Willapa Magazine Turns One Year Old This Weekend
Now Playing: Thoughts about blogging as a worthwile enterprise.
Topic: Willapa Magazine

Willapa Magazine celebrates its First Birthday this weekend. Some 339 posts after the first one on 2/23/07, I've managed to build a blog that keeps me active.

Both Lietta and I have been actively online and blogging going back to 2002 or earlier. Her excellent blog, Dying to Preserve the Lies is still for me one of the best titles for an advocy blog I've ever seen. Dying is now into it's 4th  year.

A year of Willapa Magazine has led me further and further into the activity to calls the most powerfully to my aging body as something to keep my mind from doing the same kind of aging. If my body itself can move into physical senility - forgetting how to do the kinds of things it always did before - my mind has not followed suit.

Blogging took a passive dabbling interest in politics into an intensive hard-to-give-up means and method of expressing my passion against where politics has taken us since 2000. Today, geting online and writing has become part of my identiy, how I see myself, and the most likely avenue when I finally get to retire from my full time job.

Since that time and prior to Willapa Magazine I made several attempts to be a blogger and write about all the things that interest me besides politics and an earnest and honest disgust with a shallow mind who never should have become President of the U.S.

In August, 2005, after Lietta had gone to Crawford Texas at the invitation of Cindy Sheehan, I was left holding the bag and obligation to man a booth for MFSO (Military Families Speak Out - Lietta was the Washington Chapter Coordinator) booth at a rally at Magnuson Park in Seattle. It was while working at that MFSO booth that I met Brian Moran for whom Lietta and I had been invited contributors for a few brief months.

Brian introduced me to Andrew Villanueve of the Northwest Progressive Institute and who had built the Pacific Northwest Portal where progressive bloggers can become members of the most powerful blogroll in the Northwest.

Brian also introduced me to David Goldstein who blogs as HorsesAss.org  and who in many ways represents some of a blogger's goals in terms of readership, not to mention what I consider to be a spectacular success for a blogger in acquiring a job as a talk radio host at KIRO.

David's words did more to motivate my bloging in terms of voice and style than any other blogger. 

Brian Moran and Noemie Maxwell at Washblog.com eventually invited both Lietta and I to become contributing editors as part of their board.

Also, during this past year, at the urging and encouragment of Lietta, I finally managed to publish the novel I wrote on an old IBM Selectric Typewriter more than 20 years ago. And Should We Die was the what evolved when the notion that I'd like to write a Louie L'Amour western. Over 2000 typewritten pages of drafts, drafts and more drafts probably did more to fashion the type of writing I produce now than any college course on creative writing.

The final manuscript was rejected by an agent as too long and not topical back in 1986 so it sat in a box until Lietta made me get it out a few years ago. For me, the poor writing actually improved over the various drafts of when eventually was a 600+ page novel submitted to a literary agent in NYC back then.

After Lietta and I moved to Pacific County in 1999, I was on vacation in the Fall of 2000 and began dabbling in poetry. There is now a galley for a small collection of that poetry which will be published some time in the next month or so. 

So like all those bloggers and writers whose writing I read and espeically those with whom I interact, the writing can be addictive and hopefully gets better over time.

Quality Time On Vacation
Now Playing: Work ... and "play?"
Topic: Willapa Magazine
I always like Friday nights;
the open, lazy moment
when work is done, nothing demands
and tomorrow there'll be no need
to rise early and start working
on my game face
not for two days.

Even better but less frequent,
next month will see the first night
of my week's vacation.
A week in April and a week in October;
never two full weeks because I can't
be gone that long in an office
so understaffed.

My case load, after two weeks off,
would be too far behind.
The end of the first day
back at work
would leave me
ready for another
week's vacation.

I'll  stay up into the night because
I can sleep in tomorrow.
I read my regulars
as I do every morning
and evening
after work.
Tonight more leisurely.

Maybe ... Republican sexual follies.
My secret delight that they keep tripping over themselves.
In anxiety to grab money and power,
the're more clumsy
and morally vacant
than all other politicians
combined.

News from Iraq always bad.
But if it has to be bad,
I'm pleased
that it's Bush's fault,
the Republicans' fault.
They deserve repudiation.
Damn you assholes!

No moral fibre,
no personal integrity,
no genuine concern,
no compassion
only greed,
avarice and
mean spirited religion.

And now, a word from our sponsor = the Harbor Hangout
Now Playing: San Jose (California) Mercury News touting SouthWest Washington
Topic: Willapa Magazine

San Jose, California MercuryNews.com 

By ROGER PETTERSON Associated Press Writer
Article Launched: 07/16/2007 10:06:58 AM PDT

Go fly a kite. Seriously. You'll be among lots of friends at the Washington State International Kite Festival, and then you can have a good time exploring, relaxing and playing along the Pacific shore.

And everything you need to know to turn it into a vacation trip is available on the Web.

The weeklong festival-http://kitefestival.com/-draws spectators and fliers from all over to the town of Long Beach on Washington's southwest coast to watch colorful stunt kites, graceful kites, fighting kites, complex kites and whimsical kites. You and your kids can learn how to construct and fly your own. And you might want to take extra batteries and memory chips for your camera; look for "Photos" for a preview of how varied and colorful these kites can be. If you have a broadband Internet connection, venture over to YouTube--and type the name of the festival into the search field for several spectacular videos of past festivals. The festival Web page also has links for the World Kite Museum.

It all takes places on a stretch of oceanfront land called the Long Beach Peninsula-- -less than three hours northwest of Portland, Ore., or less than four hours southwest of Seattle. When you're not watching (or flying) kites, you can go to sea on a fishing charter, hike miles

of beach, watch migrating birds, ride horses along the shore or just chill out. Look for the link to Cape Disappointment State Park, a scenic chunk of coast that the Lewis & Clark expedition reached the Pacific in 1805. And there are several Web cams to show you what you're missing.

Under "Attractions" you'll find links for "inquisitive mind," for the Lewis & Clark center and Cranberry Museum, and "adventurous spirit" for links to boat charter services, golf courses and horse outfitters.

And they like festivals. If you can't be there for the kite shindig, try Jazz and Oysters in Oysterville, or the Wild Mushroom Celebration. Click on "Our Towns" in the upper left corner for an interactive map and links to communities on the peninsula and surrounding area, and try "Lodging" for motels, campgrounds, rental homes and bed & breakfast inns like the relaxed China Beach Retreat or the Shelburne Inn, established in 1896.

Visit the Washington state tourism Web site's Long Beach page--for more information, a great shot of the Long Beach boardwalk (click on the tiny camera in the upper right corner for a link to the photographer) and a long list of links to information about nearby attractions

Circle back to the mainland and take U.S. 101 up through the Willapa Harbor region--full of more places to fish, hunt, take out a canoe or kayak, dig clams and hike. Click on "Seafood" to see where you can find the local specialties, including the mollusks they say give them the right to call Willapa Bay the Oyster Capital of the World.

North of Willapa Harbor, visit some of the communities around Grays Harbor--with a wide variety of everything from galleries and antique shops to rain forest to casinos and resorts.

The area's location along the coast gives it a rich avian population. Along with the Long Beach Peninsula, bird watchers can hook up with the Southwest Loop of the Great Washington State Birding Trail--to explore habitats ranging from the shore to the mountains.

Finally, if you're heading east from Long Beach rather than up the coast, save time to visit Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument--to see the mountain that erupted on May 18, 1980.

---

 

Shouldn't be too crowded in the hills and on the streams any more.
Now Playing: MSNBC News: Less Americans out their rodding, reeling and shooting.
Topic: Willapa Magazine

[Excerpt] Click on MSN link to read entire article. 

Not Gone Fishing Nor Hunting

A five-year survey of outdoor recreation finds a sharp drop in the number of Americans who cast a rod and reel—and a lesser decline in hunting. But that doesn’t mean we’re spending less time with animals in nature.

 

Web exclusive
By Steve Tuttle
Newsweek
Updated: 6:21 a.m. PT June 16, 2007

June 16, 2007 - If you're a squirrel or a trout, we've got some good news for you: Americans are hunting and fishing less. Every five years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service puts together a massive survey of outdoor recreation, and the 2006 preliminary numbers were released today. They show ominous trends, depending on your worldview-or species. The number of anglers has dropped 12 percent since 2001; the hunter count has fallen off by 4 percent during the same five-year period. This doesn't mean Americans aren't spending time outdoors or interacting with wild animals; "wildlife watching" is up 8 percent since 2001. They're just choosing not to kill them so much.

" Many longtime Internet users, the lackluster veterans, remain stuck in the decade-old technologies they started with..."
Now Playing: Associated Press via King 5 News
Topic: Willapa Magazine

02:26 PM PDT on Sunday, May 6, 2007

 

NEW YORK - A broad survey about the technology people have, how they use it, and what they think about it shatters assumptions and reveals where companies might be able to expand their audiences.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project found that adult Americans are broadly divided into three groups: 31 percent are elite technology users, 20 percent are moderate users and the remainder have little or no usage of the Internet or cell phones.

But Americans are divided within each group, according to a Pew analysis of 2006 data released Sunday.

The high-tech elites, for instance, are almost evenly split into:

-- "Omnivores," who fully embrace technology and express themselves creatively through blogs and personal Web pages.

-- "Connectors," who see the Internet and cell phones as communications tools.

-- "Productivity enhancers," who consider technology as largely ways to better keep up with their jobs and daily lives.

-- "Lackluster veterans," those who use technology frequently but aren't thrilled by it.

John Horrigan, Pew's associate director, said he started the survey believing that the more gadgets people have, the more they are likely to embrace technology and use so-called Web 2.0 applications for generating and sharing content with the world.

"Once we got done, we were surprised to find the tensions within groups of users with information technology," Horrigan said.

Many longtime Internet users, the lackluster veterans, remain stuck in the decade-old technologies they started with, Horrigan said. That a quarter of high-tech elites fall into this category, he said, shows untapped potential for companies that can design next-generation applications to pique this group's interest.

Read the entire article at King 5 News' online site

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Topic: Willapa Magazine

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About Willapa Magazine
Topic: Willapa Magazine

 

 

 

 

Willapa Magazine ©2007

is a daily magazine on the web based in Bay Center, Washington. Launched in March, 2007, we are a general-interest publication offering analysis and commentary about politics, news, and culture that includes but also goes beyond the goings on in Willapa Country on the Washington Pacific Coast.

Willapa Magazine
offers a strong editorial voice and take on current events locally, national and world wide.

Willapa Magazine
is owned by Arthur and Lietta Ruger of Bay Center, Washington on the Willapa Bay. This site does not charge for access and is supported by advertising and donation revenues.

 

 Arthur Ruger is a social worker, a poet and writer. In addition to an intense interest in the American political and regious scene Arthur's leisure interests are families, reading, home improvement, sports. Family issues and values are important as we are parents of a blended family with 8 children and 15 grandchildren.

 

An informed electorate is the only source of national wisdom.  The alternative is our blind trust in someone else's agenda.

Clamoring voices both reasonable and shrill demand our attention. Many feel that in "polite circles" there are two things you do not discuss: politics and religion.

It's as if discussing politics and religion is so private that we somehow must only discuss things in our personal sanctuaries - perhaps our bedrooms with our spouses or our living rooms with close friends and loved ones - but behind closed doors. Citizenship brings duty with it.

If we don't seek to become informed and ponder what we learn, a lack of national serenity will not something to blame on politicians.

Moral values lie at the heart of political debate in this country and now the perceptual differences over moral values have become one of the hottest topics of debate. Politicized religious views task our ability to discern honesty and reality based on our own internal values - values that for the most part have served us well.

An informed electorate is the only way we can hope to wend our ways through these times with any degree of wisdom. No longer are we going to be able to remain silent, non-participating and expect to blame someone else if our manner of living arrives at a place where we have lost more than we can afford.

In reading my point of view in Willapa Magazine you will find conservatively liberal and liberally conservative points of view reflected in essays, articles and op/ed opinion.

 

 

 

 Lietta Ruger offers perspectives from her diverse history and life experiences. Raised a miitary brat, growing up overseas and stateside, embracing different cultures was the delight of new discoveries. It was a way to embrace different belief systems and concepts about family, community, expressions of spirituality.

Adult life as wife and mother with a professional career in social services vocation.

" ...  passing thru the decades of the pleasantville 50's to the tumultuous 60's into adult life in the 70's with the shifting paradigms on what it means to be modern woman;

into the 80's and fondly remembered as the fun decade;

into the 90's with changes in technology and the emergence of shifts in corporate paradigms;

and into 2000 onward where there seems to be a complete shift of every paradigm I ever understood.

Why does the taste of pennies remind you of losing a tooth?

Lazily disoriented enough to realize there is snooze time available

....or not

.... wake up call coming."

Willapa Bay
Topic: Willapa Magazine