Author: RTOlson

There’s nothing like giving in to temptation. After checking out a friend’s blog, my co-worker has decided to check out a personals Web site. It looks like a complete bear to get registered on the page (we went through The Onion) It’s been about 30 minutes and he still hasn’t seen all the “beautiful” women in a 25-mile radius of Houghton, Mich. It’s not like the instant (yet swiftly fleeing) gratification of a “judge-a-person-strictly-on-their-appearances” Web site.

Still, it’s a really clever use of supply and demand — people demand an online forum to meet others, these Web sites provide the resources _and_ require people to register to get access thus keeping the supply of potential dates plentiful.

Now he’s comparing himself to Doogie Howser. Guess I’m his Vinnie (without the overt Italian stereotypes). Shesh.

Nothing like spending two hours in a closed room with your best friends and the Gazette news staff. After battling it out, we came up with our Top Ten stories of the year. If you want to know what they are, tune in around Dec. 31 when we put out our end-of-the-year issue.

For now, here’s Ryan Olson’s Definitive Top Ten Copper Country Stories 2K2. This shows where my heart was (I’ve changed my mind on some). It isn’t the definitive list (not by a long shot). Coming soon, my writing that matches this list.

1. Spring floods wreak havoc on U.P. roads, lives prompting President Bush to declare a state of disaster.
2. House fire at Sigma Delta Chi claims life of student.
3. Americaís first snowhouses open in Hancock and Houghton. 4. After a year of delays and roadblocks, Michigan Tech EnterPrise SmartZone moves forward.
5. Burial battle
6. First payment for 6,275 acres in Keweenaw County land deal; sets in motion one of the largest land deals of its kind in state history.
7. New diseases (Chronic Wasting Disease and West Nile Virus) threaten area.
8. Western U.P. Red Cross dissolved over allegations of mismanagement and embezzlement charges levied on former director.
9. Thousands gather near Ewen as part of national Rainbow Family Gathering.
10. Missing snowmobiler John Buccanero found dead after 17 years.

I’m at the radio station. Started the broadcast day after I found the door was locked and the station was powered down. It’s been a while since I’ve done that, but it helped wake me up.

I’ve been reading up on the Atlanta Journal Constitution because things have been going pretty well. There’s really a lot of sports going on. Mostly good — the Falcons and QB Michael Vick face a steep challenge in Tampa Bay. The Georgia Bulldogs easily won their first SEC Championship in football in 20 years.

However, it’s just so sad that the Braves let pitcher Tom Glavine go to the Mets. I mean, it’s the Mets for cripes’ sake. I think it would be like if Michael Jordan decided to sign with the Lakers in basketball or Wayne Gretsky in hockey signing with the … oh never mind.

Oh my goodness. I’m still trying to remember how to use Blogger.com. I know, I know — it’s not the greatest blogging solution, but it’s a start.

I’m just looking for a quick way to put some usable content online after another free Web hosting service cut their FTP access. Life is good.

Well, things don’t look too good right now on my webpage. Geocities has disabled my FTP access so I can’t up load any blogs with Fetch. So it looks like I’m out of luck for right now. I’ve been working on a sketch for a redesign, but it’s not going anywhere right now.

I’m also getting used to using Macromedia’s Dreamweaver 3.

So, it’s 10:18 a.m. EST and I’m staring at the computer screen. I’m thinking about anything except writing my story.
Steve: What’s the current snowfall average to date?
Ryan: You want the average to today?
S: That’s what I’ve done before.
R: To today?
S: Well I’ve done it to the end of the month.
R: Oh, OK I can just add up the average snowfall from each month through February. [starts punching numbers in calculator]. It’s 150.

And it goes on like this for a few more minutes. sigh

Woke up this morning and there were three inches of snow on the ground. I’m late so I rush to clear the damp white stuff off my car just to slowly slide into traffic on U.S. 41. Thank goodness people could slowly swerve around me until I could move.
There’s more snow expected for tonight when I need to drive for three hours to Ontonagon to talk to U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee. Pray I return in one piece.
Minnesota Public Radio is starting their winter pledge campaign. Program interruptions and delays. Hoo-ray! (At least it’s not the horrific self-help specials PBS airs.)

Why can’t I get this page to refresh? I don’t even know why I working on this right now – I’ve got mounds of work to do and I’m slowing growing tired. Oh well. Still trying to get the beast to work.

Just taking the blog out for a test drive. I’m slowly working my index HTML into the blogger template. Troubleshooting is just loads of fun. Whee!

What’s New – Updates from my old Web site through 1999

1 October 1999 
My senior year at UC San Diego began yesterday. I am looking forward to one of the busiest times in my life. This site might be static for a little while as I concentrate on higher priorities. I will post another update soon.

Before I am buried under my workload, I have created a Sherlock plugin for UCSD’s search engine. Sherlock allows Apple Macintosh users with Mac OS 8.5 or above to search many different sites from the Internet. There has been talk about putting the plugin on UCSD computers. You can download Stuffit or BinHex archived versions of the plugin.

12 September 1999
It’s six in the morning and I’m updating my webpage. Am I crazy? You betcha.

9 September 1999
My index page will continue to be “black” throughout the weekend. On Monday, I am going to launch an action page containing the issues that I have a passion for — including free speech issues.

There is one additional article from the Freedom Forum concerning Kincaid v. Gibson. One quote from Mark Goodman, director of the SPLC, stood out in the article.

“This decision represents an almost 180-degree turn from the strong First Amendment protections that have traditionally been afforded public college student media. Make no mistake, if allowed to stand, the decision · will gut student journalism programs at some colleges and universities.”

Kincaid centered around Kentucky State University’s withdrawal of The Thoughbred student yearbook from circulation for reasons such as “lack of school colors” and poor quality. Full details of the case can be found at the SPLC’s Kincaid page.

Meanwhile at UCSD, I am still researching what may be a large gap in the state’s open meeting laws. Namely, laws that are supposed to ensure access to the public governing process simply don’t apply to the ten campuses of the  University of California. You can see a summary of my research including the complete text of a state appeals court case that sets precidence for the university’s claims.

Now for some non-First Amendment content. Here’s my first set of short-attention span commentaries. I did hide some First Amendment stuff in there, but it’s all in good fun. (You, of course, realize that I’m going to disappear from the Internet when school starts. Enjoy it while it lasts.)

8 September 1999
My index page has gone “black” in protest of today’s decision to restrict college media’s right to free speech and a free press by the U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Read the reactions from the Student Press Law Center and the Freedom Forum.

This case, Kincaid v. Gibson, marks the first time, an appeals court has used the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1988 decision in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeieron (which allowed secondary schools to censor and restrict the speech of high school student media) to justify censorship of college media. Today’s decision directly affects states within the Sixth Circuit (Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee).

On a more upbeat note, FCC Chairman William E. Kennard announced that he intends to fully implement the proposal for the LPFM service. Kennard was speaking at the National Association of Broadcasters convention last week in Florida. The NAB has taken a position against the creation of LPFM. Write your congressman or senator in support of LPFM

3 August 1999 
SALT LAKE CITY — Just spent two wonderful days in Utah with my family. We all gathered to take a family photo — even my aunt and uncle living in Tokyo. It was great to be back in the town where I was born. Now, I must prepare for the 11-hour drive back to Poway.

5 July 1999
Hey, hey. Here’s a badly needed update to my homepage. Check out some of the new stuff I added. By popular request, some pictures of my family will appear shortly. There are at least two more pieces that are almost ready for prime time.

Last quarter was my best ever. I had my best academic performance. I won two awards — second place in the SPJ contest and the Michael Sklar Award in the band.

9 June 1999 
Go finals! I’ve got two tests on Thursday and Friday. Here’s hoping that they go well.

Presenting my resume….

19 May 1999 
Ryan Olson – Award-winning Journalist!?!
The San Diego Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has posted the list of winners in their annual contest and I’m on it! I won’t know what I won until the banquet on June 10, but I’m psyched!

When I find out what I have won, I will post the story to the Guardian Stories section. BTW, there is a lot more stuff coming because I just started writing again. I’ll be back soon with reflections on 21 years of sobriety. – RTO

21 April 1999  
Gosh, time flies when you’re having fun. It’s near the middle of the last quarter of my junior year and things are hoppin’! I just got back from the UCSD Pep Band‘s annual trip to UC Davis near Sacramento. The newspaper ran a photo of us on the front page. Check out the scan of the photos that I put on my UCSD space.

As with everything else, I am constantly looking at how to make things better. Instead of moving my site to Tripod as originally planned, I want to open a website dedicated to the music that I have been playing for 10 years. Be sure to look for it when I have a spare moment.

Anyhoo, studying awaits as I try to successfuly make my way through another quarter. Adios! – RTO

12 March 1999 
The next generation of the Kronos One project is here. I’ve redesigned the main index page and getting ready to jump to Tripod. I’m (mostly) happy about the inside pages, so they shall remain mostly the same. If there are any errors, please e-mail me at rtolson@ucsd.edu

12/18/98

  • Created subdirectories for K1P pages.
  • Added news stories to the archieve in Guardian Stories.

9/12/98

  • Created In Focus to present commentaries and other articles.
  • Revamped website to include new look and feel.

9/3/97

7/1/97

  • I added GeoGuide to the index.html page.
  • Attempted to change Guestbooks, but since I don’t have have visitors I dropped the idea.
  • Added the Second Rate Slide Show. Placed several photos from UCSD Commencement, 1997 on a page.
  • Added explanation to the KronosX page so that people can download and view the site map.

6/12/97

  • I added a Java console on my page, but it made it slow so its outa here!
  • Added another Forum Piece and am working on my Links page ( I’m going to work it into one soon.)
  • I also am adding a nifty button bar to the top and a Kronos One tab on the bottom of all of the pages I edit.
  • By the way, some people are dropping by the space, thanks for coming and please keep coming back.

2/7/97

  • Dropped Mental Giants and the Commish, due to lack of intrest (by me, of course)
  • Replacing Mental Giants is KronosX using Apple‘s HotSauce technology.

1/6/97

12/19/96

  • The Kronos One Project is now the main page, index.html
  • Created UCSDvr and designed the UCSD Commuter Connection page
  • Redesigned the navigation bar.

12/2/96

  • Placed the first content on site

11/22/96

11/15/96

  • Got rid of the clock
  • Modified index.html and modified the others to match
  • First use of spell-checker on site
  • Created and placed the following sites
    • What’s New
    • Kronos One Preview Pages
      • UCSD Commuter Connection
      • Mental Giants
      • The Commish
  • Updated all web pages

11/14/96

11/12/96

  • Downloaded Claris Home Page Beta 2.0a
  • Used Claris Home Page to redesign index.html

11/4/96