What's New

What's New at Rob's World! What's new, changed, or improved recently.

Welcome to my most humble Web Site. I've been working on it on and off for nearly eight years now. I guess it's my way of keeping a journal. Buried between these pages you'll find all my secret desires, and passionate beliefs. Unfortunately, or luckily; I can'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. When's that? Robert L. Vaessen

This document is the "What's New" web log from 2003

December 31, 2003

New Year's Eve
Kim and I are celebrating by staying up late, watching a movie, having some Chinese food from Chef's Noodle House, and watching the immortal Dick Clark rockin' in the New Year.

Movies
Counting tonight's movie. I've seen four movies over the last four days. The three we bought on Saturday, and one from our collection.

Brotherhood of the Wolf: Spectacular. A fantastic foreign flick. This French film is unforgettable. A visually stunning artistic film with compelling characters, a great cast, spectaculer costumes, and a superb setting. The story ties it all together. Part mystery, part love story, part action thriller. This one gets a 7 out of 7 on my list.
They Live: A ridiculous sci-fi movie. Starring Roddy Piper (of Wrestling fame), and Keith David, another 'b' actor. This movie has very little going for it in terms of plot. Piper's character stumbles upon a sinister intergalactic alien conspiracy, and some special sunglasses. At one point there's this fantastic fight scene in an alley where Roddy Piper tryies to get Keith David to put on a pair of the sunglasses. 15 minutes later, they're both bloody, bruised, and covered in filth. One of my favorites, this one gets a 5 out of 7.
Run Lola Run: Oh yes! The pacing was frenetic. The directing was magnificent. The music was stunning. The acting by star Franka Potente (co-star in Bourne Identity) was excellent. I didn't doubt her sincerity for one moment. This isn't one movie, it's three. The movies basis fits nicely in my 'No such thing as time' theory. The movie examines actions, reactions and consequences. Creating a 'probability tree' along the way. It's a German film (watch it subtitled not dubbed) but reading the subtitles is a small price to pay for a movie like this. A 7 out of 7. Now I own a copy.
Unbreakable: A movie by M. Night Shyamalan. One of my favorite directors. Bruce Willis plays his usual sour bitter character, but overall the casting was excellent. The story plays out like the comic book it pays tribute to. An excellent movie. It gets a 6 out of 7.

Software favorites
Another update to my software favorites page. GraphicConverter is now at version 4.9.3b3. It just keeps getting better!

GraphicConverter is an image converter and manipulator. A fantastic piece of shareware that is well worth the price ($35.00). I use it to convert image formats into web standard formats, to create and edit image maps and other graphics. Available in 68k, OS9, and OSX versions. I've been singing GC's praises for many years now, but don't just take my word for it. Even Apple has written a glowing review . The best part about GC is it's author. Thorsten Lemke is completely committed to his customer base. Constantly responding to customer recommendations and bug reports. GC is a dynamic, evolving, application. Always on the cutting edge, an absolute must in any web developers tool box.

December 27, 2003

Shopping Spree
Kim and I spent part of our day spending a couple gift certificates. One from Best Buy and one from Target. We bought... can you guess? Movies!

Movies
Kim and I bought three new movies. They were all on my must 'buy' list. Run Lola Run, They Live, and Brotherhood of the wolf.

D&D® session
We played D&D tonight. It was the season finale, so to speak. The party fought the evil Naga. They won, but they payed dearly. Two characters are dead. Perhaps you should read the journal?

December 25, 2003

Merry Christmas
Kim and I would like to wish you happy holidays/merry Christmas. Kim and I were up very early. The lure of gifts was hard to resist. We opened all our gifts, and downed a bottle of bubbly. We must've been good kids, because Santa saw to it that we received lots of gifts. O.k. that was kind a corny, but what the heck it's Christmas. I hope your Christmas was as joyous as ours.

Movies
Kim and I watched two new movies Thanks to Rob & Ryoko Garrity.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone: A difficult movie to classify. I was afraid it was directed in the same manner that it was produced; like a children's movie. Well it wasn't. I was pleasantly surprised that it was more of an adult feature than I had suspected. A really good story, fair acting, and some excellent special effects. This movie gets a 4 out of 7.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets: Another Harry Potter adventure. As well done as the last. While the story was better, the addition of some less than likeable characters (How did Jar Jar Binks get into this movie?) kept the rating from going higher. This one gets a 4 out of 7.

December 24, 2003

'Twas the night before Christmas
Kim and I will be celebrating together in the comfort of our home away from home. Unfortunately, we can't be back home in Wisconsin with our family, but we'll certainly be thinking of them.

Movies
Kim and I watched a new holiday classic.

Dr. Seuss' how the Grinch stole Christmas: A new family classic. This is a charming flick, starring Jim Carrey as the Grinch. Unfortunately the next best actor out of the entire cast was the Grinch's dog. This movie gets a 4 out of 7. It was a 5 last time I watched it. But, I realize now that the poor acting (other than carrey) and limited scope justifies the drop in rating. I'll update the database eventually. It is a good movie for folks with kids, or folks who act like kids.

Software favorites
Another update to my software favorites page. GraphicConverter is now at version 4.9.3b2. It just keeps getting better!

December 21, 2003

D&D® updates
I posted a bunch of D&D® updates today. We played last weekend, and today I posted a bunch of updates that I had been working on throughout the week.

Updated the 3rd Edition Campaign page - Just updated the date for the next gaming session.
Monsters - I added a few new monsters to the monsters page. Added the Wight (forgot about it last time I did the updates), a dinosaur type pet, a huge spider, rotting Zombies, and some additional notes about the Naga.
The adventurer's journal - I posted last weeks session. Written from Ashedyn's point of view. Thanks Mark!

Lunch date & a movie
Out on a date. Kim & I met Jason for a day out. Jason showed up here, and we drove to the theater in the Passat. We saw the latest 'Lord of the Rings' movie. Jason paid our admission to 'Return of the King'. An epic unlike any other. This trilogy has set a standard likely to last a hundred years. Grand in scale, cinematic, moving, and breathtaking. The telling of Tolkein's tale is unlike any other movie. This final chapter caps the series with a brilliant gem. This movie gets a 7 out of 7, and earns a prominent spot on my must 'buy' list.

After the movie, we went to Mimi's Cafe for some eats. The gift certificate was the prime motivator behind this choice. A chain restaurant, Mimi's is a family eatery with a pretty good menu. I order Cajun blackened salmon. Kim ordered a pasta dish, and Jason ordered a steak. No one complained about the food, but no one praised it either. The best part was the service. Prompt and polite. Kim said something about the women's bathroom being a mess, and the staff immediately acted on her comment. It was good cooking, at typical Denver prices.

After the movie we headed home. When we got home Stacy came over and rolled up stats for his character. That makes seven players in the game. It's a full house! Next week, the final conclusion. Will the party defeat the Naga, or will the evil in the swamp spread further abroad?

December 20, 2003

Bonus Software
Just another example of why I choose Mac. I have a subscription to .Mac. A service built for Mac users. Today I downloaded some software. The free software is one of the benefits of my .Mac membership. This time it's a copy of Arcsoft's PhotoStudio X for Macintosh. A $79.00 value, this piece of software, combined with all the other fantastic software, training, email, support forums, and countless other benefits, make .Mac a fantastic service. I recommend it to anyone who owns a Mac.

Movies
Kim and I watched a Blockbuster rental tonight. Kim saw this one before, but I hadn't.

Kalifornia: A pretty good movie.Two journalists set out on a journey across the country. Little do they know that one of their passengers is the subject of their study. Bradd Pitt does a fantastic job as a serial killer with a mean streak. The acting is pretty good, the plot is mediocre, the casting was o.k. This movie gets a 3 out of 7.

December 19, 2003

Christmas party
Yet another Christmas party. This time it was the group of people I work with. A mix of military (officers and enlisted), government civilians, and defense contractors. The setting was a nice building beside a pool (closed for the winter) in a housing development behind the base. I paid $6.00, and brought a dish with. It was a potluck. The food was o.k. I really liked those 'cosco' meatballs! I had a beer, and the door prizes were...Well I don't know, I didn't win, and I didn't get to see what anyone won. The best part was the people. If Kim had been able to make it I know I would have had a better time. Last christmas party of the year. I should have had another beer!

Software favorites
Another software update. Transmit has been updated to version 2.6.2. This upgrade addresses some Panther compatibility issues.

Anyone who publishes web pages eventually needs a way to upload their pages to a web site. I've found that stand alone FTP tools are the best for this task. Transmit has a clean and easy to use interface, and some really nifty features, like the ability to resume a transfer that's been interrupted, site synchronization capabilities, and secure ftp transfer capability.

December 17, 2003

Software favorites
Another software update. This time it's Stuffit Deluxe. Now at version 8.0.2. With zip compression built into Mac OS 10.3 (Panther), Aladdin may see some sales slip. I still think it's superior to zip compression (20% greater compression levels). I'll keep using it, even after my OS X upgrade. This upgrade makes some changes to the zip comparability (caused by the new OS X upgrade).

Movies
Now that Kim is working evenings, I find that I'm alone in the house and bored out of my skull. As a result, I've been watching movies. Tonight I watched another Blockbuster rental.

Scotland, PA: A winner this time! Thank god, I was getting really depressed with the crappy stuff I've been watching lately. This movie is actually based on Shakespere's play: MacBeth. Set in a Fast Food restaurant. This movie is a dark comedy. A parody on PA in the 70's, and a swell retelling of MacBeth. The king is the owner of the restaurant, the casting was great, and the laughs were subtle. Anytime I get to see Christopher Walken on the set I'm happy. When he actually talks it only gets better. This one gets a 6 out of 7. I'm adding it to my must buy list.

December 16, 2003

D&D®
I created a new page today. Another addition to the 3rd Edition Campaign. We use 3 x 5 index cards in order to keep track of all the characters equipment. Here you'll find the rules, reason, and format for the 3 x 5 index cards. (Thanks to Mark for proposing the idea).

Movies
Now that Kim is working evenings, I find that I'm alone in the house and bored out of my skull. As a result, I've been watching movies. Tonight I watched another Blockbuster rental. Regardless of whether I get a Netflix subscription for christmas or not, I will get a Netflix subscription. The Blockbuster model just isn't working anymore.

Hollywood Homicide: Another inane hollywood mistake. This movie just didn't move me. An aging cop and his young partner. A plot that's been done a million times. Supposedly a comedy... It's no wonder Harrison Ford isn't cast in many comedies. The plot is piss poor, the acting stiff and luke warm. The only redeeming feature was the music. This one gets a 3 out of 7. The fact that Harrison Ford's character was trying to sell real-estate no matter what else was happening was an interesting diversion from the slow moving wreak that was the rest of the plot.

December 15, 2003

Books
I finished reading another one of those cosmology/philosophy/quantum physics books. The Matter Myth: Dramatic discoveries that challenge our understanding of physical reality. Written by Paul Davies and John Gribben. Well written and illuminating. Of course I've started reading a new book... Red Rabbit: by Tom Clancy. I'm giving him one more chance. I wasn't very impressed with the last two novels. This one better rise above the self indulgent machismo exhibited in the last two books. A return to the Jack Ryan character may be just what the doctor ordered.

Movies
Now that Kim is working evenings, I find that I'm alone in the house and bored out of my skull. As a result, I've been watching movies. Tonight I watched a Blockbuster rental (I sure wish I had NetFlix!).

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Perl - Your typical hollywood block-buster. Pablum for the masses. A flat story, mediocre acting, and ho-hum action. I really despised this movie. It felt like a one track roller coaster. No detours, no getting off, a few loop-de-loops, and then it was over. If it wasn't for the If you don't feel like thinking much, rent this movie. I give it a 3 out of 7. The only redeeming feature was Geoffrey Rush's performance as Barbossa (The bad pirate).

December 14, 2003

More D&D® updates
I posted a bunch of D&D® updates today. We played last night, and today I posted a bunch of updates that I had been working on throughout the week.

Updated the 3rd Edition Campaign page - Just updated the date for the next gaming session.
3rd edition Who's Who - Added Emrikol-Oz's background.
Added more information to the Where Now page. With Emrikol-Oz's background, some new places were added.
The house rules have been updated again. I'm trying to get ready for the 3rd level update. Once the characters go up to 3rd level I'm introducing a bunch of new house rules. This update covers everything except the weapons update. The following areas contain updated or changed house rules.
1. Classes and races available for play
2. Heroic luck
3. Ability score rolling
4. Selection of Weapons
5. Selection of Armor
6. Weapon non-proficiency penalties
7. Armor non-proficiency penalties
8. Equipment (3 x 5 index cards)
9. Initiative and weapon speed modifiers
10. Initiative and drawing a weapon
11. Initiative and changing your attack
12. Initiative and multiple attacks
13. Critical success and failure
14. Firing into melee
15. Shield bash
16. Knockdowns
17. Experience points

This may seem like a lot of changes, but the players have already been informed about most of these changes. Most of the changes are small alterations to existing official rules. A few are new rules. I'd like to thank everyone who helped me come up with, formulate, and shape these house rules. If you have any questions regarding any of the changes, please feel free to contact me.

Sunny San Vito
I added copyright disclaimers to some of the photos on my San Vito photos collection. As I remember it, a friend of ours (Jim Sistare) took all the black & white photos. He probably took some of the other photos, but it's been a while, and I can't remember who took all the photos.

Kim and I lived in southern Italy for seven years. The place was affectionately known as 'Sunny San Vito'. It was the best tour we've ever had. The mission was worthwhile, the climate unbelievable, the people were genuine, the food was sinful, and the friends were the best of all. Here is a photo journal of our time in that fabled far away place from so long ago.

Movies
Now that Kim is working evenings, I find that I'm alone in the house, bored out of my skull. As a result, I've been watching movies. Tonight I watched the last of three movies purchase earlier this week (see 7 Dec entry).

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes - A cult classic. A spoof of the 1950's 'B' (for bad) horror movies. A forerunner to movies like 'Airplane'. Ridiculous plot, bad acting, sappy music, poor casting, this movie's got it all. I'm ashamed to admit that I actually bought this movie. This one gets a 2 out of 7. The theme song (credit score) is really good and there's a four way phone conversation that was very well done.

December 12, 2003

Christmas party
Kim and I attended the Air Force christmas party this evening. The DJ was horrible. The food was pretty good. We paid $30.00 a piece, and we had to pay $5.00 for parking!. The door prizes were pretty lame, but everyone seemed to win something. We won a 'smores gift set, and a gift certificate for Mimi's Cafe. It must be the end of an era though. Usually they give away gag gifts. Skate of the year, flirt of the year, lush of the year, brown-noser of the year; that sort of thing. Nothing like that this year... It's sad to see a tradition end.

December 11, 2003

Posting all the updates
I spent some more time updating web pages. I've been waiting for some input from one of the players, but it's time to press on. Without further ado, here's a slew of web page postings...

D&D®
Whew! It's been over a week since I updated the D&D® pages. Here's a recap.

Updated the 3rd Edition Campaign page - Just updated the date for the next gaming session.
Added four new entries to the Monsters page - The party encountered a Giant Weasel, a group of Ghouls, a Wight, and a Demon.
3rd edition Who's Who - There's a lot of changes to this page.
1. I made some major changes to the player character entries. I added two new characters: Solindria and Emrikol-Oz.
2. Lumiarti and Kragus are gone from the Player Character section.
3. I added two new victims (Kelond & Danieth) of the Naga's evil scourge.
4. I updated the listing for Misha the evil magic user. She's err, dead!
5. Added an entry for an adventurers group. The 'Clean-up Crew'.
The adventurer's journal - I had a major battle with Dreamweaver MX, and ended up removing the double column entries. I also posted last weeks session. Written from Ashedyn's point of view. Thanks Mark!
The Gallery of Hero's. I added links to the Kragus and Lumiarti entries. The links lead to brand new pages. The pages are little bio's of each character. If you're a former player in my "Rob's World!" campaign, and your character is missing from the list, I'd gladly add it if I had the necessary information. If you'd like to see your character (Ilea) listed here, please send me an email with all the necessary information.

Software favorites
Another update to my software favorites page. GraphicConverter is now at version 4.9.3b1 and BBEdit moved up to version 7.1.1.

BBEdit is a high-performance HTML and text editor for the Macintosh. It is designed and crafted for the editing, searching, transformation, and manipulation of text. BBEdit provides a vast array of general-purpose features which are useful for a wide variety of tasks, and includes many special purpose features which have been specifically developed in response to the needs of Web authors and software developers. It's an absolute must for any MAC enthusiast. Window's users eat your heart out!

December 11, 2003

A busy day
It was a long day. Up at 0500. Shower, shave, dress, breakfast, out the door by 0705. At work by 0735. Work until 1550, leave for the gym. Work out until 1610, gotta get groceries. Shopping at the commisary until 1700. Gotta get gas for the Jeep, heading home at 1730. Arrive at 1755, put away some groceries. Have to shovel driveway and sidewalks, that takes a little more than an hour. Undress, unwind, heat up some food. Eating from 1830-1900. Finally relaxed a little, watched another one of those new movies.

Gattaca - Orwellian Sci-fi flick starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman. The characters are a bit stoic, but the story is engrossing. In a world where perfection is everything, a man with a heart defect deceives everyone and strives to achieve the impossible. An original story, a journey to another world. Smart and shiny, this movie grabs a 5 on its way to 7.

In the end we didn't get all that much snow. Maybe three or four inches out here near the airport. One more movie to watch.

December 8, 2003

Sleepy snowy day
It's snowing out. Snowed most of the day. After fighting traffic on the way home, I sat back and watch it snow. Worked on the web pages, watched one of the new movies.

Switch Back - A murder suspense mystery with Dennis Quaid, Danny Glover and Jared Leto. Dennis Quaid plays a single minded detective, Danny Glover plays an atypical murderer, and Jared Leto plays the hapless hitch-hiker. The casting is pretty good and the plot keeps moving. Definitely worth watching. This one gets a 4 out of 7.

I wonder how much snow we'll end up with? It was still snowing, or maybe it was just blowing? by the time I went to bed.

December 7, 2003

BestBuy
Kim and I went on a little spending spree today. Thanks to the generous folks at Ciber (see the entry below). $250.00 doesn't go very far at BestBuy. Electronics and electronic media aren't cheap. What did we buy? Here's a list:

A Panasonic DVD player. The progressive scan type. To replace an old Panasonic model (that we bought a looonnngg time ago) that died about three years ago. We payed about $450.00 for the original one. It was normally $600.00. This new one cost us $75.00.
Movies. We bought three movies on DVD.
1. Switch Back
2. Gatacca
3. Attack of the Killer Tomatos
Music. We bought five CD's.
1. The Best of R.E.M. - In time 1988-2003
2. Eels - Shootenanny!
3. The Blasters - Testament: The complete slash recordings (a 2 CD set)
4. Oceans - A string quartet tribute to Enya (Kim's music)
5. Enya - Paint the sky with stars: The best of Enya (Kim's music)
Batteries. We bought two lithium batteries for Kim's camera (A Canon Rebel 2000)

I didn't buy any movies from my must buy list. There's an off chance that some of the movies on that list might show up under the tree. We left the store with $8.00 on the gift card. Hey, it was all free!

December 6, 2003

Christmas party
Kim and I attended the Ciber holiday party this evening. Kim works for Ciber now, in case you didn't know. The party was held at Denver's Hyatt Regency, in the penthouse suite. It was quite a shindig! The food was free, the parking was free, the first drink at the bar was free. There wasn't a sit down meal, but the finger food was excellent. The best part of the evening? Kim won a door prize! $250.00 at BestBuy.

I met some of Kim's co-workers, They were really nice people. we had a really good time. I was glad we went.

Bandwidth thief
Apparently some people don't care how they get a hold of the graphics that they display on their web site.

Today I sent a message to the abuse desk at Xanga.com

Attention Xanga administrators -

On the 30th of November, while checking my web logs, I noticed that one
of your members (Author of EverSoSweet313 'blog) was using an image from
my web site.

Unfortunately, he wasn't just using the image, he was linking directly
to it. The image he was linking to is copyright protected. On my web page
I have a disclaimer/copyright notice for the materials. He did not include
any such disclaimer/notice in his 'blog.

I sent him an email (through a xanga feedback form), asking that he make
a copy of the image (for hosting on his 'blog server), and suggesting that
he include a disclaimer/copyright notice as I had done.

I received no reply. His 'blog is getting updated daily, so I suspect that
he's reading his email.

My copy of the image resides at: https://www.robsworld.org/chopsticks.html

His direct link to an image on my web site is causing my web hits (access
statistics) to be skewed. Every time someone visits his web site/page:
it shows up as a hit on my web site.

Also; it looks like he tried to include an HREF link to my chopstick instructions,
but forgot to include the appropriate A HREF coding.

After receiving no response, I emailed him again (using a Xanga feedback
form) on the 2nd of December. I indicated that I wanted him to stop linking
to my image/web site. I also informed him that I was going to change the
graphic, and that it might change again.

The first time I changed the graphic, I simply converted it into an advertisement
for my web site. Today I changed the graphic again, this time I added a
statement regarding his theft of bandwidth.

This users direct linking to images at my web site appears to be a violation
of your terms of use. Please take what ever action is necessary to stop
this abuse. Perhaps he'll respond to your emails?

- Robert

Sun, November 30, 2003

Lunch date & a movie
Out on a date. Kim & I went out to eat and took in a movie today. We went to Ted's Montana Grill for lunch. It's a really nice place with awesome decor, and the place was 'quiet'. Unlike many restaurants in the area, I could actually hear myself thinking. The booths are nice. Their specialty is... Bison. The wait staff was very attentive, helpful and courteous. I ordered a bowl of the "Flying 'D' chili" and some salt & pepper onion rings. The chili was outstanding. This is the second time we were here. I went by myself the first time around. The take out alone was such a good experience, that I took Kim there for lunch today. Another fine establishment in Aurora. Only ten minutes from our house.

After lunch we went to the movie theater. We saw Master & Commander: The far side of the world. The movie was on my 'watch list'. It's a terrific movie. Victorian naval warfare, and high seas adventure. Starring Russell Crowe, and directed by Peter Weir. This movie is well worth the money. Outstanding acting, powerful directing, a gripping musical score, and edge of your seat action. This movie gets a 6 out of 7, and earns a spot on my 'must buy' list.

Sat, Nov 29, 2003

Movies
Now that Kim is working evenings, I find that I'm alone in the house, bored out of my skull. As a result, I've been watching movies. Lately I saw a few of movies. Four from BlockBuster, one I purchased, and one that Jason brought over.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - The directors cut (Thanks Jason). With 44 minutes of extra footage. The cast, costumes, story, special effects, sound, music, sets, scenery, everything was done right. Captivating, Thrilling, Epic. This movie gets a 7 out of 7.
Shaghai Knights - Nowhere nearly as fresh as Shanghais Noon. Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan back on the screen in another comedic adventure. This one rated 4 out of 7.
Before Night Falls - A sundance award winner. The life story of a homosexual cuban writer. The directing was excellent, the acting was genuine, a good movie. It gets a 4 out of 7.
Bruce Almighty - This is the second time I've seen this movie, but it definitely won't be the last. I liked it so much I bought a copy. Outstanding! I laughed my head off. It gets a 7.

That's about all I've got time for today. Aside from watching these movies, I also updated my movie pages. I should go back to bed. I've had 4 hours of sleep, we're going shopping this morning, and We've got D&D® tonight. I'll work on the newsletter tomorrow some time.

Wed, Nov 26, 2003

D&D®
I just posted some new files on the 3rd Edition Campaign page. A new copy of the house rules, and a new file. The new file is a copy of the campaign specific feats. The new feats file is a password protected pdf. Members of our campaign have the password.

Thanks go out to Mark for providing some excellent suggestions regarding house rules. If you've got an idea or recommendation, please feel free to email me.

Tue, Nov 25, 2003

Software favorites
Another update to my software favorites page. GraphicConverter is now at version 4.9.2b1. It just keeps getting better!

Movies
Kim works evenings now, so I find myself bored in the evenings. As a result, I've been watching movies. Lately I saw a couple of movies.

Owning Mahoney - Definitely better than I anticipated. Starring one of those B actors. You know the kind you recognize, but you can't quite place the face. Based on a true story. The real story here is the acting. Starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Minnie Driver. Hoffman plays a bank manager with a rather large gambling problem. Minnie Driver plays his pinning girlfriend. Hoffman is fantastic. At no point during the movie did I ever suspect he was acting. Thoroughly convincing. Driver on the other hand... Flat, listless, and pedantic. The plot is fairly straight forward. You know it's bound to end badly for Hoffman's character. This movie gets a 5 out of 7, based almost entirely on Hoffman's acting.
Gangs of New York - Yes, the epic, quasi-historical, romantic drama. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio (good guy), Daniel Day-Lewis (bad guy), and Cameron Diaz (romantic interest). DiCaprio's performance was luke warm, Day-Lewis did a fantastic job as the 'Butcher'. Diaz was miscast as the love interest Would have made a good musical. It was directed like a musical. The directing was good, and I enjoyed the occasional historical interludes. The movie tried to be too many things. I would have enjoyed it more as a documentary or a musical or a romantic drama. Overall, I give it a 4. Holds its head above the water with acting and directing. Day-Lewis as 'the Butcher', some of the other supporting actors (Brendon Gleeson) and some excellent directing by Scorsese.

Why I Mac
Someone pointed out some technical errors with my Pro-Mac page. So, in addition to correcting the minor technical (reference) error, I went in and made a few modifications to the page layout as well. More use of CSS style sheets. I could probably afford some more embellishment in that regard. Not too much mind you, just a little bit more.

Sun, Nov 23, 2003

Whew! It's been over a week since I updated this 'What's New' page, but I've hardly been resting. I posted a lot of updates today, and most of them were D&D® related. Here's a recap of all the recent changes.

Updated the 3rd Edition Campaign page - Just updated the date for the next gaming session.
Added two new entries to the Monsters page - The party encountered Green Slime and three Giant Crocodiles the last time we played.
Updates to my feedback page - Due to some changes to my encryption software, I updated some of the references on the feedback page.
The front door to Rob's World! - I added some CSS styling to the opening page.
Software favorites - Transmit is now at version 2.6.1, and I added some comments regarding the use of X11 on my machine.
3rd edition Who's Who - I made a few changes to the layout, and player character entries. By the way, the party has captured Abramo!
My BIO - I made a minor update to this document. A link was broken.
Movies - Saw four movies recently, and I updated my 'must see' list.
The adventurer's journal - I posted a two column entry for last weeks session. Written from Ashedyn and Dokren's point of view.
D&D® index page - I corrected a formatting error on this index page.

It's a lot to digest, and I'd like to relax a little. Let me know if you've got any questions, suggestions, or compliments.

Thu, Nov 14, 2003

Books
I finished re-reading 'Sixth Column' by Robert A. Heinlein. This is the fourth time I read this book. Why would anyone read a book four times? Read it once and you'll know why. An absolutely thrilling story, with gripping characters, and a local setting. Written by an absolute master of the arts. This is one of Robert Heinlein's earliest works. Originally written in 1941, this book is an interesting read. Revealing the sentiment of many Americans around the time of WWII. This is a socially telling tale. The scientific premise of the weapons used in the book is very intriguing. This novel could have been better if Heinlein had spent more time on the characters and fleshed out the story with more details. At only 248 pages, I finished this one in no time.

Thu, Nov 13, 2003

Software favorites
I downloaded an update to one of my software favorites today. BBEdit has moved up to version 7.1. The newest release includes support for Secure FTP, rectangular text selection, and a built in page preview mode.

Tue, Nov 11, 2003

Books
I finished reading 'The Butlerian Jihad'; another Dune novel by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Keeping the Dune saga alive and kicking.

The pages of this book burn brighter than a SuperNova. Packed with a thousand beginnings, "anything is possible" between these pages. It's not the first Dune novel, but it is the beginning of the Epic that is Dune. Intense and rich, dripping with Melange. Vibrant characters, dramatic involved plots and a backdrop as rich as any in the Sci-Fi universe. If you've read any of the Dune novels, you'll want to read this one. This book is filled with Dune origins; unlike any other novel in the series, this one book explains much of the rich history which defines the Dune mythos.

The worst thing about this book, is one of the best things; it's 'to be continued!' The next novel in the series – The Machine Crusade, is on sale now, but I'll probably wait for the paperback. For now I'm going to re-read an old classic; Robert A. Heinlein's Sixth Column.

Other than completing the latest Dune novel; I also updated my Books page. Adding some CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) coding, and tweaking the page layout a bit.

Software favorites
Another update to my software favorites page. GraphicConverter has gone full release. Version 4.9.1. is now out of beta and available for download.

Sun, Nov 09, 2003

Movies
It's a Sunday afternoon, and we're bored. What to do? Watch a movie!. Kim and I took in a movie at the theater. Thinking we'd beat the rush at the ticket window, we bought our tickets on Fandango.com. When we got to the theater, we had to stand in line anyway. They had a different set-up to read the Fandango tickets. It was off to the side, and it didn't work. So we stood there, off to the side of the ticket takers stand, while normal ticket buyers streamed past us. One even said 'So that's the way Fandango works, I'm glad I didn't do that." They were right. That's the last time we 'do the Fandango'. We paid $2.00 extra so that we could stand in a different line than the regular ticket line. We stood in line just as long as the other movie-goers. It's the second time out of three tries, that we've had bad experiences with Fandango.com. The fact that the theater can't get its act together totally negates the minor benefits provided by a Fandango purchase. Save your money, I know I will. From now on I say 'Psha' to Fandango.

Matrix - Revolutions - The end of the trilogy. Everything has a beginning and an end. This movie was about death and endings. Excellent acting. Hugo Weaving steals the show as Agent Smith. Once again the movie feels rushed. The 2nd and 3rd movies feel rushed when compared to the first movie. This movie feels much more like the 2nd movie than the first. The action was spectacular, but it was too much. Too much action, too much dialog. I liked the dialog. It explained a lot about the relationships between man and the machine. The Oracle, the Architect, the Frenchman, the Trainmaster, etc. The only flaw in this movie; the pacing. Excellent all around. This one gets a 6 out of 7.

Sat, Nov 08, 2003

Learning how to use CSS
I recently added CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) coding to some of my web pages. I bought a new HTML editing tool lately (CSSEdit), and I've just begun using it. Unfortunately, it suddenly stopped working today. I eventually figured out what was wrong (with help from someone much smarter than me), and everything is working fine again. Learning new stuff is such fun!

Software favorites
Another update to my software favorites page. GraphicConverter has moved forward to version 4.9.1b2.

GraphicConverter is an image converter and manipulator. A fantastic piece of shareware that is well worth the price ($35.00). I use it to convert image formats into web standard formats, as well as to create and edit image maps and other graphics. Available in 68k, OS9, and OSX versions. I've been singing GC's praises for many years now, but don't just take my word for it. Even Apple has written a glowing review . The best part about GC is it's author. Thorsten Lemke is completely committed to his customer base. Constantly responding to customer recommendations and bug reports. GC is a dynamic, evolving, application. Always on the cutting edge, an absolute must in any web developers tool box.

Early G5 spotted
I was watching an old episode of Star Trek (Episode #37 of the original series. The Changeling) the other day, when I spotted an early (or was it a later model?) prototype of Apple's newest computer, the G5. If you're familiar with the design of Apple's G5, you know that the chasis is perforated, brushed steel. Well, Nomad, a deep space probe constructed in the late 21st century (according to Star Trek history) looks a lot like a G5. I was a bit surprised when I saw Nomad hovering about the Enterprise, looking like a souped up G5. Go Nomad go! Unfortunately, Nomad suffers a rather poor ending. Kirk and Spock convince Nomad that it is 'imperfect', and it ends up 'sterilizing' itself in a spectacular explosion. I hope the G5 doesn't suffer the same fate.

D&D®
I just finished posting the newest journal entry for our 3rd edition D&D® campaign. The journal entries are a recap of what's been going on in the campaign. This weeks entry was written by Ashedyn (Mark). This entry includes the conclusion of last sessions suspenseful combat, and more shenanigans by Duracell. You may also notice a slight change to the hyper-linking within the journal. I've decided to hyper-link every occurrence of a referenced character, monster, or place. This change should prevent the need to scroll back (thus losing your place) in the entry in order to click on a reference link.

In addition to the journal, I also updated the Monster listing. The party encountered a bunch of Red Venom snakes, and a Harpy.

Sun, Nov 02, 2003

My BIO
Since I had a birthday, I figured I may as well update my BIO page. Aside from a few content changes, I corrected a problem with the navigation links at the top of the page, and I added some CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) coding. I bought a new HTML editing tool lately (CSSEdit), and this is my first use of it. I hope to start adding more CSS to my web site in the future, and I'm excited about learning something new. If you have any comments about the use of CSS, or would like to pass on some lessons learned, I'd appreciate an email:

Newsletter
I sent out the latest Rob's World! newsletter this morning. If you'd like a copy, you can add your name to my distribution list.

Software favorites
Another update to my software favorites page. GraphicConverter has moved forward to version 4.9.1b0.

GraphicConverter is an image converter and manipulator. A fantastic piece of shareware that is well worth the price ($35.00). I use it to convert image formats into web standard formats, as well as to create and edit image maps and other graphics. Available in 68k, OS9, and OSX versions. I've been singing GC's praises for many years now, but don't just take my word for it. Even Apple has written a glowing review . The best part about GC is it's author. Thorsten Lemke is completely committed to his customer base. Constantly responding to customer recommendations and bug reports. GC is a dynamic, evolving, application. Always on the cutting edge, an absolute must in any web developers tool box.

Movies
It's a Sunday afternoon, and we're bored. What to do? Watch a movie!. We'll be watching the Packer game later this evening, so we watched this movie in the afternoon. It's not quite so scary that way.

28 Days Later - Second time around. A modern day zombie flick. An excellent thriller with a bit of drama thrown in. The unknown cast was an added plus. What could be scarier than zombies in a post holocaust setting? You'd be surprised. I liked it. I gave it a 6 out of 7, and then I bought a copy.

Mon, Oct 27, 2003

Software favorites
Another update to my software favorites page. GraphicConverter non-beta version 4.9 has finally been released.

GraphicConverter is an image converter and manipulator. A fantastic piece of shareware that is well worth the price ($35.00). I use it to convert image formats into web standard formats, as well as to create and edit image maps and other graphics. Available in 68k, OS9, and OSX versions. I've been singing GC's praises for many years now, but don't just take my word for it. Even Apple has written a glowing review . The best part about GC is it's author. Thorsten Lemke is completely committed to his customer base. Constantly responding to customer recommendations and bug reports. GC is a dynamic, evolving, application. Always on the cutting edge, an absolute must in any web developers tool box.

Movies
Kim and I took the time to catch a few more flicks this weekend. Here's the most recent offerings.

What about Bob? - Hilarious. Starring Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfus. I don't really need to say much. Murray and Dreyfus are the only ones in the movie who could act. But the laughs made up for all that. This one gets a 6 out of 7.

Better luck tomorrow - A dark spiraling movie. Spiraling downward that is. The movie was well directed. The acting was worthwhile, considering the junior status of all the actors involved. A dark twisted tale of high-school gangsters turned murderers who try to maintain the life of a normal kid, while their lives spiral uncontrollably out of control. If the movie hadn't been so dark, and dealt with such harsh issues, I might have given it a higher rating. This one gets a 4 out of 7.

The quiet American - Great acting (except from Brendan Fraser). Michael Caine and Do Thi Hai Yen tell a complicated love story in war torn Vietnam. At the twilight of the French reign. The costumes, sets and scenery only made the movie more believable. Excellent drama. This one gets a 6 out of 7.

Swimming - A coming of age movie about Frankie. She's swimming through her life trying to find out what feels right. A story about a girl who wants her own car. A great story. Not vulgar or flashy, very truthful. Lauren Ambrose (the Lead) did some fantastic acting. She's gonna be somebody, you just wait and see. This one gets a 5 out of 7.

Mon, Oct 27, 2003

Software favorites
I've added a new piece of software to my favorites page. BetterHTMLExport. It's an iPhoto plugin which allows you to create web pages using iPhoto. I know iPhoto has built in web page output, but BetterHTMLExport gives you many more options, templates, and much better control of your photo page layout.

Sun, Oct 26, 2003

Happy Annibirthday!
18 years ago, Kim and I got married on my birthday. Why did we get married on my birthday? Well, we didn't plan it that way. It just sort of worked out that way. I was on leave following completion of an advanced school/course in Pensacola, Florida, and I had three weeks of leave before I had to report to my first permanent duty station. The banquet hall wasn't available on the first weekend, and some guests couldn't make it on the third weekend. My birthday was on a Saturday, and it just happened to be the same day that we booked for the wedding and reception. Purely coincidence. It certainly makes it easy to remember our Anniversary. So, once a year Kim and I celebrate the Anniversary.

This year we couldn't afford much of a celebration, unlike last year, we spent the day at home. The night before, we went to a Halloween party at one of Kim's co-workers. We dressed up in costume as the Count and Countess. A couple of Vampires. The costumes were pretty good. Thankfully, I have no idea how much the rental cost (I don't want to know). Earlier that day, we went to the spa, where I had a massage and Kim had a facial. All in all, it was a good weekend. Hopefully, we can have a little better time next year.

p.s. I turned 40! Yes I finally hit the magic number. I wonder what happens now? Is all my hair going to fall out?

(I recently uploaded a bunch of photo's that didn't make it the first time around. Photo's from last years Annibirthday. For some reason, a bunch of the photo's were file size zero. They're o.k. now.)

Movies
Kim and I watched Matrix Reloaded the other night. I bought the DVD recently, and this is the second time we've watched the movie. The long awaited sequel. As usual, it doesn't quite live up to its predecessor. Unfortunately, it took a lot of heat in the media for not being as awesome as the first movie. I tend to agree that there were some flaws with the movie. However, it was a kickin' ass movie. The special effects were awesome, the story line flowed well, and I wasn't constantly predicting the next scene. The casting was superb, the costumes were excellent, and the acting was... One of the few criticisms I have for this film; well, let's just say the acting seemed somewhat practiced, rehearsed, stutterish, it just didn't seem natural. I rate it 6 out of 7.

I updated the movies page and the movies listing. Updates to the movies page included new movies watched, new movies purchased, and the addition of some CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) coding. I bought a new HTML editing tool lately (CSSEdit), and this is my first use of it. I hope to start adding more CSS to my web site in the future, and I'm excited about learning something new. If you have any comments about the use of CSS, or would like to pass on some lessons learned, I'd appreciate an email:

Books
I finished reading 'About Time' by Paul Davies this week. An excellent book, with a lot of insightful stuff about time, cosmology, astronomy, and philosophy. I've since moved on to a new book. The Butlerian Jihad: A Dune novel. Another book by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Keeping the Dune saga alive and kicking. Here's the story we've all wondered about. Humanity's struggle to overthrow the intelligent machine.

I removed the listing of Leadership and Management books. I decided to pull them from the list because I've been pecking at them now and then throughout the last few years. Who knows whether I'll actually break down and read one cover-to-cover.

In addition to the journal, I also updated the Monster listing, and the Who's Who listing. In the monster listing, the party encountered a Tanuki, Stirges, and a Giant Snapping Turtle. In the who's who listing, I added Dorian and Llywillan to the neutrals category (for now). I added Explicita Defilus to the foes category. and moved Zakarias and Ramne to the friends & allies category. I also made some updates to the 'Where Now' page.

Say What?
Added another quote to the memorable quips page. Some of the players had something humorous to say about Troglodytes and the French.

Family Photos
You may recall, a few weeks ago, I told you about a little drive that Kim and I took. See the "What's New" entry of Sun, Oct 11, paragraph entitled 'Road Trip'. Kim and I went on a drive over Sugarloaf Mountain. Well, as promised. The photo's are now available. I added them to our Family Photos page.

Software favorites
A couple more updates to my software favorites page. I installed GraphicConverter versions 4.9b5 and then 4.9b6 on my Mac.

Mon, Oct 12, 2003

Vampires & Werewolves, oh my!
Kim and went and saw a movie today. We say 'Underworld', a movie that was on my watch list. Visually, it was a combination of Matrix and Blade. The surprise was the love story aspect. Billed as a gothic Romeo & Juliet, where the characters are supernatural creatures, it was too short to develop any sort of serious romance angle. The movie ended with some obvious sequel narration dialog. A war between Vampires and Werewolves, that's been waging for over a thousand years. The movie moved very quickly, and the plot was tightly wound. Groovy special effects, and fearsome fight sequences didn't detract from the character based drama. This movie would have been better if the pacing had been slowed down some, with a little more attention to character development/interaction. This movie gets a 5 out of 7.

While at the theater we saw a few previews, and I went looking for more. Here's a few items I've recently added to my watch list.

Cold Creek Manor: A spooky Haunted House story.
The Punisher: (Yes it's a remake. The first attempt was laughable) - Another comic book made into a movie. Can they pull it off with a little more panache this time around?
Envy: A comedy starring: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Rachel Weisz, Amy Poehler and Christopher Walken. Need I say more?
Lost in Translation: A romantic comedy starring Bill Murray. Americans lost in Japan find each other.
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. The final episode in the trilogy. Will Frodo deliver the ring unto the fires of Mordor, or unto the Dark Lord?
The Matrix - Revolutions: The final episode of the trilogy. Will Neo save humanity from the inhumanity of the Matrix?

How's that for a lineup? Looks like there'll be a lot of movies worth watching in the coming year.

Sun, Oct 11, 2003

Family Photos
You may recall, a few weeks ago, I told you about a little drive that Kim and I took. See the "What's New" entry of Sun, Sep 28, paragraph entitled 'Road Trip'. Kim and I went on a drive along the Switzerland Trail. Well, as promissed. The photo's are now available. I added them to our Family Photos page.

Searching high and low
I updated the Rob's World! search engine. The new engine is a much more sophisticated index created by a web crawler. I can add advertisements if I want (I might advertise Rob's World!), it automatically updates its index, it has sophisticated admin controls, its a sweet little search engine.

Road Trip
Kim and I went on another road trip in the Jeep. Another trip out west of Boulder. This time we drove over Sugar Loaf mountain. An easy, mildly rocky road. The Jeep had no problems. I only used 4-wheel drive twice. This trail, like the Switzerland Trail, follows an old railroad bed. The road here is a lot narrower and rockier than the Switzerland Trail. The leaves have pretty much all changed colors by now, but there was still some color in the valleys.

The Jeep ran fine, and we had a good time. I can still smell the evergreens. Afterwards, we ate at a place called 'Mediterranean Cafe'. I believe this is their second restaurant. The first one is in Colorado Springs. The food was fantastic. We were really surprised. It was just a little eatery in the food court at FlatIron Crossing (An upscale mall in Broomfield). The tab came to $15.00 a really good price for the taste. Combined with the $17.00 fill-up, our little trip cost about $32.00. We can afford that.

As usual, I took a bunch of photos. I should get around to posting them in a couple weeks.

Sat, Oct 10, 2003

Software favorites
A couple more updates to my software favorites page. Stuffit Deluxe upgraded to version 8.0.1. Boy that was quick. I just updated to 8.0 on the 6th. Seems that version 8.0 was causing some problems with regards to Unix file permissions and executable files. I also installed GraphicConverter version 4.9b4 on my Mac.

Another movie
Kim and I watched another movie over the past week. Yeah, it was a long movie. 231 minutes as a matter of fact. Since we were both working all week long, we couldn't watch it all in one sitting, and the pacing made this movie feel more like four days than four hours.

Gods & Generals: Based on a novel by Jeff Shaara. Starring: Stephan Lang, Jeff Daniels, Robert Duvall, Mira Sorvino, and a bunch of other cast members. Not to mention the entire Union and Confederate armies! The movie was a big production number. A big budget bloated melodrama about the civil war. I just read an excellent book (Rise to Rebellion) by Jeff Shaara, the author of Gods & Generals (the book), and I have to say; this did not feel like his work. Not at all. The screen writer (Ronald F. Maxwell) must have re-written the entire book in order to come up with this melodramatic drivel. Unfortunately, this disaster may ruin any chance of Shaara's latest novels (about the American Revolution) making their way to film.

Was this supposed to be a play? It certainly seemed better suited to that form of presentation. I hope I never hear another general reciting poetry on the battle field. A glorification of the south and General 'Stonewall' Jackson. This movie depicted slavery as something distasteful, but acceptable. Even the slaves seemed to enjoy being slaves. All the slaves depicted in the movie lived lives of privilege, better off than any of the soldiers in the movie. <rhetorical question>Why would any slave want to be free? They had safe homes, plenty of food, fine silk clothing, education, whole families, and the love of their masters.</rhetorical question> All the women in the movie were subservient southern belles, eager to please their men, doing whatever was required of them. The men were all icons of patronly sainthood, honor, and high moral values. Let us all say a prayer with our 'slave who I hired as my personal chef' companions. Perhaps the movie should have been titled: "The War of Northern Aggression". This movie was historically accurate (although slanted), and I give it credit for that. The acting wasn't done in a 're-imagining' hip-hop style, and the battle re-enactments were very well done, without succumbing to a total cgi gore-fest. The scenes were well directed, but the acting was over the top. It seemed as if all the dialogue was a rambling pious soliloquy. The screen writing left me disgusted. Disgusted with the candy-coated southern slant. Were the writers trying to bore me or make me retch? Was I supposed to shed tears for Stonewall Jackson when he died? What about the millions of slaves suffering under the confederate whip of domination? Oh yeah, the music was excellent, but it seemed to hold/set the same tone throughout the entire movie. I felt like I was witnessing the end of civilization for four hours!

O.k. I've said enough. After all this moaning and groaning, I can't help but give this movie a 2. Sub-par. Not worth the price of admission. Watch Gettysburg instead. It's a much better movie!

What day is it?
I updated my 3rd edition D&D® campaign calendar's. In the Rob's World! D&D® campaign, the weeks have 10 days each, and the year is 365 days long. I finally got around to making the pages presentable. Now formatted using Dreamweaver MX, the calendar looks a hell of a lot better as a table. That PRE formatted stuff looked terrible.

The front door
You probably wouldn't notice, but I've tweaked the main page a bit. Added credit for Dreamweaver MX, and a link to my software favorites page.

That should be enough for today...

Tue, Oct 7, 2003

Updated two 3rd edition D&D® campaign pages today. The party met one new non-player character (NPC) in Tymora's desecrated temple of Orlane, and two new monsters. Cirilli is a teenage Human female that the party rescued from Abramo's depravity. The new monsters were a Crypt Thing, undead but not evil! and a Shrieker. Aside from these new monsters, the party also learned a little more about the Dark Naga that appears to be the root of the evil infesting Orlane.

Aside from the updates to these D&D pages, I also fixed a minor problem with the footer on my Other Games page.

Mon, Oct 6, 2003

I updated my software favorites page today. Updates include: Stuffit Deluxe, now at version 8.0; GraphicConverter, updated to version 4.9b2; MacOS, operating system bumped up to version 10.2.8 (6R73).

Kim and I watched two movies lately. Rentals from BlockBuster, as usual. One was on my 'must watch' list, the other was one of your typical hollywood releases. A big advertising budget, but lacking in content.

Dreamcatcher - Based on a novel by Stephen King, this was one strange movie. Capitalizing on a recent string of successful Sci-Fi, horror, and paranormal movies, this movies got it all. Morgan Freeman controlling a viral outbreak; sound familiar? Aliens gestating inside of, and then bursting out of human victims; sound familiar? Idiot Savant with paranormal psychic powers; sound familiar? Protagonists stranded in a frozen enviornment with an alien shape shifter; sound familiar? Characters getting mowed down after stepping out into speeding traffic; sound familiar? The list goes on. I don't think there was one original thought in the entire movie. It was a mish-mash of many common themes. Thankfully, the themes were held together by excellent writing and good directing. This one gets a 4 out of 7. It was worth watching, but lacked original content.

The Good Thief - With Nick Nolte. This was a really good movie. It's been a while since I've seen a good heist movie. The casting in this movie was fantastic. The music created a feel and mood that meshed marvelously with the setting. The direction was a cut above the usual crime flick, and the plot was workable. A thoroughly enjoyable movie. I give it a 6 out of 7.

Sun, Sep 28, 2003

Surprise, surprise, surprise!
Obviously, if you've been paying any attention, the "What's New" page (That's what you're reading now Bub) has undergone a major change. How, and why the change? I'm glad you asked...

Recently, I received a free copy of iBlog as part of my .Mac membership. I figured, what've I got to lose? I gave it a spin, and I wasn't very happy with it. Much too cluttered, non-intuitive, and lacking the level of control that I wanted. Toiling through that trial, got me to thinking; "The What's New page is a bit dated. It still says 'Under Construction', and it's a bit plain".

Well, iBlog didn't give me what I wanted, but I figured I could make some changes using Dreamweaver MX. I fired up one of my favorites, and hammered out this new "What's New" page. The changes are mainly cosmetic. A new header graphic for the page. By the way, that graphic links you back to the 'Front Door' as well. New colors, and a table format. Nothing drastic mind you, but I think it looks a lot nicer, thank you.

So, "What's New?" you ask, "What's New" is new, that's what's new. I can't wait to use that line at work tomorrow. Perhaps I should print a few extra "Rob's World!" business cards, just in case.

Alright, aside from "What's New" being new, what else is new?

Road Trip
Kim and I went on a day trip today. Kim and I took the Jeep out for a spin. The leaves are turning colors, and today was a fantastic day for a little outing. We took a little trip through the mountains west of Boulder. We drove up Sugarloaf mountain, and along the old Switzerland Trail railway. I took a bunch of photos, but haven't had the time to post any of them yet. I'll let you know when I've got them posted.

The Jeep ran fine, and we had a good time. I can still smell those evergreens. Afterwards, we ate at a Bennigans in Boulder. Kim had a club sandwich with fries and baked potato soup, and I had Reuben's with fries and a dinner salad. The food was o.k. nothing special. The tab came to $25.00 not too bad. Combined with the $17.00 fill-up, our little trip cost about $42.00. We can afford that.

So what do you think about the new "What's New" page? It's one of those original 'Web Logs'. Sort of like a 'Blog', but simpler, friendlier, and a hell of a lot easier to manage and manipulate.

D&D®
Added a couple new things to the D&D® pages: First of all I updated the image of Ashedyn on the 3rd edition "Who's Who" page. It seems that his hair color was wrong. Once again, thanks go out to Joe for providing some outstanding illustrations for our campaign. I also added some information to the 3rd edition campaign page. Just in case anyone is wondering when the next meeting is, you can now see the next gaming date on that page.

Movies
Kim and I watched a movie tonight. About Schmidt with Jack Nicholson. The movie should have been named 'About shit'. That's what it was; Just about shit. As in crap, the movie was a load of crap. I can't believe Jack Nicholson wasted his time on this movie. The acting was excellent, the sets and costumes were outstanding, the plot was crap. Lets say for instance that you were to write down everything that happened to you over the next two months. That was the plot of the movie. Basically, it was about Schmidt. Just an ordinary guy. Mr Schmidt retires, his wife dies, he learns that she had an affair, then his only daughter gets married. The movie sucked. My life is just as entertaining as this Schmidt fellows. Perhaps I could sell that to some hollywood studio. This movie gets a 2. The only reason it doesn't get a zero is because the producers somehow convinced a bunch of fine actors to participate in this great heaping pile of shit. I was also highly impressed by the costumes and sets. But come to think of it, that might have been due to a complete lack of any work on sets and wardrobe. The best thing about this movie; it was a bonus rental from blockbuster. I paid nothing to watch it.

That's a lot of stuff for a Sunday. I think I'll take a break now.

Sat, Sep 27, 2003

I updated the house rules for my 3rd edition D&D® campaign. today. Primary changes are revised rules for fumbles and armor deterioration due to critical hits. I've revised the rules in order to make them compatible/more compatible with 3rd edition rules. I also added some information regarding 'Shield Bash'. In addition to updating the 'house rules', I had to update the 'weapons list' as well. I think the new rules look fairly balanced to me. If you have any comments/concerns, please feel free to provide feedback.

Fri, Sep 26, 2003

I updated my software favorites page today. I'm now running GraphicConverter 4.9b1. Saw a bunch of movies lately. Here's the list and some short reviews.

A man apart - With Vin Diesel. Definitely better than XXX. That was a piece of crap. I've seen this movie before. Why do they make this movie over and over? DEA cop busts big drug lord. From prison, drug lord puts hit on cops wife. Wife is killed. Cop seeks vengence. New drug lord puts hit on family of former drug lord. Cop takes down new drug lord. Former drug lord escapes from prison, regains position as drug lord. So what were the writers (Christian Gudegast & Paul Scheuring) trying to say. Fighting drugs is futile? We should just give up and legalize all drugs? Yeah I guess that would make everything better. Not! What a stupid film. The only acting worth noting was Vin Diesel. Too bad he had to appear in 'XXX' and this movie. 'Pitch Black' and 'The fast and the furious' really showcased his talent. This movie gets a 3 because it was well directed, and Vin Diesel's acting was desparately holding the movie together. Loses major points for the sound work.
Identity - A serial killer thriller. Two parts to the movie. Psychiatric evaluation of a deranged murderer which alternates with a group of people isolated at a roadside motel during an intense storm. At the motel, people start dying, and no one can figure out who's doing it. The twist on this story is quite imaginative and surprising, but the final ending twist was somewhat predictable. This movie felt a little like a combination between Final Destination and Evil Dead. I liked the way that the naration was done, the way the viewers perception was influenced. The movie had a good cast as well, I enjoyed Ray Liotta's performance, but John Cusack's was a little lackluster. It gets a 4 for a well conceived story concept.

DareDevil - Another Marvel production. The blind superhero is brought to the screen. I have to say that the acting was a little less hokey than Spider Man, and the casting was pretty good. Colin Farrell did a fantastic job as Bullseye. Scott Terra as the young Matt Murdock. The costumes and sets were also excellent. The story was a bit plain, lacking in conviction and scope. This one gets a 4. Worth watching, but I won't be buying one.

Punch drunk love - Splendid movie. Not your typical Adam Sandler movie, and that was something of a relief, given the more recent releases (Little Nicky, Mr. Deeds, Anger management). This love story takes a somewhat unstable character, taunted and tormented by his sisters, and offers him a little love. Something he desparately wants, but can't force himself to accept. The quirky characters make this film a joy to watch. No big explosions, just a straightforward love story about two 'normal'? people. I'm so tired of perfect people movies. I was pleased to see Luis Guzman in the movie.The movie has a lot of loose ends and strange inclusions, but you end up ignoring all of it. Adam Sandlers portrayal of Barry Egan. This one gets a 5. I'm glad I watched it.

Chicago - An excellent movie. Not as good as 'Moulin Rouge', but another spectacular musical dance number. I wish I had caught on earlier that the movie was more about the murders, the girls lives than the girls musical careers, the stage. I really liked the puppet segment. The acting was spectacular. The story segments transitioned like well polished cogs in a steam powered engine. The movie was hot and hopping, a non-stop jugernaut of song dance and drama. It's only flaw? Too fast paced. I was left breathless watching it. I give it a 5.

Venting: Oh how I hate movies where I have to constantly adjust the volume! If the cast is whispering in a night club, I still want to hear what they're saying. I absolutely hate it when I have to hold the remote in my hand, and adjust the volume throughout the movie. O.k. a plane is flying overhead; turn the volume all the way down or become deaf. Oh, they're whispering again; turn the volume all the way up, or I might miss some plot point in the dialog. It's a movie, not reality! Knock it off with the ambient sound already. I know that airplanes are loud, I know that whispering is hard to hear. Stop torturing me already! Any movie that has this problem automatically loses one or two points. Wouldn't it be nice to hear what the actors are saying? I'm trying to follow the plot, but the god dammed crickets are too loud!

Unbelievable Spam: I received an unbelievable piece of spam today. It's some kind of extortion attempt. I've received some pretty far fetched spam, but this one is a keeper. I've reported it to the FTC and the FBI, as well as the appropriate ISP.

Thu, Sep 25, 2003

I updated the journal from last weeks D&D session. I added some notes from Ashedyn's jounral. I also updated my books page. I order a bunch of books lately. The 3.5 version D&D books (The new Monster Manual is definitely worth it), and three novels.

I've been working on the house rules for our campaign, and should post the updates by this weekend. Speaking of the campaign, we now have two player openings. If you know someone looking to play D&D in the Denver area, feel free to mention our campaign

Wed, Sep 24, 2003

I received two sets of temples for my glasses today. I own two pair of Randolph frames (brushed steel/pewter finish). I obtained them through Air Force medical channels. I damaged the temple covers while white water rafting, but I couldn't find replacement arms/skull temples for the glasses anywhere (checked the internet, and four stores). I emailed Randolph USA's customer service address, and someone at the company was kind enough to send me two new sets for free! Who says that customer service is dead?

I'd like to personally thank Randolph USA for making an excellent pair of glasses, and outstanding customer service. They're approximately 12,000% better than the Birth Control glasses we used to get!

Thu, Sep 18, 2003

I didn't do any web page editing today. I just spent the entire day at the range. That's right, the firing range. My AFSC (Air Force Specialty Code) is deployable, so every now and then they send some of us off to do our job in dangerous places. Our unit must have a certain number of people deployment ready at all times. Having a current range qualification is part of the requirement to deploy. So, off I went to fire the M16. The M16A2 to be exact. I've done it before, but this time was a little bit different. While I'm usually pretty good at following instructions, I just couldn't get that riffle to do what I wanted. I'm a fairly good aim, so I put enough rounds on target to qualify, but I can't handle the weapon very well. I was constantly ejecting live rounds, and ending up with unspent rounds in my magazine. It's a good thing I don't do this for a living.

The first part of the course consists of safety, weapons familiarization, loading, reloading, handling, etc. We even go so far as to take the weapon apart; cleaning and inspecting it. While the instructor was efficient and knowledgeable; for some reason I wasn't catching on to everything. My usual weapon is a High Powered WorkStation running some flavor of Unix. This mechanical stuff is just not my bag baby.

For the second part of the course, we drove out to the range. On-base, a little bit out of the way, and somewhat dilapadated. When we got there, someone notices a dead bird laying on the firing line. That's when the instructors start telling us about the Hanta virus that's been detected on base. I also know that they've detected West Nile and Anthrax as well. Just great! Aside from the dangers of disease infested vermin, things went rather smoothly for all concerned. I put a bunch of practice rounds in my neighbors target, but that's no big deal. In the end I qualified despite the fact that I failed to fire all my rounds. Like I said, I had a lot of problems handling the weapon. Thankfully I won't have to do that for another 18 months... In 18 months I should be a civilian!

It's weird to smell like gunpowder. I hope they don't deploy me.

Wed, Sep 17, 2003

I updated my software favorites page today. I'm now running GraphicConverter 4.9b0, and Transmit 2.6

I've added illustrations of each character to the 3rd edition "Who's Who" web page. Thanks again to Joe Raiten (A player in our campaign) for the illustrations.

Sun, Sep 14, 2003

I added another character to the Hero's Gallery. Swordmaster Tremis. Tremis was a character in my short-lived PBeM campaign. The Tremis entry is a bit more detailed than the others. Clicking on the Tremis link in the gallery brings up a whole page for Tremis. It's not a character sheet, but it includes some bio type information, and a link to an image.

Sat, Sep 13, 2003

I posted two journal entries from last weeks D&D meeting. That's right, it's a double dose! Two players submitted entries, and I posted both of them. Along with this weeks journal entries, I made a few changes to some supporting documents. I added Skeletons and Goblins to the monster page. I added Abramo to the enemies category on the "Who's Who" page, and moved Misha to that category as well.

Fri, Sep 12, 2003

I updated my software favorites page today. I'm now running GraphicConverter 4.8.2

Updated my Books page. Finally finished reading 'Rise to Rebellion' by Jeff Shaara. An engrossing read. The American Revolution brought to life. Even though I knew the ending before hand, the characters made this book a page turner unlike any historical novel I've ever read.

Sun, Sep 07, 2003

I updated my D&D campaign page. There were some table width settings that were messing with the page display (most notably in IE). Thanks to Mark for pointing out the problem. It looks fine now.

Thanks to Joe Raiten (A player in my Face-To-Face D&D campaign), I've added an illustration to my "Where Now" page. It's a drawing of Bidvar Minitin, the owner/proprietor of Building #52 in Whillip. Thanks Joe, the drawing looks great, it's exactly what I wanted.

Last nights gaming session introduced the party to another monster. Skeletons aren't all that exciting, but it sure is watching them turn to dust!

I just updated the house rules. There are four sections that have been added or revised. Revised ability score rolling, added knockdown rules, added some rules regarding feats, and added a paragraph to the section on going up a level. If you're a player in my 3rd edition campaign, you may want to take note of these changes. I also changed the border/format of the house rules.

Thu, Sep 04, 2003

I updated my software favorites page today. I'm now running GraphicConverter 4.8.2b0

Wed, Sep 03, 2003

Updated my movies page. I updated the movie reviews. It's been two months since I updated it, so there were 16 movie reviews to post.

Tue, Sep 02, 2003

Made a few changes and additions to the wording on the newsletter page.

Mon, Sep 01, 2003

As promised, I've updated some non-D&D related pages. I updated my music pages today. I added a few new CD's to the list, and did a little page tweaking with Dreamweaver MX. DWMX didn't do so well with the music list. Perhaps the table was too big for it to handle? It kept locking up on my. I had to resort to BBEdit for a lot of the text manipulation. I added four new CD's to my collection.

Blues Traveler - Truth be told: Not a bad albumn. It gets a 5 out of 7. I'm begining to think that all their songs sound the same.
Eve 6 - It's all in your head: What's going on? They're not getting any better. Seems like their sound is begining to morph into something more mainstream. I gave it a 4 out of 7. Might be time to stop listening.
Punk-O-Rama - Straight outta the pit 4: This is a copilation of various punk bands. It was high speed. I was wondering what's out there. I gave it a 5 out of 7
Night Ranger - The Best of Night Ranger (The Millennium Collection): You might be asking "What the F*$#?" is that doing there? Well, for some reason, I've become infatuated with the song 'Sister Christian'. As it turns out, the other songs aren't too bad. I can't believe I said that. 'They suck, Night Ranger is just another big hair 80's rock band!'.

I also added a page for the newsletter. It's specifically about the newsletter. That way, I can refer to it in other places.

That's it for today. I hope to send out the newsletter later this week. I've done enough for this weekend. Time to relax a little. Work is less than 24 hours away.

P.S. Also updated the index with the latest document count. I've now got over 2,500 documents on-line. Wow! Oh yeah, one other thing. Rob's World! visitors set a new record last month. August had the most hits ever. My site counters picked up over 43,000 (43,679 to be exact) hits last month. Thanks!

Sun, Aug 31, 2003

I didn't get much done yesterday. I had some sort of 24 hour flu. Spent most of the day on the toilet. Today I got a lot of work done.

Updated the 3rd edition campaign page. Made some minor changes to the page structure, and added links to two new pages.

Where Now - A listing of places in the Rob's World! Face-to-Face (f2f) D&D® campaign. This listing includes places the characters have visited (See the Journals). The locations of adventures in the realms. Caves, Forests, Dungeons, Towns, Hamlets and Keeps. The settings of high adventure. Tunadholm's last stand, the bridge over Wintercloak, The Cube of Nth. Those places which will live on in the memories of our characters.
Monsters Known - A listing of all Creatures/Monsters Known and encountered by the players. This listing includes brief descriptions of the creatures encountered. Intelligent NPC monsters/villains are not listed here; they're listed on the Who's Who page.

Updated the adventurers journal. Added two entries, one that came in late, and the one from our last meeting on the 23rd of August. The latest journal entry has links to three pages. Who's Who, Where Now, and Monsters.

This may not look like a lot of work, but it was. Go ahead, try out some of the links. You'll find a whole bunch of new stuff.

I promise to add some non-D&D related material tommorow.

Sat, Aug 30, 2003

I added a picture to the "Hero's Gallery". A drawing of Khedeth (aka Kadeth, Kedeth), decked out with all his gear and magic items. A friend suggested that I add character sheets and drawings. I'll keep digging to see if there's anything else worth posting. Most of the character sheets in my campaign are many pages long, so I don't think I'll be posting those. The Gallery is more of a 'Hall of Fame', than it is a historical database.

Fri, Aug 29, 2003

I actually made some changes to the 'Front Door'. Nothing major. I updated the reference to BBEdit, added a little more emphasis to my "What's New" links, and added a new "What's New" link. The Rob's World! title graphic is now a direct link to the "What's New" page.

I saw three movies recently. Two of them were on my 'Watch List'. Better than the last crop of crap. Here's my musings.

The Minus Man - I have seen this before. I can't remember whether I rate, or what, I rated it before. An early role for Owen Wilson, who I like. The best part of this movie was it's casting. Owen Wilson, Janeane Garofalo, Brian Cox, Mercedes Ruehl, Dwight Yoakam, Dennis Haysbert, and Sheryl Crow. The movie moves rather slowly. Owen Wilson plays a serial killer drifting across the country, and wandering through his life. I liked it. It gets a 5 out of 7.
Final Destination 2 - A sequel to an excellent movie. I think I should change the category (See my Movies listing), to Thriller. There isn't as much suspense as there was in the first movie, and I don't have a Slasher category. The opening scene gets the movie its rating. The special effects are fantastic, but the plot and acting just don't compare to the first movie. This plot has had its day. Time to put it to bed. This one gets a 5 for special/visual effects.
The City of Lost Children - A french movie. I watched it with English subtitles. Starring Ron Perlman and a bunch of unknowns. A lot of child actors. The dark and dreary plot is fanciful and silly. The acting is lackluster, and this movie gets all it's ooomph from the sets, costumes, and atmosphere. A very twisted fairy tale. I give it a 4 out of 7.

I've been generous with the ratings this time around. These movies all had one or two good things going for them. I'm still waiting for a movie that covers all the bases. I'm considering a subscription to Netflix.com, but can't afford it right now. Maybe sometime next year.

I updated my software favorites page today. I'm now running GraphicConverter 4.8.1. There's a new version of DreamWeaver MX on its way. I hope to purchase a copy. Or maybe I'll get a copy for Christmas?

Tue, Aug 26, 2003

Updated my encryption page. Updated my encryption software from GnuPG 1.2.1r2 to 1.2.3, and added another key to my keychain. I now have a public encryption key that I exclusively with my spam fighting efforts.

Sat, Aug 23, 2003

Tweaked my BIO page a little bit. It had become somewhat dated, and needed a little attention.

Thu, Aug 21, 2003

I just added Duracell's background to the 3rd edition Who's Who page for out D&D campaign. That covers all the characters.

Thu, Aug 21, 2003

I've seen three movies over the last three days. Two winners, and two losers. Hollywood sure cranks out some crap these days. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to corefully consult my 'watch list' prior to selecting the movies. I might have actually been better off if I had closed my eyes while selecting the movies. Here's the list.

Tears of the Sun - This movie made me cry. Bruce Willis (typcast again!) plays a seasoned Special Forces (Navy Seals? I don't think so!) commander, who's team is sent into a Nigerian Civil war to extract some Americans. Bruce decides he's going to try and extract all the civilians at this hospital in the middle of the jungle. Yeah, that seems plausible. Not! The character he plays, or rather his acting, is stiff and lifeless. Carboard has more flavor, a cockroach exhibits more emotion. Lot's of explosions, unfortunately the movie wasn't one of them. Avoid this movie. 3 out of 7.
Just Married - Just don't. Don't bother renting it that is. Another Hollywood looser. Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy play the newlyweds who marry on a whim. Two spoiled yuppies with no comittment to anything but themselves. We're supposed to believe theat they're actually comitted to each other by the end of the movie. While there were a few ha-ha's. I can honestly say, I don't remember laughing once during this 'Comedy'. Another 3 out of 7 disappointment.
Rabbit Proof Fence - Here's the winner. This one made up for the previous two fiascos. An Australian movie about racism and Aboriginal people. This movie, a true storie. Tells a moving tale about three sisters who're forcibly separated from their mother, and their journey back home across the outback. An honest and moving tale. The acting was wholly unpretentious and believable. I found myself rivetted to my seat, wondering and hoping that the girls would make it home, full well believing they'd be recapptured at any moment. This one gets a 6 out of 7.

Next time I'll take more care in my selections.

On another note. I was in a auto collision yesterday. Ouch! No one got hurt, or rather no-one but my Jeep was hurt. Someone rear-ended me at a red light. The other driver freely admitted that it was his fault. The tail-gate is badly damaged. It won't open, and I'm sure it's going to cost well over a thousand to get it all fixed up. I'll have to spend most of tommorow taking care of that.

Sun, Aug 17, 2003

I just updated my anti-web-rings web page. I despise web-rings. I did some editing on the text, and modified the background image in order to reduce the contrast.

Sun, Aug 17, 2003

I've been very busy this weekend. I've just completed a lot of updates to Rob's World! I hope you take the time to check them out. Since this is a weekend in between the D&D meetings, I was able to get a lot done. Here's what I've been working on.

Vacation photos: As I mentioned in the newsletter, Kim and I took a trip to Buena Vista, CO to celebrate her Birthday. While we were on vacation, I took a bunch of photos. I finally got around to posting them.
Desktop photos: In addition to the vacation photos. Some of the photos turned out so well, that I decided to add them to my Desktop Photos page.
Gallery of Hero's: This page has turned out to be something of an immediate hit. I have to admit that I was a bit surprised by the interest. Soon after publishing the page, I received many requests to post more characters. If you're a former player in my "Rob's World!" campaign, and your character is missing from the list, I'd gladly add it if I had the necessary information. If you'd like to see your character (Ilea) listed here, please send me an email with all the necessary information.
Eliminating Spam!: I recently posted an update to my Junkmail declaration, and spam fighting page. It's my proposal on a method which would eliminate Spam. Perhaps you'd like to read about another one of my hair-brained ideas?
email addresses: I recently removed another email address from my feedback and Junkmail pages. The myfamily account is now a pay service. I can't afford another pay service so out it goes. I also added a new paragraph, and a background image to the Junkmail page.
Who's who?: I added another character background to the 3rd edition who's who page. Thalidimar now has a background as well. The only one who doesn't have a background is Kim's character. Maybe a little pressure from the other players will help. I've certainly asked her enough times.
Say What!: I added a couple new quotes to the Say What! page. Playing D&D sometimes results in some wacky quotes. Here's a few from my campaign. I also corrected a problem with the title graphic.
Software favorites: I recently removed table builder from my list of software favorites. Dreamweaver MX has now taken over for all my table building chores. I recently discovered that Dreamweaver MX has a tablular data import capability, and a table formatting function. I was able to import a tab delineated data file from AppleWorks, and then format it so that each row met specific format characteristics. A job that would have taken hours in Table Builder, took three minutes with Dreamweaver MX. Every time I use it I learn some new time saving feature. I still use BBEdit to do most of the textual drafting and edititing.

That's it for now. I plan to relax and watch a couple movies now.. Next big project is updating the Junk drawer page. If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, please feel free to send me an email.

Sat, Aug 09, 2003

I just posted a new page. It's a Gallery of Hero's. Past and present characters from the Rob's World! campaign. Perhaps you'll find your old character amongst the roll?

Thu, Aug 07, 2003

I just updated the Journal and who's who pages for our 3rd edition campaign. The Rob's World! newsletter went out on the 3rd of August, and I've been busy playing Civ-III, so I didn't get a lot of web page work done.

Tue, Jul 22, 2003

I just updated the 3rd edition D&D campaign page. Just added a credit line for one of the house rules.

Sat, Jul 19, 2003

I just added a FAQ to my Sugar Grove page. The questions and answers are the result of numerous inquireies I've received via email. Since the Sugar Grove page is one of the most visited, I figure it deserves a little extra attention.

A few more movies. Lately, I bought two movies. One was on my 'must buy' list, and the other was an impulse purchase. The one on my list was 'Thirteen Days'; a very taught drama about the Cuban missile crisis. Some excellent acting, and a very well paced story. Even though you know the outcome, this movie keeps you on the edge of your seat. The DVD is packed with additional features, that I've yet to explore. I give the movie a 7 out of 7. The other movie was 'The Little shop of Horrors'. It's a black and white campy horror classic. The main character (Seymour) is a social misfit who raises a meat eating intelligent plant. The plant is the key to the characters continued employment, and it demands 'Food!'. Seymour is forced to feed it blood and bodies, eventually commiting murder in order to satisfy the plant. It was hilarious. Eventually remade into a play and movie in 1986, this movie, shot in three days, for next to nothing ($30,000), is better than some of the blockbusters I've seen hollywood churn out. A 60's B-Movie. The acting wasn't that good, but the directing by Roger Corman was very good. Solid, and fast paced, this humorous black comedy was definitely worth the $5.00 I spent (for DVD). I give it a 4 out of 7. Oh yeah, this is Jack Nicholson's second film credit. He plays a masochistic dental patient in a walk-on role. Wow he's young in this movie. Both movies have been added to my growing movies list.

Thu, Jul 17, 2003

Just made a few minor updates to some of the 3rd edition D&D campaign pages. The date in the campaign is the year 1001, but for some reason I had 2001 in all the documents. I also made a few changes to the 3rd edition "Who's Who" page. Besides the 3rd edition D&D campaign pages, I also made some corrections to the info on my Think Tank page.

Wed, Jul 16, 2003

Holy crap that's a lot of updates! I've been creating a lot of new pages lately, and updating a slew of older ones. So else is new? How about some movies?

Movies we've seen lately:

Ghost's of Mars - This movie sucked! Thank god I didn't pay anything to see it. HBO must stand for horrible box office! So far I haven't seen a single good movie on that channel. This one get's a 2 out of 7.
Phone Booth - An excellent drama, a taught psycho thriller. The whole movie takes place within sight of the phone booth. The acting wasn't bad either. This one gets a 4 out of 7.
Basic - An action flick with a convoluted plot. This one was so twisted, that even I had no idea what was going on. By the end of the movie, I had no idea who screwed who, who the good guys were, who the bad guys were, or who anyone was. The acting was good, the casting was good, and the directing was very good. The audio/sound was abysmal. I had to turn my tv's sound way up to hear the dialog, and then it was still drowned out by the background sounds. Eventually I had to turn the close captioning on. It was that bad. Oh how I hate that. I give it a 3 out of 7.
National Security - A hilarious comedy. Typical campy fare. Nothing special about the plot. It made me laugh. I give it a 4 out of 7.

Out to eat. Recently, Kim and I went out to eat at a place called 'Hapa - Sushi Grill/Sake Bar' in downtown Denver. It's one of the restaurants that Kim and I found in the 'Gabby Gourmet' <http://www.gabbygourmet.com>, a restaurant guide for Denver and the surrounding area. Kim and I have found lots of great places to eat in this book, and we buy a new one every year. The Sushi at Hapa was on par with that at our favorite place; Fujiyama's. The price was about right, and the service was very good. The only let down was the decor and crowd. I didn't really care for the ultra modern look, and everyone in the place seemed to be plucked directly out of 'Perfect People' magazine. I thought for sure that I was the oldest person in the place. We'll probably eat there again, maybe we'll try the sushi bar next time.

Web page updates. New and updated:

Books: Finished reading 'Code to Zero' by Ken Follet. A good book, but it won't go on my favorites list. I had the plot pretty much figured out thoroughout the book.
3rd Edition "Who's Who". It's a who's who page for my Face-to-Face (f2f) campaign.
The Journal. Updated the 3rd Edition f2f campaign journal. If you'd like to know what the intrepid adventurers are up to, be sure to check out this page.
3rd Edition Campaign. Added two new links to the f2f campaign page. The who's who page, and a pdf copy of the house rules.

So, is that enough updates for the time being? I hope so, I'm getting hungry!.

Thu, Jul 12, 2003

I finally updated my Think Tank page. I added some info regarding my attendance at the 2003 World Forum. The Forum, held in Beaver Creek Colorado, is an annual event, hosted by former president Gerald Ford. It's sponsored by the American Enterprises Institute and the Vail Valley Foundation. I volunteered as a driver and security forces augmentee. Check out the Think Tank page for some more info regarding the event.

I also made some code updates to my other games page. No content changes. Just some tweaking of the tables.

Thu, Jul 10, 2003

Still playing catch-up. I managed to add another page to the adventurers journal. I posted the begining entry for the second adventure. This is the first entry in the new format.

Updated my software favorites page. I switched browsers recently. I'm not a very fickle person, I'm actually very loyal (I'll be going over my twenty year mark (Military service) in Jan of '05), but I've decided to switch. Switch browsers that is. iCab was the King, but now Safari rules the roost. Check out the new champion.

Kim and I recently moved into a new house, and we thought we'd share some pictures with the rest of you. Here are pictures of our; Living room, with new furniture, incredibly spacious Kitchen, and fantastic new Gaming room (despite the poor photo).

Tue, Jul 08, 2003

Alright, the big move is over. Kim and I moved out of an apartment and into a house over the weekend of the 28th of June. We finished moving on the 4th of July. I sent out the latest Rob's World! update on that date. Now I can get back to work on the web site.

Web site updates:

Updated the adventurers journal. Since the 1st adventure ended, I've decided to start a new chapter in the journal. I've changed the way the journal is organized. Basically, it'll be organized by adventures from now on. With a series of links on a main page. Each link will lead to journal entries for each of the adventures.
Created a new page. It's a page about 'Spoofing'. Spoofing is a game of lots, and a military tradition.
Updated my books page. I finally finished reading a book about philosophy and physics. It took me forever because I was having a hard time putting it in my schedule. I'm reading a new book now, a fictional spy thriller. Something a bit lighter. I also cleaned up some of the code, and did a little reformatting as well.

Non web-site related stuff. Kim and I watched some fireworks on the 4th of July. The fireworks were pretty good, the problem was our seats. We really didn't have a lot of time to plan our independence day (we were busy with the move), as a result we kind of just drove around, got lost, and found a congregation of people who were parked to watch fireworks. We parked, and enjoyed the show. Next year, better planning, better seats.

Watched a few movies. Actually got out to the theater to watch a few of these. Some were even on my 'watch list'. Here's the list.

28 Days Later - A modern day zombie flick. An excellent thriller with a bit of drama thrown in. The unknown cast was an added plus. I liked it. I'll probably buy a copy. I give it a 6 out of 7.
Old School - A good movie. The first 'Saturday Night' spawn to really be worthwhile in some time. Made me laugh. I give it a 4 out of 7.
T3: Rise of the Machines - Not as good as I had hoped. The plot was rather limited, and there wasn't a lot of character development. The special effects were good. I might buy a copy just to have the complete 'Arnold' trilogy. I gave it a 4 out of 7.
Evolution - The second time I've watched this movie. I wish there had been something better to watch on cable, but that's the problem with cable these days; hundreds of channels, but nothing to watch. Save your money/time for something better. I give this lump of asteroid crap a 2 out of 7.

I also updated the master index, and search index to accomodate for these new pages.

Fri, Jun 27, 2003

Kim and I are in the midst of a move. We're moving out of an apartment and into a house. Things are rather hectic at the moment. The computer has been successfully moved, and the new ISP has me hooked up with a broadband connection. As a reslt of the move, there has been a minor change to one of my email addresses. I used to have a pcisys.net account/email address. Now I have a comcast.net address. As I don't plan to use it much, the only change it's created is the email addresses listed on my feedback, and junk mail declaration pages.

Tue, Jun 24, 2003

I got back from Beaver Creek on Sunday. I had a good time, same as last year. It was a lot of work, but it's worth it. I'll post some more about the event on my VIFSI page. Kim and I spent Sunday and Monday relaxing, and preparing for our move. The truck rental has been arranged and there are boxes all over the house. I'll try to make some web page updates after the computer gets moved. The date for cable hookup (that's the TV and the computer) has been moved up to the 26th. Tommorow we've got an open house to go to, so I'll probably have to disasemble the computer tonight, and set it up over at the new place tomorrow evening. This will be the last entry for some time. I won't have much time for the computer while we're moving.

Tue, Jun 17, 2003

Things have been getting cramped. Time is begining to dilate around the black hole of June. Kim and I have a very busy end of month schedule, so this may be the last entry you see in some time. I'll be leaving for the World Forum (in Beaver Creek) on Thursday, and the move begins soon after that. Kim and I are moving out of this apartments and into a house. We're still renting, but were fed up with apartment living.

We played D&D on Saturday, but we had to stop early in order to get some extra sleep for the White Water Rafting trip on Sunday. I've got a journal entry, but it needs some work before I post it. It may be a while before I'm able to post it though (see above). When I do post it, I'll be segmenting the journal. It's time to start a new Chapter. We spent the entire night wandering around Willip, and setting up for the next adventure. There's one small problem though. We don't have enough players! I plan on creating one or more NPC's if we can't locate a couple more players. Due to the upcomming move, we will not be playing on the 28th of June. Next gaming date is Jul 12th. Hopefully the house will be in order by then.

On Sunday we went White Water rafting on the Arkansas river. There were 27 people, and we had a fantastic time. I'll post pictures eventually, but haven't had time to scan photos, or prepare any web pages lately. Kim and I have been busy getting ready for the move. We've been selling some unwanted furniture, disasembling things, and packing boxes all week long. We officially start moving on the 27th. I'll be on leave then. In the meantime, we've got plenty of little things to keep us busy.

There's a lot of stuff building up for Rob's World! I've got at least four major projects lined up, just waiting their turn. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to complete all of the projects at this time. Stay tuned for more updates. About the only thing I've had time for is movies... Two hours at a shot. Movies are about the only thing Kim and I have had time for lately. The latest helping is listed below.

The Cowboy Way - Light hearted comedy. Nothing spectacular. Barely worth watching. I give it a 3 out of 7.
Spider-Man - Pretty good movie, not much to the plot, the writting and story were weak, and the special effects could have been better. I wasn't thrilled with the casting. The best performances (IMHO), were J.K. Simmons as the Newspaper editor, and Willem Dafoe as the Green Golbin. The scene where he confronts his alter ego was excellent. Tobey Maguire's performance as Spider-Man was lackluster and deadpan. Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson was also a let down. The two just didn't seem into their roles. Sam Raimi direction was good (not his best), and let's not forget the music. This movie sports a less than enthusiastic score by Danny Elfman. It didn't detract, but it didn't enhance the movie. What happened here? I expect more out of Elfman. This is the third time I've seen Spider-Man. It's not getting any better. I give it a 5 out of 7.

Thu, Jun 12, 2003

Saw a few more movies.

The Frighteners - Light hearted spooky film. Reminded me of Ghost Busters. Fast paced, to complement Michael J. Fox's acting style? I liked the movie, but I guess I'm not the demographic. I give it a 4 out of 7.
Bruce Almighty - Outstanding! I laughed my head off. It was hilarious. Had a lot of comedy, a little romance, and a positive message. Laughing out loud in the theater is generally considered poor form, unless everyone is doing it! It gets a 7, and I'll definitely be buying a copy.
Americna History X - A very difficult movie to watch. I was a little heistant when selecting this movie. The theme deals heavily with hate and racism. I was afraid it was going to glamorize the extremeist point of view. It didn't. The acting was top notch Edward Norton did a magnificent job in his role. The casting was tops, and the story, while dark, dealt out a series of important messages.

Sun, Jun 08, 2003

I just posted some new updates. The Rob's World! newsletter went out yesterday and today. Unfortunately, it went out many times. Sorry about that. Today I updated the adventurers journal. Yesterday I updated the movies page. Speaking of movies, I went and saw two movies yesterday. Kim had to go in to work at 1300, so I went to the movies by myself. I saw two movies:

X2: X-Men united - Pretty good! The plot was rather simple, but well mixed. Lot's of action, but well balanced with some human/mutant drama. Special effects were pretty good. Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler did a really good job. I give it a 6 out of 7.
Wrong Turn - The name kind of sets it up. The plot was no surprise. Young, nubile, perfect people take a 'wrong-turn', and end up lost in the woods. Soon they are pursued by inbred murderous baddies. How does it end? Why bother asking? It was very suspensfull, and kept me jumpy in my seat, but it was really lacking in originality. I give it a 4 out of 7.

While I was at the theater, I saw previews for three movies that I've since added to my watch list. Underworld - Looks like a mix between Blade and the Matrix, The Order - I'm a sucker for those religious supernatural thriller movies, and 28 days later - A modern Zombies movie. Outbreak meets Night of the living dead. I've provided links to trailers, if you've got DSL or cable, check 'em out.

Mon, Jun 02, 2003

I just posted a few new updates. I updated my Books page, and my Trees page. The updates on the Trees page includes a new page. I've finally started identifying trees in Colorado! As a requested feature, the new Trees page contains photos!

Sun, Jun 01, 2003

It's a new month. I've been collecting materials for some new pages, and now I've got most of what I need. I plan on updating the trees page soon. I finally went out and did some tree identifying in Colorado. We played D&D last night, so I've still got to post the journal update. A few updates to my D&D campaign, have resulted in some updated house rules. Those updates should be coming soon. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I've got a lot of updates I'm working on. Unfortunately, today is going to get busy in the afternoon, so I don't think I'll be able to post any of the updates, or send out the monthly newsletter. I'll work on it after work in the coming week.

Fri, May 30, 2003

Updated the software favorites page. GraphicConverter is now at version 4.7b2, and Transmit went up to version 4.5.1.

Sun, May 25, 2003

I've added some new files to the 3rd Edition campaign page. Weapons related data. I added a preface, list, and descriptive text for the weapons available for use in the campaign. If you spot any problems with these pdf documents, please let me know.

Kim and I watched a movie last night, and two movies today. The movies were: 'Antwone Fisher'. A really good movie, based on a true story, with Denzel Washington and Derek Luke. It was Denzel Washington's directorial debut, and it was really good. A drama based on the true-life story of a US Navy seaman, and his struggle to grow beyond his violent past. I give it a 5 out of 7. 'Adaptaion'. A movie about flowers? It had Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, and Chris Cooper in it. A very disjointed movie about a screen writer and his struggle to adapt a book about flowers into a movie about something meaningful. Most of the acting was horrible. I am once again reminded of why I can't stand Nicolas Cage. Thankfully, Chris Cooper's performance was outstanding. I gave it a 4 out of 7. Finally, we saw 'The Emperor's Club' with Kevin Kline. While it was an excellent story, and the lessons taught are commendable, I really didn't find the film all that entertaining. It was somewhat smug in its lesson, and I don't really need a morals lesson. I gave it a 4 out of 7 as well.

Fri, May 23, 2003

Kim and I went out to eat last night. Another celebration, or maybe Kim didn't want to cook? In either case, I passed a test yesterday - scored 91%, and started the four day weekend feeling pretty good. We ate at the 'Outback' right next to our place. Well, it's decided. We don't eat there anymore. The food was mediocre, and the service was slow.

Updated the software favorites page. GraphicConverter is now at version 4.7b1, my OS went up to 10.2.6 (build 6L60), and I added Dreamweaver MX to my list of favorite software. Learning HTML, and creating rich and appealing web sites, can be a difficult endeavor. Dreamweaver MX makes the heavy duty jobs lite weight. The only WYSIWYG tool that I use. I've been using Dreamweaver for some time now, and am begining to appreciate some of it's more powerful features. It's a winner when it comes to editing HTML tables. With a tool box full of things I've yet to use, I'm sure I'll be learing more about HTML in the future, thanks to Dreamweaver MX.

I added three new files to a seldom used page. The PBeM essential files page was once used to provide materials for download to players in my PBeM campaign. Well, the PBeM campaign died long ago, but I can still provide files for download in a secure manner. Now I'm using the page to serve up some files associated with my 3rd edition D&D campaign. In order to download these files, you need a password. If your a player in my campaign, I can email a username and password to you.

Mon, May 19, 2003

I've been very busy lately. The Jeep failed an emissions test, I've been trying to sell some furniture, and I had to take care of some care packages lately, just to name a few things. I haven't been able to spend a lot of time on the web pages. We played D&D on the 17th, and all I've had time for is an update to the 3rd edition D&D campaign pages. I updated the adventurers journal.

Today was my first day at my new job. After two years of working shift work, I'm starting all over again. I have to go through a bunch of General Knowledge training, and that's no fun. I've been here for two years, and I did this once already. I'm thinking of just skipping ahead by taking some of the tests without going through the training material.

Kim and I picked up the Jeep after work. It passed the retest, but we had to put $450 into it first. Hopefully it'll last another 2 years.

We finished off this busy day by going out to eat at a new restaraunt. Well, new for us anyway. We went out to eat at "Josephina's", It's one of the restaurants that Kim and I found in the 'Gabby Gourmet' <http://www.gabbygourmet.com>, a restaurant guide for Denver and the surrounding area. Kim and I have found lots of great places to eat in this book, and we buy a new one every year. We had a traditional Italian Antipasta as an appetizer, Kim had a Arcobaleno Piatto (Fettuccine with fresh spinach, leeks, basil, red onion, sun-dried tomatoes and grilled balsamic chicken), and I had Salmon Piccata (made with lemon, capers, chardonnay and garlic butter). With spaghetti marinara and spinach. It was out of this world. Definitely the best Salmon I'd had in a long time.

Fri, May 16, 2003

Kim and I went and saw Matrix Reloaded. The long awaited sequel. As usual, it doesn't quite live up to its predecessor. Unfortunately, it's taking a lot of heat in the media for not being as awesome as the first movie. I tend to agree that there were some flaws with the movie. However, it was a kickin' ass movie. I will definitely own a copy. The special effects were awesome, the story line flowed well, and I wasn't constantly predicting the next scene. The casting was superb, the costumes were excellent, and the acting was... One of the few criticisms I have for this film; well, let's just say the acting seemed somewhat practiced, rehearsed, stutterish, it just didn't seem natural. I rate it 6 out of 7. See my movies page for more movies.

Thu, May 15, 2003

Rob's World! was down recently. An unexpected/unexplained outage. One of my hosts webeservers was down from appx 0250 on the 15th, until appx 0700 on the 16th. Unfortunately, Dale was away from town, and couldn't fix the problem. Luckily, his wife Laura was able to fix the problem over the phone.

Sun, May 04, 2003

Just a few updates to the 3rd edition D&D campaign pages. I updated the adventurers journal.

Tue, Apr 29, 2003

I saw a couple of movies last night. 'Barbershop' - A somewhat humorous social drama about the urban life of one man's struggle to make something for himself in the inner city. It's about racism, segregation, doing the right thing, blah, blah, blah. Remind me never to rent something I know is out to make a social/political statement. That's two sour pills this month. This movie, and that 'Bloody Sunday' movie. I gave barbershop a 3 out of 7. The acting was o.k. Also saw 'S1M0NE'. A surprisingly well done film. The plot while fresh, was very easy to predict/follow. I had no problems predicting major plot points well before they happened. Aside from the shallow premise/plot, the acting was somewhat lackluster. Everyone in the movie was acting. It almost seemed as if they were acting as if they were acting. I gave it a 4 out of 7 for technical production work. Camera positioning, sound, sets, etc.

Updated some more software recently. GraphicConverter has been upgraded to 4.6.1b2.

Added a new page. It's not really part of the "Rob's World!" theme, and as such, I will not be adding a link from any indexed pages. I created the page primarily as a service to some of my coworkers. Someone brought one of the Operation IRAQI FREEDOM informational leaflets in to work. I scanned the leaflet, and created a web page containing translation and information about the leaflet.

Thu, Apr 24, 2003

I saw a couple of movies tonight. 'Bloody Sunday' - A documentary about an incident in Northern Ireland where 13 civilians were killed during a march for civil rights. While the acting was good, and the film was well shot, I didn't care much for the movie. It didn't have much impact and the pacing was rather slow. I wish I had spent my money on something else. I gave it a 4 out of 7. Also saw 'Darkness Falls'. Supposedly this film was supposed to be scarrier than 'The Ring'. Not so by any stretch of the imagination. The acting was marginal, the story was very thin, and I knew how the movie would end about half way through. The only bright spot was the camera work. I gave it a 4 out of 7.

Updated some more software recently. AppleWorks is now running version 6.2.5 for Mac OS 9, and version 6.2.7 for OS X. Also, GraphicConverter has been upgraded to 4.6.1b1.

Sun, Apr 20, 2003

There have been a lot of changes and additions in the last two weeks. So many changes that I had to make a 'to do' list in order to keep track of all the changes. I've been busy. Here's what I've been working on:

index.html - The usual update, just to let you know that things have been updated.

index2.html - Added the San Vito photo pages to the index.

notime.html - No such thing as time or motion. This update incorporates the new threaded discussion information.

maillist.html - A threaded discussion about the non-existence of time/motion. Coversations with friends and others. Created using unix command line executable 'mhonarc'. I had to perform some extensive editing to remove all the identifiable data (email addressess).

sanvito.html - Created a new photo journal. Kim and I lived in southern Italy. The place was affectionately known as 'Sunny San Vito'. It was the best tour we've ever had. The mission was worthwhile, the climate unbelievable, the people were genuine, the food was sinful, and the friends were the best of all. Here is a photo journal of our time in that fabled far away place from so long ago.

photos.html - Updated the photos page to accomodate the new San Vito photos.

fmreporter - I removed all the fm (formmail) reporter pages. I tried for ages to make these cgi scripts work, but ran into problem after problem. Oh well, time to move on.

books.html - I removed all mention of D&D rules books from my books page. I have a large pile of partially digested D&D rule books. They will probably remain that way until the day that I die. No sense in putting them on the books page. They're more reference material than anything else. Perhaps I'll create a list of all my D&D books.

feedback.html - Made a few changes here. Just minor content changes. No new content, just changes.

whyimac.html - Updated some of the information here. Once again, no new content, just changes.

myfavs.html - Updated the software favorites page. GraphicConverter is now at version 4.6.1b0, my OS went up to 10.2.5 (build 6L29), and StuffIt Deluxe went to version 7.0.3.

movies.html -
Updated the movies page with a bunch of new stuff. Movies I've seen recently, and updated the 'Watch List' and 'Buy Lists'.

Saw five movies recently. They range from a 7 to a 2 on my 1 - 7 scale. Quite a range considering the fact that all the movies were on my 'Watch List'.

The movies: For more information, go to the movies page.

Auto Focus - Life and death of Robert Crane - Rated 2 out of 7.

Waking life - Animated existentialism, philosophical discussion - Rated 4 out of 7.

Anger Management - Not as good as I hoped - Rated 5 out of 7.

Run Lola run - Spectacular. A definite must own. - Rated 7 out of 7.

Trainspotting - Good directing, horrible story - Rated 5 out of 7.

(What have I bought lately: Patton, Final destination, No man's land - 2001, Who framed Roger Rabbit (2 DVD edition (Kim's idea)))

mymovies/index.html - Updated the list of all movies. The list keeps growing.

ajournal.html - We played D&D on the 19th of April. Here's the characters journal.

whatsnew.html - This document, a recap of recent changes and happenings.

Aside from all the changes listed above, my next project is to update my junk drawer pages. Recently, someone spotted an old wrist watch in my junk drawer. They wanted to buy it. I bought a couple batteries to check it out, and everything worked fine. He made me an offer and... to make a long story short, a PayPal transaction ensued. That's one happy customer. I've been hoping to update the page for some time, now I've got the incentive. Stay tuned for more updates.

Sun, Apr 06, 2003

I've been working on a new set of pages to document the 'No time chat'. It's proving to be a technical challenge, but I'm trying to get some mhonarc generated files up on the web site. Aside from that project, we played D&D last night. As a result I updated the adventurers journal.

Aside from these changes, I've been correcting some little errors here and there. I updated the 2.5 edition character sheet, correcting missing and miscoded links.

Wed, Apr 02, 2003

I made two major updates recently. One is a brand new feature. Are you ready for this? Sitting down? good. "Architectural Porn" Yeah, you heard right. Architectural porn. A type of unintentional porn (or is it?). Architecture that looks like something else. Does a strong buttress do it for you? Perhaps your a Gazebo fan. A play on words, or playing to the eye? Is it sinful or artful?

The other major addition isn't documented anywhere. It's a little offshoot I created just to make a point. A friend of mine sends me a monthly newsletter in MS Word (.doc) format. Unfortunately, Word is made by MicroSoft, and that means it's fully proprietary. I'm not about to buy a $189.00 (Word X for Mac) application just to read a document, so I've been trying to convert the document using various applications on my Mac. I put up some web pages that illustrate my MS Word translation attempts.

I used GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) v1.2.3 in order to create the header graphics for both of the pages listed above. The Script-Fu functions are very powerful. Now all I need is a way to use all my system fonts with these X11/Unix applications.

Fri, Mar 28, 2003

I recently installed an office suite called OpenOffice. The OpenOffice.org suite is a set of office tools similar to those in Microsoft Office. OpenOffice.org is based on Sun's MicroSystem's StarOffice code, but is not tied to the proprietary Sun application in any way. The suite consists of the following applications:

Word processor
Spreadsheet application
Presentation package
Formula editor
Drawing program
Data charting application
HTML editor

OpenOffice also contains a set of file filters that enable the importing and exporting of various formats. Obviously, OpenOffice.org contains everything you'd expect in an office suite.

After installing the software suite, which runs under Apple's X11 windowing system. I found that the application lacked a decent icon. I searched the internet looking for a decent icon, but came up empty. What I wanted was something I could put in the dock. The office suite comes with an AppleScript for launching the application, but I was looking for a 128x128 icon I could use in my OS X dock. After some extensive searching, posting to user forums, and resource mining, I found a series of icons and resources that I used in order to create an icon for the application. That's right, I made my own icon! Hopefully you'll enjoy the icon, or better yet, you'll be so interested in the office suite that you'll download it for your Mac (It's available for other computers as well).

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the best part.

It's Free! Take that MicroSoft!

Tue, Mar 25, 2003

I updated my meta-data profile. Someone pointed out some discrepencies with it, so I figured that I may as well take a look at it. I added some new links, corrected some HTML, and revised some of the text. Thanks for the feedback.

Fri, Mar 21, 2003

Snow, snow, snow, and more snow! I took some pictures of Colorado's blizzard of 2003. In addition to the snow photo's, I rebuilt the photo index using Dreamweaver MX. It's actually begining to look like it may prove more useful than Table Builder when it comes to building tables.

Wed, Mar 19, 2003

Snow, snow, snow, and more snow! Suddenly Colorado gets more snow than last years entire season; and March isn't over yet. I'm supposed to be at work, well I am sort of. They closed down the base and the ADF. Police are arresting people out on the roads. Luckily for us the power only went out once, and our roof hasn't collapsed.

I finally added the 'No time chat' page. It's a collection of emails exchanged between friends of Rob's World. The discussion took place just after I published my 'No Time' web page. Basically, it's my friends trying to pick apart my theory, and me trying to defending it. The discussion clarified a lot of the finer points, and helped me better define/describe my theory. Perhaps you'll enjoy the discussion as well.

Tue, Mar 18, 2003

Just updated my Movies page. I bought a bunch of movies lately. I found a good deal on eBay. I got the six DVD set of 'Band of Brothers' for $37.00. I haven't received the DVD's yet. But I did watch the series. Borrowed it from a friend. That series was Awesome!

Thu, Mar 13, 2003

Just added some information regarding my newsletter to the feedback and junkdec pages. If you'd like to sign up, or unsubscribe, you may want to read about the newsletter.

Wed, Mar 12, 2003

I recently got rid of/lost one email address (the bizrate address), and added another (a spamcop address). As a result, I updated my feedback and junk declaration pages.

I've also been hard at work on my formmail reporter pages. They're scripts created using php, and some recent changes on the web server caused the script to stop working. As a result, I've been trying to repair them, and get the scripts working again. Once I've got the kinks worked out I'll put an entry in here.

I also downloaded the latest version of BBEdit for my Mac. One of the changes corrects a problem with Dreamweaver integration.

Sun, Mar 09, 2003

Just a few updates to the 3rd edition D&D campaign pages. I updated the adventurers journal.

Thu, Feb 27, 2003

I added a new page tonight. It's a custom 404 Page not found page. I also updated the software favorites page. There's a new version of iCab available. It's up to 2.9.1 now.

Mon, Feb 24, 2003

I recently updated the Adventurer Journal. We played D&D the other day, and it's been a while since the journal got updated. Hopefully I can find a player to help me out with by keeping the journal up to date. I also updated the software favorites page. There's a new version of BBEdit out there. It's up to 7.0.2 now. Lastly, I updated my email header forgery page. It had some spelling errors.

Another new page. I added the 'Say What?' page. It's a collection of some memorable sayings from players in my D&D game. Created with Dreamweaver MX and BBEdit. I'm starting to use Dreamweaver for table creation/editing. Nothing too complex, but I'm experimenting with Dreamweaver, trying to see where it's strengths and weaknesses lay.

Tue, Feb 18, 2003

Someone pointed out an error on one of my newer pages. The Why Bother page had a broken mailto: graphic link. I've fixed it. I also made a small update to my software favorites page. Mac OS X is now at version 10.2.4.

Sat, February 8, 2003

Yesterday I received an email. The author asked me why I bother fighting spam. The question sure got me fired up. So inspired in fact, that I decided to put my reasons in writting. You may want to check it out. The 'Why Bother' page was written primarily using Dreamweaver MX. I'm getting used to it, but I still find BBEdit to be much more powerfull. Other than anti-spam page, I also made a small update to my software favorites page. The latest version of Transmit is out. Now at version 2.3, this latest version introduces some minor bug fixes.

Fri, Feb 07, 2003

Did a minor update today. Changed some of the code in my mailto: links. Added entity encoding to the text string. Without it some of the characters create false errors during HTML validation. I've also been trying to put Dreamweaver MX to some use. So far I've been frustrated in my attempts to build a page with rather complex tables. I'm still learning. Hopefully I'll get better at it.

Tue, Feb 04, 2003

I've been somewhat busy with work lately. Really haven't had much time to update Rob's World! that much. About the only thing of note is another update to my software favorites page. GraphicConverter was recently updated to version 4.5.4. On the subject of software; I recently purchased and installed Dreamweaver MX on my Mac. It supposed to be this great HTML/Web page compostion, editing and publishing software. We'll see. I'm using BBEdit at the moment, and so far DWmx hasn't impressed me. Maybe I'm just not tapping into it's potential. The primary reason I bought it is to help with tables.

Mon, Jan 27, 2003

I've been doing some updating, and creating some new content. Since I purchased a bunch of DVD's in the past few weeks, I figured I should update my movie listings

I updated some of the D&D web pages, changing the wording and graphics to reflect third edition.

I also added a new link to my campaign page. The new link will form the basis of my "Face to Face" (f2f) campaign. The 3rd Edition campaign is now underway, and I've started documenting some of the action. The first entry is a journal. An adventurers journal of the parties escapades.

In the future I hope to add links similar to those found at my PBeM pages. A 'whos who' listing, a listing of NPC's, and other stuff to help out the players.

Tue, Jan 21, 2003

I've been doing a lot of updating lately. Minor stuff mostly. One major update which may be of interest. I've changed all the mailto: links at my web site. I've found that standard mailto: links make every email address vulnerable to spambots. As a matter of fact, all textual email addresses are vulnerable to spam harvesting techniques.

I've altered all my mailto: links. I changed the email address to xxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx, added a Subj: line which reminds users to replace the xxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx with a valid address, and linked the mailto: to graphic representations of the email address. I've used unix commands to convert ascii text (email addresses) into web ready graphics (.png format). The method I'm using makes email addresses immune to spambots. The only way that theses email addresses can be harvested is manually. Spammers don't usually go through that sort of trouble to build their email lists, so this method offers a relatively high degree of protection. Perhaps this technique will prove to be of interest to others.

I've posted this technique on my web site, and emailed it to some of the lists that I subscribe to. Perhaps it'll help someone else avoid those evil spambots!

I also made some minor updates to a few web pages. The feedback page has been slightly reformated, and the eMail-stamp comment page has been revised.

Thu, Jan 16, 2003

I've been doing a lot of updating lately. Minor stuff mostly. One major update which may be of interest. I've removed all mailto: links at my web site. I've found that mailto: links make every email address vulnerable to spambots. As a matter of fact, all textual email addresses are vulnerable to spam harvesting techniques.

I've replaced all my mailto: links with graphics. I've been using unix commands to convert ascii text (email addresses) into web ready graphics (.png format). The method I'm using makes email addresses immune to spambots. The only way that theses email addresses can be harvested is manually. Spammers don't usually go through that sort of trouble to build their email lists, so this method offers a relatively high degree of protection. Perhaps this technique will prove to be of interest to others.

Other than the email substitution changes, I've also updated my software favorites page. A new version of iCab is available.

Fri, Jan 10, 2003

Well, it's been a while since I updated this page. As a matter of fact, it's been a while since I've updated any of my web pages. The reasons are many. The holidays kept me busy. I've been getting ready for the launch of my new D&D campaign, and then there were some internet related problems...

Holidays: Kim and I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.

Dungeons & Dragons: I've been spending a lot of time getting ready to 'Game On!'. I'm restarting my Dungeons and Dragons campaign.

I've been playing D&D since 1976 (Kim since 1985), and no it's not some sort of 'fad' mom. Kim and I love the game (I'm the one responsible for indoctrinating her into the game), and we've been playing in someone else's campaign since we arrived in Denver. Now it's time to restart the Rob's World! D&D campaign. It's been quite some time, and the third edition has introduced a lot of changes. I'm not totally ready yet, but that's not going to stop me.

We've got six players lined up, and I've been busy typing up the house rules. They probably won't be complete by the time we start playing, but I'm hopeful. First gaming date is tomorrow; Saturday the 11th of January. We'll be playing every other Saturday after that. Hopefully things will work out all right. It's a passion. It's a pass time. It's only a game...

Web site down!: The company I use to host my web pages, uses a company called CIHost for all of it's internet hosting. Well, CIHost has had most it's servers down since the 5th of January! That's right Rob's World! was off the air for the past few days (since 7 January). It's a good thing I'm not selling anything. That's enough downtime to drive some companies into bankruptcy. The outage affected over 48,000 customers, and CIHost still hasn't bothered to explain why. I know there's a class action lawsuit in the works, and I imagine this outage will hurt CIHost where it counts. My web pages were down until today (Actually I believe they were up as of 2156L on the 9th), and email to robsword.org or vaessen.net is still bouncing. If you'd like to send me email please use my email address for now. I have no idea how much email I lost, or when that will be working again.

The company that I use to host my web pages is seriously considering a move to some other service provider. CIHost really dropped the ball on this one. The outage is one thing, the length of time was another, the worst part was the lack of communication. We still have no explanation as to what happened.

Aside from updating this document, I also updated the software favorites page. I upgraded my copy of GraphicConverter. After some trouble shooting and bug reporting on my part. GraphicConverter is now at version 4.5.2. The newest version has a lot of changes, but I helped correct a problem with the display of pbm (Portable Bit-Mapped) graphics.

Just a few other minor changes. I updated all the Copyright tags to 2003, replaced some more email addresses with JavaScript, and moved the 2002 What's New document into the archives.

Return to the Main Page of Robert's Home Page.

Take a trip into the Past. View the "What's New" archives. Venture way back to the Distant Past. Fire up the way back machine, and study some Ancient History. In order to experience previous "What's New Archives", manually enter the URL in the form 'https://www.robsworld.org/wn####.html'; substituting the year for the number (pound) signs. The archives begin in the year 1996.

Author: Robert L. Vaessen e-mail:
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