JWcountryphoto

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Stompin' Through the Swampgrass

A note from Swamper Town:

Another year has come and gone in the Swampgrass
around the Chippewa Valley.
The 2009 Swampers show invited the listener
to take a leisurely stroll around our historic town
and surrounding countryside, with slides and songs
depicting many of the well-known community events
and exhibits familiar to all of us.
Stompin' With The Swampers,
as this year's show was aptly named,
again featured the musical talents of some
of the Chippewa Valley's best musicians, many
of whom have been a part of the Swampers
musical aggregation since the beginning.
This year's show was the 5th all-new Swampers production,
and the 8th annual Swampers concert,
part of the Pure Water Days celebration
in Chippewa Falls.
With over 100 projected photographs, depicting
the vitality and romantic flair of the town, together
with the exceptional songwriting talents of
Jerry Way
made for a winning combination and in my opinion,
the best Swampers show yet!

From the annual April Fools' canoe trip down Duncan Creek...

...to the Spring Art Show,

the slides, songs and stories highlighted some of the
Chippewa Valley's
best and most unique events and exhibits.
~~~~~
FATFAR, the annual Father's Day tubing event,
which had a very humble beginning,
now attracts hundreds and even thousands of folks
from around the WORLD each year
(the world's largest unorganized
one-day tubing event).
Jerry Way caught the spirit of this festive event,
in his upbeat tune
FATFAR.

"That's F. A. T. F. A. R. all in CAPS!"

Of course, no present-day study of Chippewa Falls
would be complete without mentioning the new
traffic "game"
involving white-knuckled drivers driving in circles!!
Mind your mirrors and buckle up, 'cause we're coming to a
ROUNDABOUT!!!

Chippewa Falls is really a pretty town.
If you don't believe me, just take a walk down
Bridge Street in the summertime.
Hanging baskets adorn
all the light poles,
and there is even a public rose and lily garden
at the corner of Rushman Drive and
Bridgewater Ave.
Many private gardeners also have their own
"beauty spots" scattered throughout town.
So, take a walk some evening this summer,
and discover all the beautiful flowers around
Chippewa Falls!!

No town with a Scandinavian heritage can pass up
some good ol' Ole and Lena jokes!
The audience nearly fell out of their seats laughing
as the Swampers read of the antics of this
famous bungling pair!

"Ole and Lena's Reader's Theatre"

Lake Wissota, a vacation destination for many,
and a feature of the Chippewa Falls area since 1918,
is home to many different forms of recreation.
One of the best is just sitting down on the summer
beach, watching the sun go down over the water!!
Yeah, I'll be there!

Ever been to Cornell?
If you have, you have likely seen the huge
crane-like structure there on display, the pulpwood
stacker. The big unanswered question however, is
"How much wood would a wood stacker stack
if a wood stacker could stack wood?"
The now 98 year old structure was retired from
service in the1970's,
and is now a huge tourist attraction!

The Christmas Parade is always the December
highlight in Chippewa Falls,
drawing a huge crowd without fail,
despite the usually inclement and subfreezing
temperatures on the first Saturday of December!
Of course, you can always come in and warm up
at the Heyde Center's annual brass band concert
after the parade!!!
(This year, the concert will be in the afternoon,
before the parade! - JW, 102209)

Last of all, the Swampers concluded with a look
at some of the historic and beautifully restored
buildings in our hometown, including the
102 year old Heyde Center For the Arts!
A tribute to Main Street, and the many hours of
downtown restoration work; a walk thru history with
The Buildings in Our Hometown.

And until next time,
Fare Ye Well, Good Neighbors!!

And technically yes, I am a Swamper.
A "technical swamper" that is!
The Wilson twins and I are responsible for making
the show sound and look fabulous.
Hats off to the Wilsons for the design of the
slide show!! And Jerry Way, thanks for the
opportunity to work
on another awesome show!
Can't wait to do it again with y'all!
So for now, fare ye well, good friends!
~ Joel Wiltrout

Check out ALL the photos of the
2009 Swamper show
HERE in my facebook album!!

[~~~|--|--|--{\--/}--|--|~~~]

Pure Water Days Fireworks 2009

As part of the annual Pure Water Days celebration, the fireworks display is an event awaited with much anticipation. In the old days, we could see the display quite well from our house. Now, with the display moved over to Casper Park, there is actually a good place to see them from, and an awesome place to photograph them from if you know what you are doing!! Here are some of the best; 2 of these were actually printed in the
Chippewa paper YAY!!

All photos from the August 8th
fireworks display,

part of Chippewa Falls'
Pure Water Days 2009.
JW Imaging 2009

Friday, July 24, 2009

A Trojan horse?? GOTCHA!!!! (Personal Antivirus REVEALED)

What do staring at a computer screen, running repeated scans, fuming, and 2 AM have in common? A malicious Trojan computer virus! Trojans are an interesting breed. They for one thing, reproduce freely on your hard drive until arrested, and are hard to apprehend. I should know, for I spent the better part of last night and today trying to remove one particularly evil program from my computer. I think it's gone now, but as a matter of fact I'm running one last scan as I write this to make positive sure! It all started when I clicked on an innocent little news link in a mass email I am subscribed to. The screen went blank, and a security message came up that an email worm had been loosed into my computer. Almost immediately, another message came up, featuring a "Personal Antivirus" program, instructing me to download it to remove the detected threat. Not knowing what "Personal Antivirus" was, I clicked it, and it did a very fast scan, detecting 145 Trojan horses and password stealers. It then instructed me to register, and pay $80 to activate the program to enable it to remove the threats. That stopped me, and I began running scans to try to detect the infection with my antivirus program. Since it was warning me about the start menus, I decided it would be bad to turn off the computer, so I disconnected the internet, started a full scan, and went to bed (2 AM.) Back at it again this morning, I ran another scan with another antivirus program, and found one virus worm. (probably the original infection) "Personal Antivirus" continued its warning flashes attempting to alert me to the undeniable facts that THERE WAS A MAJOR INFECTION. I continued to run scans with this and that, and finally got the idea to do an internet search on "Personal Antivirus". Imagine my surprise when ALL the search results said the same thing : "Personal Antivirus is a TROJAN. Do not install it, and if you have it, it is strongly recommended to UNINSTALL it." Yeah!! You don't get too far when the so-called antivirus program IS a virus! Like I said, I think it's gone now, but it wasn't easy to uninstall it!! Being a trojan, it copied bits and pieces of itself into about 150 different places, making it inaccessible and uninstallable by normal means. With a good free malware program (Malwarebytes) I was able to successfully remove all traces of it now. (after many scans and many hours) Okay, so that's all fine and good, but unless you really like to play with malware and viruses and all that, NEVER DOWNLOAD "PERSONAL ANTIVIRUS"!! It is a trojan, and can not be deleted easily by normal means.
Thanks! Have fun computing...........

Joel Wiltrout

P.S. If you don't have a computer, please disregard this message. It doesn't apply to you.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Pastures of Plenty, video

This is an old song I have known for many years,
but I felt like recording it......
and didn't trust my guitar-playing ability for a recording!
So, with my little handheld recorder, I recorded
a few songs accapella, and added some pictures
that seemed to illustrate the lyrics.
I hope you like it!
This is my first attempt at overdubbing (3x in here)
and my second "music video" creation!
Enjoy, JW.

This isn't as grainy as the Facebook version,
'cause I didn't have to use Flash player!!

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Big Falls, May 2

This set is from the Big Falls Photo Shoot,
with the BCR photo club digital photo class.

As a volunteer, I got a number of shots too!

Rock Strata

Big Falls

Pristine morning

The Rapids

Thru the trees, a fast-flowing gorge!

Driftwood!!

Facing downriver

A little falls nearby, from a spring in the rocks.

Bloodroot flower

A natural bridge

Some members of the class.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Music Video

Hello to anyone who happens to follow this blog!!

Unfortunately I have been busy with other things and have not posted
here for a few months, so anyway, I thought someone might enjoy
seeing my new slideshow video I created.
This is my first attempt at video making, and I think it came out reasonably anyway!
The song is "Far Side Banks of Jordan"
originally performed by Johnny Cash and June Carter.
Here, my sister and I try our hand at it.
I tried to fit relevant photos to the music, and created a music video of sorts!
The music, I recorded live at our concert at Barnabas Christian Coffeehouse
in Chippewa Falls, WI, and all of the photos were taken by me
around the Chippewa Valley.
Thanks! Enjoy :)