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.

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.)

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

Shooting Stars

Editor’s note: This essay was published on an earlier incarnation of this site, but didn’t make the transition for some reason. I’ve re-created it here, but I don’t recall exactly when it was published — aside from “Nov. 1998.” — RTO

Beauty isn’t skin deep

Nov. 1998.

Sometimes the best things in life are those that are inexpensive and simple. When you consider it, what is more worthwhile, a walk in the park with the sun setting behind the mountains or seeing what dribble television network officials smear across your boob tube screen.

I saw one of the most beautiful things last month when I drove for 45 minutes up into the mountains of San Diego County to witness the Leonid meteor shower. I had been disappointed that I had never seen a meteor shower in person. My love of space is deep — springing forth from tomes of science fiction and the stories of real space exploration. In the fourth grade, I was proud member of the Young Astronauts club. In the tenth grade, I brought a viewer to witness the last total solar eclipse in North America during my lunch period. To witness a meteor storm would be terrific.

My evening got off to a late start — I was doing some late research in the library. It was after midnight when I left campus to join some friends that had already left.

I was worried about the weather. Forecasts said that the viewing in Southern California would be poor. As I approached the foothills I grew worried — an inland fog had settled in. If the fog stayed, there would be no way of seeing the showers. My fears were unfounded as my car broke through the fog as we ascended the hills and I could see the stars with a clarity that I could never see in the city. At long last, I finally reached the peak of the hillside.

I got off the interstate and proceeded to drive along the winding road that lead to the peak of the mountain. I was astounded by how many people were in the turnouts of the road — there seemed to be dozens of cars. I entered the Cleveland National Forest and saw another surprise — there are honest-to-God forests in San Diego County. Tall, glorious trees lined along the road with their leaves scattered in my path. I could pretend for an instant that I was driving on a backroad in Georgia, Utah or Colorado.

Not long after my discover of trees, I saw my first meteor. The meteor blazed across the sky right above the road that I was driving on. It looked very much like brilliant fireworks streaming in the sky. I couldn’t wait to pull off of the road to see more. My search for my friends was in vain, I kept driving until I realized that I had gone too far. I turned back and made a hasty dash back towards the interstate so that I could view the peak of the show. All the while I could catch glimpses of the meteors streaming across the sky. One meteor seemed to race alongside of my car.

Before long, I had reached the largest turnout. I pulled in, careful to turn off my headlights so that I wouldn’t disturb the viewing of those that had been there for hours. I got out of my car so that I could take in a total view of the night sky. Almost immediately, I realized that my T-shirt and jean shorts were going to do little to keep the cold away from me. It was really cold, but I soon grew accustomed to the mountainous climes.

At first I wandered around alone gazing at the black sky set afire with the light of a trillion stars. The shooting stars would speed through the sky every thirty seconds. Even though each individual meteor was a different size, they all looked like miniature comets spending their last instant suspended in the air. As I stood in the crisp cool mountain air, I craned my neck so that I could scan the sky. More than once I wished that I could see the entire expanse of the sky, but the view I had was enough. I could see the vast expanse of the Milky Way Galaxy spread across the sky. I could see the Big Dipper hiding behind the summit of the mountain and the moon hanging high.

Eventually, I came around to some people trying to take photographs of the night sky. The people I talked to were very polite, probably because everyone that spent the night in the mountains had something in common — they were crazy enough to be awake at two in the morning to see a meteor storm. While I was talking to these people, I saw the greatest meteor of the evening. The meteor created a flash that made everyone pause. The meteor skipped across the sky flaring like strobe light and left a brilliant light path in its wake. I could almost hear the sound of the meteor as it crashed into the atmosphere. I could hear the people near their cars ooh, aah and cheer as if this were similar to a baseball game in a stadium. The people with the cameras quickly shifted to try and catch a glimpse of the now-departed rock. Despite all of the fun, I had to tear myself away — I needed to go back to school so that I could work early that morning.

Even though I was completely satisfied with the show that morning, there was still one more spectacle in store. I was driving home on Interstate 5 from UCSD that Friday night, I could see one last shooting star fire through the sky pushing past the thick blanket of cold impersonal city lights. As I drove on, I quietly whispered aloud the old children’s wishing poem “I wish I may, I wish I might, See the first star in the sky tonight…” When I reached the wishing part of the poem, I trailed off into silence with a sigh. I thought of all my dreams and wishes and yet not resolving to choose merely one for that long-gone shooting star.