Feather Ruffler

ABOUT

A requirement for good writing is the capability to be honest with your own thoughts. Throughout my career as a writer I’ve developed my style to be oriented around honesty.

I started this website to provide a home for my writing. None of what I write here is representative of anyone’s beliefs other than my own. Really, my writing is often in pursuit of discovering what I think and is never a “final word” on any subject.

If you’d like to contact me, you can send me an email at arthur [at] featherruffler [dot] com. I’ve placed brackets around the punctuation to mitigate spam bots. You can also find me on most social platforms under @ArthurAugustyn including Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

My writing career has taking me down many paths, I’ll share a few below.

When I was in High School most of my writing was on video game forums like GameSpot, Destructoid, and GameWinners. I was 15 when I decided to make a video about the game Assassin’s Creed to illustrate a point I was trying to make in one of these forum discussions. The video was hosted on YouTube — which at the time was a newish website with a fraction of the content is has now. My video became very popular. I made some more videos and eventually was contacted by the Editor in Chief at TalkXbox.com to write for the website exclusively. I ended up writing for TalkXbox for more than 5 years and through that website I attended industry events, got flown to exclusive previews, and regularly communicated with PR people at the biggest companies in the industry.

My experience with video game journalism inspired me to major in journalism at college. When I got to college all my journalism professors said “don’t major in journalism,” so I switched to the more generalist communications program. It gave me more experience in video/audio production which I had some familiarity of through my YouTube videos. After school I worked in the Hollywood film industry for a few years before choosing to return to traditional journalism.

Between 2016 and 2018 I worked three journalism jobs on the west coast and east coast. On the west coast I was the City Reporter for The Malibu Times during the election season. I got to host the political debates and did longform interviews with each candidate. On the east coast, I eventually landed at NJBIZ where I reported on New Jersey politics, business, technology, education, and the nascent cannabis market. I enjoyed my work and the clips I produced but journalism wasn’t something that invited long-term planning.

In 2018, I left journalism and became the Director of Communications for the City of Stamford. My time reporting on small towns served me well in this position where I was now in charge of keeping the public informed and communicating with the press. This proved vital during the COVID-19 pandemic, where I started a Daily COVID-19 Update for the City of Stamford. During the early days of the pandemic, this newsletter was the only information source local residents had for service updates, new regulations or guidelines, and where they could get supplies. It was rewarding to hear back from residents about what a difference the newsletter made early on.

I stayed with the City of Stamford until May 2021 when I submitted my resignation. Like many others, the pandemic illuminated to me how precious time can be. I wanted to move on and explore other options. I ended up returning to political communications two months later when I joined the Caroline Simmons for Mayor campaign as Deputy Campaign Manager. My biggest contribution to the campaign was responding to widespread concerns the campaign lacked substance. I led the policy advisory team that proposed clear policy prescriptions on key issues including infrastructure, education, and housing. I also produced and edited the videos that were hosted on her website. The campaign defeated the two-term incumbent and a celebrity candidate for the general election.

In 2022, I left political communications and became the Director of Marketing for a design agency working with consumer-packaged goods companies. That’s where I am now!

No matter what my job is, I continue to make YouTube videos about movies/video games I feel passionate about. I’ve also remained pretty involved in Stamford’s local politics since I decided to buy property in the city.