Big Leather Couch

Wednesday....ah ... HUMP DAY...whatever that means...

So, we live in the digital age folks. I grew up watching film from Vietnam...grainy film showing soldiers fighting a war on the other side of the world. These soldiers also sent home photos taken with their Kodak Instamatics to wifes and mothers and fathers. Even 12 years ago, we watched news footage of our soldiers fighting in the deserts of the middle east and they were, no doubt, sending home pictures to their families. Now, the soldiers are actually showing all of us the scenes from Iraq. The explosion of sites like youtube.com have made this possible. Yes, our fighting men and women are bringing their digital cameras and recorders with them and filming their lives over in the desert. They also have laptops and all of the necessary software to compose mini-films. These children of the MTV generation are now sharing their daily lives. Not sending grandma and grandpa videos of the grandkids playing in the ocean on vacation, but footage of bombs exploding..rifles being fired...and not sending them to the families...but to all of us through youtube and other sites. The Pentagon is not even limiting these videos. As long as they do not compromise operational security and the soldiers are not profiting, it is all good. You can go to youtube.com and search for Iraq videos.

One is called THE ENEMY and is set to Korn's "Y'all Want A Single."

At ifilm.com, look for LIVE FROM IRAQ - this one set to a rap song recorded by US troops while outside Baghdad.

Also at ifilm.com, is IRAQ (SO FAR AWAY), a journey from Camp Pendelton to Ramadi set to "So Far Away" by Staind.

Hey, just google "Iraq Music Videos" and your screen will be filled with links. The war to you in a blink of an eye.

Google has also started something called "GOOGLE TRENDS" - this shows you where the most searches for anything come from. It is pretty cool.

Like, did you know the city that searches for "Taylor Hicks" the most is Leeds, AL, with Birmingham, AL, Atlanta, GA, Tampa, FL and Rochester, NY rounding out the top five?

You can also compare items, so if you did a Taylor Hicks, Katherine McPhee search, you will see that her searches are dwarfed by his, even in Irvine, CA - her homebase.

Albany, NY leads in the search for the phrase "Pepsi" with Denver, Co second and Buenos Aires, Argentina third.

A very cool device...check it out yourself... www.google.com/trends Thanks for taking a seat on the couch...hope it was restful and you learned something...

Lastly...following the lead of the great FRED, I will now be responding to your comments in the comment area.. so look for my witty comebacks!

Remember .. Nets For Malaria - UNFoundation.org/malaria - find the big SI's Nothing But Net logo ... Or call 202.887.9040. Every cent goes to buying nets to place over the beds of children in Africa to stomp out Malaria. PLEASE HELP.

Keep that spark of insanity kids...It helps keep you an individual.