My Favorite Cut-Outs by tricyrtis hirta.

Other local blogging:

Olympia Salvage Blog: Arts Walk This Weekend!

Earball Visions: Oly, here I come!

Oly-Rafa: Arts Walk Celebration - Tile Painting and Performance for Olympia Rafah Mural Project

My webpage that is. I'm working on getting content up for it. Give me a little time, especially as I work with the new development tools. If you have something really interesting to say, I will be putting up a "guest blog" section as well.

Edit: "Vermin of the Week" is up as well.

Here is a sample of several local women who blog. I've closed comments here so as to encourage readers to comment there:

In the 1930's, my great-grandparents owned Iverson's Grocery. Amy and I visited there today!!! The girl that was working there showed us pictures, and an article from the newspaper in 1999.

Meanwhile, Whirligig, that wonderful shop in downtown Olympia where Ms Re-Usable not only displayed her upcycled art work but also offered recycled art workshops, is closing this month. We are heartbroken, since there is no where else in town where Olympia Dumpster Divers and other indie/green artisans can gather to sell their unique wares and also teach their crafts.

Amanda and I went to Alex's school yesterday for an assembly. It was the second grader's turn this month. The school has certain values they are trying to teach the students, and each month, they learn about a word. March's word was "honesty", so the second graders put on a little program about honesty.

In traditional Byzantine iconography, there is little room for personal expression, which is not a bad thing–it’s a different type of energy that works through prayer and fasting. You get out of the way to serve the Mysteries.

Funny little tidbit... My 4 year old is fully starting to appreciate all holidays. However St. Patrick's day was perplexing to her. She didn't quite understand why there was a day to celebrate Sponge Bob's best friend, Patrick, and why we had to wear green.

I'm impressed with the Thurston County Democrats. They have a nice lookin' web site, easy to use. They've opened up their platform writing process so that anyone can watch and observe and even discuss.

Emmett O'Connell writes about this on his own blog: Thurston County platform writing open to the public

...and also on the TCD site: Help us write our platform!

A while ago I got a flat tire because somebody used the bike lane as a beer bottle drop.

This is a very cool story from local blogger Derek, read how the City got involved. Maybe more people will get inspired and do the same.

(comments are enabled there so I've disabled them here)

The Interfaith Works site (also check their new site redesign in progress) is a great place to visit when doing a survey of local faith communities.

Here is their statement of purpose:

Interfaith Works promotes interfaith understanding, and serves the community through charitable, social and educational endeavors.

Their list of members is especially helpful. Awhile back I went through the list to see what groups were running blogs and rss feeds. Along the way I've also found other faith communities that blog.

Why blog? This post 4 Ways Blogging Can Change Your Church from a Washington DC pastor has some ideas.

Some local faith blogs include:

• The Canaanite's Call
• Common Bread
• livingwater
• St. Ephrem Harp of the Spirit

Local faith bloggers use their blogs for outreach, reflection, discussion, and plans for worship. If you know of a local faith community that blogs, please let us know.

Rich Nafziger, local blogger, is resigning from the city council (so says that smarty pants over at 5/17). In addition to being the fighting moderate chair of the Olympia School Board, Rich has also held several positions in the state leg.

His most recent one is a conflict of interest with his elected one. Money over service this time fellows.

He hasn't blogged about his decisision to quit the board, but we can read his greatest hits.

From immediatly after the election last year, What's Next for the Olympia School Board? (who knew it was him quiting?):

Jeff Nejedly and Lucy Gentry Meltzer were recruited and supported by school board members Russ Lehman and Bob Shirley. They argued that the board and the district were mediocre and needed a radical overhaul to get the job done.

Populist appeals only work when voters are unhappy, and it pretty clear that their campaigns failed largely because most parents and community members are pretty happy with their schools. (See my previous blog, Make the Best Better)

 And, my personal favorite, Burning Down the House (our house is burning down):

I'm taking a break from Blog Local and invite folks to create their own form of this beat. You can follow the Favorite Olympia Blogs list here on the OlyBlog sidebar and report back to us, you can follow Oly Bloglines, or you can create any process and means of expression you like.

You might want to sharpen your focus on particular themes - there is a wide variety to choose from. You might want to regularly do more general surveys of the current local blogging pulse. You might have some ideas to share on how local blogging works or you might want to focus on what you find quirky and intriguing.

I've found it very rewarding to share link love and highlight the work of local bloggers.

Do you actively blog here, there, or both? Then make like Jim Anderson on decorabilia and give us your top 12 posts of 2007.

Is your focus more on participating in comment threads? Give us your top fav comments.

Or browse through a year of OlyBlog and tell us what rocked your world.

You can fulfill your assignment wherever you like, on your own blog or here in comments.

Here is some local blogging that has caught my interest, listed in no particular order:

I'm going to pick my favorite blog from every month this year. Some months were slower than others. For instance, I think in April I only wrote 8 blogs. Slim pickins. But it is what it is.

We like having the public know what’s going on during the salmon season setting process, and we are committed to sharing information. Fish and Wildlife commissioners indicated they want to take a more active role in the North of Falcon process, and we welcome their involvement.

I was passing the brewery tonight, and in the main building...which must have been the offices, there were Christmas lights, and a Christmas tree. WTF? Who put those there? Isn't that building pretty much deserted? There was also a string of lights on the balcony railing.

olywa livejournal

And check out the photos by Larry Mishkar of the Olympia Transit Center