Hello out there!  This is my first post on WordPress.

I’m a wanderer, a kind of know-it-all pundit, especially regarding this island I live on. I’ll talk about my homeland, The Commonwealth of New Island, the people here, anything newsy that I hear about, and throw in a bit of history and cultural background from time to time. 

I’ve lived here on New Island since about 1995. I grew up in California, USA; watched it get pretty much destroyed by overpopulation and greed, then moved to Pacific City on the Oregon coast, but the winters there were too wet and cold. (I know, my About information differs a bit, but ignore that for now.) I found New Island in my copy of the National Geographic Atlas of theWorld and had to pull a lot of strings to travel here! I finally booked passage on  The New Ireland, an old one-time Polish passenger-freighter that sails weekly form Fremantle, Western Australia, to Putney, New Island. I took the train around much of the island’s coastal lowlands, and found a spot overlooking Putney Bay that felt like home! I built a house there and have enjoyed it ever since. 

Here is the island, taken from A NASA Space-shuttle flight around 1985. Putney Bay is the big bay on the left or west side of the island.

Google Earth  has not yet recorded New Island’s Indian Ocean location at about 100 degrees E Longitude by about 35 degrees S latitude, but that could be from some old agreements by one-time superpowers to keep it off the maps.

Until I discovered this wonderful tool, WordPress, I haven’t been able to really talk to anyone beyond the shores of our island-nation.  We don’t have cellphones; and calling long-distance, even to Western Australia, is slow and expensive. However, we have just been hooked-up to the internet via satellite!  Our nation’s Ministry of Tourism has put up a website about the island. It’s very basic, but take a look. I also set up a website called Oceans and Dreams that shows off my artwork. I’m a painter as well as a pundit. 

See ya later.