Welcome to my most humble Home Page. I've been working on it on and off for nearly six years now. I guess it's my way of keeping a journal. Buried amongst these pages you'll find all my secret desires, and passionate beliefs. Unfortunately, I couldn't help but share them with the rest of the world. If you've found something amongst my web pages that has helped or entertained you in some way, then I've done what I've set out to do. I'll keep plugging away at the site. Hoping to improve and expand it until it's complete. Yeah Right!
Robert L. Vaessen
This listing is an archive of the What's New entries from 2001.
November was a stressful month. I've finally passed all my certification tests. I'm now qualified at work. It's a very stressful job. More so than any other job I've ever worked before. This is the first time I've ever had to work a job where people could die if I didn't do my job correctly. Aside from passing the job certification exams, I also passed that '&*$#*@-ing Ergo' test. I was on the Self-Paced fitness program for just short of six months. I did it again, passed the test at the last moment. Now I'm eligible to get a 5 on that block for my ER. I hate that damned test. You never know, when you get on the bike, whether or not you're going to pass. It took a considerable amount of effort but I passed the Air Forces fitness test.
About the only thing out of the ordinary that I changed on the website was the addition of a new page. I recently added encryption capabilities to my computer. As a result, I added a page with my public key. I can now send and receive encrypted email. I wonder if I'll ever use it? There's a link to it on my feedback page. As usual, I updated my schedule page, and my books page.
October was another busy month for us. Kim got a new job with better pay, and I had to get an extension on my training. So far I've passed one of my certification tests with flying colors (97.4%). I hope I do as well on the second test. Halloween was a real bust. We had a total of seven kids show up at the door. I think the threats of terrorist action, combined with fears of poison in the candy kept most kids off the street. I think that this is the end of 'Trick-or-treat' as I remember it. Streets full of kids in costumes, and very few adults. Children running about from door to door, with a look of glee upon there face. We easily filled pillowcases with candy back then. Stopping only when the weight become more than we could bear. Those days are long gone now, and I think that formalized 'Trick-or-treating' is nearing it's end.
The Anniversary (We got married on my birthday) went well. I sent Kim a dozen roses, which were delivered to her work place. I had the day off, but Kim still had to work. After Kim got done with work we went to see a movie. We saw K-Pax. I had read the book back in April of this year. The book was o.k. I have to admit that the movie itself was very good. It really brought the book to life. It was very true to the book. In more than one way. An excellent film. While I didn't consider the book worthy of my 'Favorite Books' list, I would like to own a copy of the movie. After the movie we went out to eat. We ate at one of our favorite places. 'Ambrosia'. The food was so good... At one point, Kim and I were sitting across from each other; we both had our eyes closed, our mouths full of ambrosia, and soft moaning filled the air. If you ever get the chance to dine out in Denver stop at 'Ambrosia'. It's the best. The Annibirthday marks sixteen years of marriage, and my 38th birthday. Thankfully I don't feel any older. I actually feel a bit younger, having lost over twenty pounds since arriving in Denver.
Aside from the social update, I suppose I should fill you in on some of the changes to my web site. As usual, I updated my schedule page. I also updated my books page; I read two books during the month of October. Timeline by Michael Crichton, and Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden. At present I'm reading House Corino, the final book in the three part series by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. I also made my first foray to the local gaming store. I purchased a few Dungeons and Dragons books, and three new games. Finally, I also had a few application updates.
Like I said. October was a busy month. The weather continues to be rather mild. We've only had a few days with freezing temps so far. One day it actually snowed. Of course it all melted within a few hours. From what I've seen so far, it looks like the winters in these parts will probably be rather mild. I even went out running with temps around 37 degrees. Without any wind or humidity it wasn't that bad. After my 2.5 mile run I was quite warm. People looked at me strangely as I walked home from the hot tub wearing swim trunks and flip flops.
September was a pretty busy month. I changed ISP's, and now have high speed DSL access to the Internet. My DSL service is provided by Qwest. Who's customer service SUCKS by the way. My new ISP is PCISYS.net. A local ISP which was recommended by one of my coworkers. I also updated my Mac OS X operating system. Upgraded from 10.0.4 to 10.1. It's made a considerable difference in the speed of things. Especially Classic applications, which seem to run as fast now as under OS 9.2.1. The changes in the ISP necessitate some changes in my feedback and junk mail web pages. I also updated my books page; I finally finished reading the book: 'The End of Time'. What a mind trip! On to something a bit lighter. Also had a few application updates.
I didn't do much web work this month. The shift work is kind of keeping me busy. I did manage to update some pages with my email addresses on them. The feed back page, and the anti-spam page. Of course I updated my schedule page because it's a new month. Another Mac OS release (OS 9.2.1) has made my OSX classic environment much more stable. The only thing I did to my web pages that's really notable is the removal of a counter. I used to have a thecounter.com counter on my opening page. That was when the counter was invisible. Recently they changed that policy, and now the counter must be visible. So I removed the counter. I am not happy with advertisement, and that's what the counter had become. They insisted on having their name on my web page, so I removed them from my web page. So much for that free service. Seems like all the free services are going away, or becoming commercial in some way or another. It's a shame I tell you, and outright affront to the notion of 'free lunch'!
I've been reading, so I updated my books page. I've also been downloading software. Trying to keep up with OS 9.1, and OS X updates has been a little bit like playing catch up. The one thing that's really kept me from any significant web work this month has been one of my mail services. See my schedule for more info.
I haven't been working on my web pages much. Shift work has been keeping me tired and busy. I did manage to update my Schedule. That's about it though. Haven't been able to work on anything else.
O.k. Things are starting to come together. I've been updating a lot of stuff. Mostly getting rid of old stuff that's no longer relevant to current situation. We live in Denver now, and there have been a lot of changes in the past three months. I updated the following pages:
That's pretty much it. Updated a lot of stuff. Created a new page, and added shift work to my schedule.
I've been working hard at getting my web pages updated. Removing stuff that's only relevant to Misawa. Kim and I live in Denver now, but it'll take me some time to get the web pages up to speed to reflect all the relevant changes. In the meantime I've updated the Front Door; removing the CGI stuff that didn't work, and the references to the Spam Matrix (As explained below). I've recently started using BBEdit 6.1.2 with OS X. It'll take a while to learn all the new features, but I'm glad to have the power of BBEdit backing my web pages. You might want to check out the updated Software page. While on leave in Wisconsin I bought a bunch of new games. I haven't played all of them yet, but I went ahead and updated my Games list anyway. In addition to the games, I also updated my Books page.
We've moved. We now live in Denver Colorado. It sure is nice to be back in the good ol' U.S. of A. Misawa Japan was a great tour for me professionally, but it was certainly remote and isolated compared to Denver. Kim and I are still getting settled into our new digs, and we haven't even started working yet, but we're really happy with how things have been working out so far. watch this space for further updates.
One web site change of note. I've given up on the Spam Matrix. It was a noble idea, but I just don't have the time to fight spam on the same level anymore. I've pretty much resigned myself to simply deleting it for now.
We're moving. This may be the last entry for quite some time. The only update I made was to the spam Matrix. It'll probably be two months or so before I'm able to start making regular updates to my web site again. I'll still be able to receive email though, so feel free to write.
More about spam. It has been getting worse. Not only have I started to track the spam using a matrix, I've managed to keep up so far. I've decided to only keep a months worth of spam visible on the matrix. The old spam can still be accessed though. Hopefully this matrix will help me keep better track of Spammers who've been abusing me and my mail providers. I've decided to post this matrix on my web page just in case anyone else is interested. You'll find a link to it on my Spam Declaration page.
Aside from hunting spam, Kim and I have been busy getting ready for our upcoming PCS. We'll be departing Japan, and returning to the states at the end of this month. My next, and final Air Force assignment (I'll be retiring from the military) will be served at Buckley AFB in Aurora, Colorado. It's a rather small base right outside of Denver. I hope to find a job working for a Defense Department contractor after I get out, and the Denver area is a good place to look for the type of job I'm interested in.
Our D&D campaign is winding down, and I hope to start it up again after we get to Denver. I plan to run a 3rd edition campaign this time. I've still got to read the rules, so it may be a while before I manage to get a new campaign off the ground. Perhaps that will give me some time to be a player for a change.
Purchasing a new car is also taking up some of our time. Kim and I plan on purchasing a new Volkswagen Passat GLX sedan. It's a really nice car, and I think we'll be very happy with it. Thanks to the efforts of the worlds greatest Father In Law, the car will most likely be ready for Kim and I when we get back to Green Bay, WI.
Of course moving isn't an easy task, and Kim and I will be very busy over the next few months. This may be the last update I'm able to make for quite some time. I hope the move goes smoothly, and we don't have any problems. We still have to sell two cars, ship everything to Denver, travel to Wisconsin, take some leave (vacation), pick up the vehicles, drive to Aurora, and set up our new household. Sounds like loads of fun.
I have been very busy hunting SPAM. As a matter of fact, I've started to noticed a marked increase in the amount of Spam I've been receiving. It's gotten so bad that I've started to track the spam using a matrix. Hopefully this matrix will help me keep better track of Spammers who've been abusing me and my mail providers. I've decided to post this matrix on my web page just in case anyone else is interested. You'll find a link to it on my
O.k. January's over. February's here. I didn't spend much time on my web pages last month. Almost none as a matter of fact. I have been having some problems with the support folks at Geocities.com. They're clueless. I ask specific and precise questions, and they refer me to the FAQ's, ask me whether I've tried reading the online help, and attempt to placate me with canned autoreply statements. They suck!. The only reason I keep my pages hosted here now is because it would be a large nuisance to move them. Maybe I'll start looking for a new host...
Aside from updating my schedule, and books pages, I haven't made many changes to the site. I've been busy hunting Spam
First entry of the new year. If you want to see the old 'What's New' entries check the paragraph at the bottom of the page.
Thanks to the fine folks at GeoCities, I've had to update over 80 of my web pages, and troubleshoot a problem that I didn't even know existed. It seems that they no longer support the tilde (~) as a valid part of a URL path. Thanks for letting everyone know! (Not!). GeoCities Plus users used to be required to use the tilde (~) in their URL path if they wanted to use their username instead of one of those incredible long GeoCities neighborhood URL paths. So the URL for my home page used to be http://www.geocities.com/%7Ervaessen. A few months ago they informed all the GeoCities Plus users that the tilde was no longer necessary. As a result I slowly started changing some of my URL paths to something like this http://www.geocities.com/rvaessen. Recently GeoCities stopped accepting the tilde as a valid part of the URL path. Unfortunately, they didn't tell anyone that they were going to do this, or that they had done it. I had to find out after receiving email from friends who had problems getting to my web page. After a bit of investigating, I located the source of the problems. Today I corrected, and reposted, over 60 pages containing encoded tildes. %7E is the ascii code for the tilde sign (~). Some of my pages had this encoding in the URL paths. Although I had previously corrected over 21 URL's which contained unencoded tilde's, I had forgotten about those URL's containing the encoded tilde's. Hopefully this last change takes care of all the tilde associated changes.
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Author: Robert L. Vaessen e-mail: 
Last Updated: Saturday, December 01, 2001
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