Olympia Time

History, politics, people of Oly WA

Author: Emmett O'Connell (Page 83 of 177)

Why don’t they just start blogs? (student free speech)

October 13, 2008 / / 0 Comments

This story is about the harrowing tale of student journalists in Pierce County bumping heads with school administrators over what to publish in the school paper.

I sort of had the same experience at my high school, but with a literary magazine, and not a newspaper. Instead of working in the system, I got together with my friends and with $20 and 90s home computer put together a 8 page literary magazine that we distributed around school for the better part of a year.

Today, I would have put up a Ning social network to allow any student to put up stories. I would email out links to everyone I know with an email address, and republish on facebook and myspace. I’d also pass out photocopies of articles for anyone who wants one.

By continuing to work through a school district funded publication, we’re teaching student journalists the exact wrong lesson for the media environment today. You don’t need someone else to let you or to pay you to be a reporter. You should just be one.

Ann Rule and Archie Binns

October 8, 2008 / / 0 Comments

She was his student at UW:

Quick Note To Kathy W.

I remember your grandfather, Archie Binns, very well, indeed. He was one of my professors in Novel Writing at the University of Washington. He was a very interesting man who shared many traits with other writers who taught at the U. in those days: Dylan Thomas, Theodore Roethke, Richard Eberhart. His personal life was very dramatic and exciting, too. We were all in awe of him because he was a PUBLISHED AUTHOR!

I would write to you in private, but I have no way of knowing anyone’s email address when they post on my weblog.

Ann

Anyone know what’s going on up at Cascadia near Orting

October 5, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Inspired by this.

Cascadia is a mega-planned development near Orting, that as far as I can tell, has hit a big road bump. I haven’t been able to find anything newsy on whether construction on the project has halted or not, but evidence is mounting.

Their news page has been silent since April and totally dead since July.

As far as I can tell, the three builders (Bennett, Centex, and Shea) that have bought into the project (one for $12 million) aren’t selling homes there.

Has the largest planned community in Washington fallen to the axe of the housing bubble?

Son of Roland, what say you?

Either way, I’m up there every so often for work, so I’m thinking of driving by just to take a look.

Orca Books, the place to buy books online (who knew?)

October 5, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Aside from spending bookstore gift cards, I’ve found the best new way for me to buy books.

From now on, I’ll fill out the order form from Orca and exchange emails with the nice staff down there and pick up my book in a few days.

The process was amazingly like getting a book from the library, minus actually having to pay for the book at pick-up and a couple of emails.

Now that I think of it, the emails (and one phone call) were actually a very pleasant addition to the process. Made ordering a book a human process, rather than pulling out my credit card and punching in the numbers. I felt a lot better spending the money waiting until the book was available downtown.

I’m not too familiar with the plight of independent book stores against the giant book sellers, but I’m sure there have been some discussions on how to use the web to fight against amazon.com, B&N and Borders. While efforts like Booksense and Indiebound are commendable, it turns out (at least in my case) the best thing to do is to make it simple and pleasant to order a book for pickup.

Have nice and responsive staff and an email form that works. By making interacting with customers online a priority, Orca has secured me (again) as a loyal customer.

Fact checking Ken Balsley on “Chris” Gregoire

October 4, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Ken this morning:

When did Christine Gregoire become Chris Gregoire? When her political handlers decided she needed to become more friendly and approachable. In her first run for governor she ran as Christine Gregoire, in an effort to appear professional and in charge. This time around, she wants to be seen as just one of the girls.

This is a nice little myth that the governor has tried to repackage herself as a kinder, gentler version of herself. Convenient for a subset of folks that think a strong female leader should be “kinder and gentler.”

Poor Ken though, these internets sure are tricky for him, because he’s 100 percent wrong (from Internet Archive circa September 2004):

Chris Gregoire was raised in Auburn by her mom, who made a living as a short-order cook. She worked her way through college with a job at a print shop and earned a teaching certificate before attending law school. Chris shares our views and values. She’ll lead Washington in the right direction.

I guess in 2004 she wasn’t interested in packaging herself as “professional and in charge.”

Dino Rossi and Robin Edmondson (and others) on the same sign

September 30, 2008 / / 0 Comments

I saw the weirdest signs while driving around today. Throughout southern Pierce and eastern Thurston County, there were Dino Rossi signs that featured local candidates. Signs along Highway 507 in Pierce County had Dino Rossi’s name on one side and Randi Becker (who is running for state senate) on the other.

There are similar signs in Thurston County with Rossi on one side and Robin Edmondson (county commission candidate on the other.

I took a short video of the Rossi/Edmondson sign on Pacific near Marvin outside of Lacey:

Just a few questions:

1. Who’s paying for the sign? Dino Rossi trying to establish coattails? Local party? State party?

The individual candidates (who are both challengers) working together to try to establish connections with a popular Republican candidate who will likely win in their districts, while they have a harder go at it?

2. What is the reporting requirments on a sign that supports two candidates?

3. No matter who paid for it, does this mean that Dino Rossi is bigger than the Republican party in these rural districts that elect Democrats?

Couldn’t avoid embarrasment, and I checked out

September 29, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Mariners, ech. I wish I could have kept looking, but with the one person I-continued-to-talk-about-the-Mariners-with being out of town and that losing streak, I had to look away.

For the last three years I’ve kept a tally of wins and losses, until about a week into September. I stopped marking the calendar about a week into September.

I’ll update the calendar later today to finish out the year. It was probably trying to blog about the Mariners not losing 100 games that pushed me over the edge, ironically.

In a couple of months I’ll be looking forward to baseball (and North American soccer), but for now I’m glad the train is good and wrecked.

TVW to hire a blogger

September 17, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Well, a producer/host/blogger:

ORGANIZATION: TVW

POSITION: Executive Producer / News Editor / Host

CLOSING DATE: Oct. 3

DESCRIPTION
TVW – Washington Public Affairs Network – is offering a unique and challenging career opportunity for a professional communicator. TVW is looking for an Executive Producer to oversee the content and creative direction of the network’s produced programming.

Not only does TVW’s Executive Producer get the opportunity to consistently do in-depth reporting on substantive issues, but this position is also a civics educator responsible for maintaining TVW’s meticulous reputation for trusted, unbiased, politically balanced coverage.

Specific responsibilities include:
– Producing, writing and hosting a weekly public affairs news magazine program
– Writing, editing, managing and promoting the network’s news blog
– Creating, writing and coordinating production of on-air promotions
– Developing additional issue-oriented documentary programming

QUALIFICATIONS
The position requires energy, innovation and leadership; a strong working knowledge of television; the ability to write, edit, report and make news judgments – all under tight deadlines; and the temperament to work cooperatively and positively with others while under pressure.

A minimum of two years’ television experience and a degree in communications, broadcast journalism or a related field is required. Washington state public policy expertise or experience is preferred.

HOW TO APPLY
To apply, submit résumé, cover letter and demo DVD – by Oct. 3 – to Mike Bay, VP of Programming, TVW, P.O. Box 25, Olympia, WA 98507-0025 or email mikeb@tvw.org. EOE.

In my perfect world, they’d split up the job of host/producer and blogger into two jobs. It probably has to do with budget constraints, but the job of a blogger and broadcast person are two different jobs.

Well, maybe someday.

New local blog list at the Olympia wiki

September 10, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Started a list of blogs at the Olympia wiki. This is essentially my effort to chart the olympiablogosphere and to remind people that the wiki even exists.

So, if you have a blog, list it there please.

Got started this morning and was basically able to outline two big categories: community blogs and individual blogs. I think this is an important distinction because the first group the places I would suggest people to go if they wanted to participate directly in a community, the second, for one on one conversation with a blogger.

I was only able to list two blogs in the individual blog list before I got called away, so since this is a wiki, feel free to add to it.

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