About Me
Welcome to RuminationsBlog, a project I started in March of 2009. I enjoy writing and do so as a kind of creative release, but in most ways I’m just an average small-town American who, as then candidate Obama put it, clings to his guns and religion. Yes, I’m conservative, and an NRA member. I wear that badge with pride, but I hope not with arrogance.
First I’ll tell you a bit about me and then in the section titled, About the Blog, I’ll discuss the principles that guide my writing.
For many years it has been my desire to live fulltime in Southwest Washington, but life keeps conspiring against me.
On leave from the navy in 1975 and about to be sent overseas, I visited some of my family who had recently moved to Lewis County. I fell in love with the area and right then made it a goal to settle there after my four-year tour of duty. That four-year tour turned into twenty and I added a wife and two children along the way, but the goal remained the same.
In the navy I worked as a Cryptologic Technician, a field that required a top secret clearance. The intelligence reports that passed through my hands everyday made for interesting reading—I still can’t talk about them, but I enjoyed reading them. I was already interested in politics and my job only increased that awareness so, going to school at night and on weekends; I earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science.
While I had read Anthem, by Ayn Rand, in high school it was not until my first years at college that I read her seminal work, Atlas Shrugged. While she was an atheist and I am a Christian, I found we could agree on many principles such as limited government.
The field of cryptology embraced computers early on and from my position, I literally watched the growth and evolution of computers, the Internet and the Worldwide Web. I couldn’t see myself winning elections so I thought that my career would be in computers and technology, but it didn’t work out that way.
While I still have a keen interest in the Internet, I gradually moved to the field of Education. After earning a teaching certification as Saint Martin’s University, I filled a temporary position at Centralia High School, did substitute teaching and looked for something more permanent.
Today, I spend my winters teaching in Eek, a remote Eskimo village in Alaska. There are no roads to Eek, you either fly in or come across country on snowmobile. And once the snow starts you may not get out. While most days I teach, if the need arises you might find me cooking in the kitchen, cleaning up some mess, or as acting principal. It’s not just a job—it’s really is an adventure.
My sons are right now doing a complete overall of the first domain I ever purchased, Chehalis.net. I bought that domain in 1999 and continue to offer it as a free community portal. We hope to have the upgraded Chehalis.net community portal online in July of 2009.
When school is out, in late May, I fly to my other home near the towns of Chehalis and Napavine in Washington State. Maybe someday soon I can once again spend the whole year in southwest Washington.
About the Blog
The United States for over two-hundred years has been a beacon of wealth and freedom for the citizens of the nation and people around the world. We achieved that success because Americans nurtured within them certain principles including;
- Limited democratic government
- Laissez- faire economics
- Property rights (real, personal and intellectual)
- Judeo-Christian values
It is my contention that these principles form the foundation of this great nation. I focus on my home state of Washington as a blog about those topics and more, but those principles, outline above, remain my steadfast guide.
When I started this project, in March of 2009, I purchased the domains Ruminationsblog.com, net, org and pointed them to this blog. I also purchased Ruminationsblog.info which is pointed to an account on Tumblr.com.
I post articles, updates and notes on this blog and use Ruminations.info as a backup and alternate format. This operation has always been low budget, I am a teacher after all, and while my sons do help out it remains largely a one man operation.
If you like what you read here you can quickly learn of updates to the blog and follow my meandering stream of consciousness at Ruminationsblog on Twitter.com. I collect all of my Internet activity on the NetFeed page of this blog.
The Internet is the future for news and opinion. I invite you to join the Ruminations community as together we move forward in this great country.