And to the title of this book, there are those that nessecitate the coverage of a fully developed conventionally grown strawberry from Costco, who are shunned as lepers. They are routinely humiliated and asked to hold objects, such as coins, leaves, and wide mouth bottle caps up to their bare bossoms to display the montrosity of their genetic freakdom. What little comfort if any I draw from this piece of literature is knowing that there are others like me out there who share the pain of suffering from the cruelty of our large nipple defaming culture. It has inspired me to write a new book – “What is this pomegranate doing on my nipple, I need it for my Hors D’Ouevres” that will urge congress to add nipple size as a new protected class under Title VII of the civil rights act.”

Just hilarious!

So when I’m not working I have become addicted to the following sites and check them very often:

TextsFromLastNight.com – Hilarious, hilarious, hilarious.

Altas Obscura – Just some very weird stuff, I love it. Here is a good example.

Curious Expeditions – Another good one with weird places to visit.

Dark Roasted Blend – This is a new one and I’m still not sure if I love it.

And then I have like 250 sites I watch via RSS but most of those are tech and not cool stuff like this.

You have to read this book, brings in a lot of technology we are going to start seeing over the next twenty years and a very different view of where the world and nation state is going. Very accurate picture of technology, writing is good, solid story.

I think everyone should read this one! Here is a link to Amazon.

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• Daniel Suarez: interview with the author of Daemon (telegraph.co.uk)

Heading to Fool’s Fest this weekend to play some ultimate frissbee (Lawrence Kansas). Should be cold and wet which will suck but going to be fun to play with everyone and first time to get to play with Dmarsh in a long time :). Plus I’m hoping the Mongolian BBQ we used to go to all the time is still open as its delicious.

Been reading some good books lately, a lot of books I would have had to buy in paper format are actually being published to the Kindle at the same time which is just awesome to see! I’ve already saved enough to buy two kindles I estimate just off the savings. I read In Gallant Company last night which is volume 3 in a series of books about a boy in the British Navy as he slowly becomes a captain and all the adventures. The author is Alexander Kent and they are quick to read and very entertaining. I think there are like 20 volumes so should keep me busy for a while. I also just finished Manhunt by James Swanson a few days ago. It tracks the assassination of Lincoln by Booth day by day and was really interesting. I’m not sure in history class they fully explained that Booth and his conspirators had planned on killing the secretary of state, vice president, and president in the same night. What blows my mind even more is that the Vice President was staying with no security in a normal hotel, and they found a knife and revolver in a room nearby and the guy had just not gone through it. Very different from today and weird to think that any person could walk up to the White House and make an appointment to see the president.

Been working like crazy which isn’t a surprise, things are going very well and we are hoping over the next few months for clean up to really finish so we can push forward with growth and finishing a lot of much needed projects. I’m looking forward to around three months from now when we finish a lot of clean up on the backend and maybe I can take a short week off to travel somewhere nearby.

I love to read and I feel the Kindle is one of the most amazing products of the last century. You have a device the size of one book that you can store your entire library on. And if that is not amazing enough you can buy books from anywhere in the world with an internet connection and save a few trees while you are doing so. Right now it costs $360 dollars but the books are all cheaper so you are slowly getting that money back as you buy books.

One of the hardest parts about being outside the United States is that books are incredibly expensive and Amazon.com is out of reach. The Kindle solves this problem as you can download books to an internet cafe computer and then transfer them to the Kindle. Plus my pack is that much lighter now that I only carry one book around. I had an ebook reader before this but the battery life was not great and the book selection wasn’t there. The amount of books Amazon has available for the Kindle is one of the most amazing parts and they have used their leverage to really push this format. Plus the books are cheaper as they are all digital. It makes sense as you are taking all the costs and risk out of the publishing system. If all book publishers had to do was to help find and develop good authors, or if all authors had to do was upload their book to Amazon and do marketing we are going to have some really amazing reading opportunities over the next decade.

I give the Kindle a 100% recommendation and I’ve already saved enough money on books to pay for the initial cost of the Kindle. There is a rumor a textbook version is coming which would be great for students!