Feedback contains information on updates and some background information that might be of interest to some readers. It also has comments from web site readers that might have wider interest than just to me. To that end, and to possibly prevent having to respond to the same questions and comments again and again, this page provides responses that answer some of your questions, even some you've not yet asked. Be forewarned that I write for enjoyment as well as for enlightenment, and hope that you'll appreciate my humor. If not, then send me a comment and maybe I'll post it here. Or maybe not.

As with other areas where I post items of interest, I'll include dates and have the newest first so you don't have to go scrolling through a lot of "old news" (is that an oxymoron?). To speed up page loading, entries have been divided by year, with larger years' entries split.

Jack Terwiel     

2002	2003	2004	2005: Jan-Jun  Jul-Dec
2006: Jan-Jun  Jul-Dec	2007: Jan-Jun  Jul-Dec	2008:  Jan-Jun  Jul-Dec	2009: Jan-Jun  Jul-Dec

June 29, 2008 – Not So Nice Gneiss
Osan is decorating around the installation with large rocks that serve a dual purpose. Besides decoration, the rocks are positioned to deter vehicular assault. One of the Guestbook posters (currently on page 3 of Guestbook, 2007-11-02), who had gotten into geology after his Osan tour, commented on an earlier photo that it's 'nice gneiss'. Well, I found one on my walkabout that didn't look so nice. If you look at the upper rock in the image, it looks like a head (two black eyes separated by nose ridge with misshapen mouth below) rising up from the earth. Kind of reminded me of the head of a fearsome 'Golem'.

June 8, 2008 – The Digger; I Want One; Pedestrian Safety
The Digger: It was a nice morning, cool and hazy with rain forecast later in the day. On Hill 170, I encountered a creature that I'd known was here from the trails I'd seen. But this was the first time I'd seen him (or her). This mole was prevented by the curbstone from getting back into his (or her) tunnels and I was not going to help. I recall the destruction these critters wreaked on once-beautiful gardens as I was growing up.

I Want One: At this CE facility, I saw a pair of interesting vehicles. This utility vehicle looks like it could take on some rough terrain. A look at the underside gives the impression it could be competition for a mountain goat.

Pedestrian Safety: Civil Engineering is finally building a sidewalk on the road between the golf course and ROKAF area. This road is heavily traveled by Korean workers, military and civilian, walking to their jobs in the HTACC and KCOIC and other nearby facilities. It will definitely make it safer for both pedestrians and drivers. No word on whether it will have any effect on protecting predstrians and vehicles from errant golfballs.

May 25, 2008 – Osan Walkabout; Saturday Outing
Osan Walkabout: It was another beautiful day here and I took an early morning walk to record Osan on a Sunday morning in Spring. I want to start by showing how car design is improving in Korea. Awhile back, I had a photo of an Actyon car built by Asia Motors. I tagged it the 'ugliest car of 2006.' Today, I came upon a new Actyon on Hill 170 and I took this photo and this photo to illustrate how design has improved, at least with this version. Further along on Hill 170, I noted that the acacia flowers noted last time had now fallen and littered the roadside.

The Turumi Lodge has definitely spiffed up the outside landscaping with this design, and here's a closer look at the smaller area behind. And speaking of things that look better, the picnic area near the golf course has some good looking roses as seen here and here. Another interesting sight at the Picnic Area was this rafting tube and I was wondering if someone has inside information on the coming monsoon season. One last item for Osan is that Red Horse is not completely gone. Their hoofprints can still be seen here.

(link fixed) Saturday Outing: My wife talked me into going to Osan City to check out some flowers. So we hopped the electric train from Songtan Station and went to the Osan College station. Nearby there is the Osan City Arboretum, within easy walking distance of station. What's an Arboretum? Rather than explain it, I'll just direct you to the pictures. To get there, exit the Osan College station on the west (mountain) side. Exiting the station, go right and follow the road as it heads to the main thoroughfare. Cross the main road and go straight for a short distance until you come to the entrance to the Arboretum on the left side. Approaching the entrance, you'll see many food vendors.

May 10, 2008 – It's Spring; Survivors; A New Challenge?; A New Button
Today has been a beautiful day here and I took an early morning walk to record Osan on a Saturday morning in Spring. The first sight was of acacia trees in full bloom. The air was clearer today than it's been in awhile, and this view across Osan AB shows it. In the area of the enlisted dormitories near the Challenger Club, I came across an evergreen that reminded me of how Europeans decorate their Christmas tree with candles.

Survivors: As I was passing below the water plant on Hill 170, I heard a mewling sound and saw two magpies attacking something in the roadway. They continued furiously pecking away at it and it appeared to be a smaller bird on its back. As I approached, the two adult magpies flew away and left a baby magpie lying in the road. The baby righted itself and managed to fly about 20 feet toward me. It then headed up the hillside seeking cover to hide away. And I didn't spot the snail from last week.

Heading up Hill 180 near the Fitness Center, I spotted a tree that looked like it shouldn't be alive. However, stepping back shows that it, like the baby magpie, is a survivor.

A New Challenge? An Army retiree told me that the Air Force has relaxed the fitness standards and this is a picture of the new Air Force Obstacle Course. Hmmm, he wouldn't be pulling my leg, would he?

New Navigation Button: There's a new navigation button in the left column labeled 'MRAO Survey.' That will be part of the new MRAO survey capability that will be used when we start taking serious surveys of the Korea retiree community and other retirees as appropriate. It's still in testing mode for now and I appreciate those who've taken the time to add to the test data. Have you?

May 4, 2008 – Newsletter; Creepy Crawler & Spot; New Songtan Category
I'm happy to report that the e-mail newsletter seems to have gone to all subscribers without a hitch. I need to find a way to monitor the sending because periodically it just goes to 'white screen' and I have to restart the send. It's a time-consuming process in which I can't leave it and can't do anything else on the computer. Oh, by the way, have you taken the newsletter survey. I'd like to get a lot of people to help in the testing while I learn how to using the graphing software.

Creepy Crawler & Spot: As I was heading down Hill 170 this morning, I came upon this creepy crawler heading up the hill. If he survives, I expect to see him near the top by September.

And while I was heading up the now-opened stairway up to the roof of the family housing parking garage, I saw this spot on the left of the stair riser. Closer inspection revealed this critter.

New Songtan Category: A new category of photos has been added to the Songtan photo "album." It's called 'Renovations' and can be found on the Songtan page under 'Other Stuff'. I should have started earlier to document the reconstruction going on around here, but I was a bit busy. Anyway, I'm starting with a single row of photos showing the new sidewalk installation. Very colorful, but uncomfortable to walk on with the handicapped aid down the center (a small price for being nice). Another project that will be added is the move of overhead wiring to underground conduits. I should be able to document that project plus the installation of city gas in our neighborhood. The gas installation will happen later in the summer after the monsoon has passed. And we're getting it eight years after the installation started in Songtan, and we've watched the surrounding neighborhoods get it several years ago.

April 25, 2008 – RAO-Osan Time Capsule Discovered
Our Guestbook is in its third iteration. The Guestbook service was initiated in January 2003 using a program that I installed. That program was replaced in September 2006 by the web hosting service with their own Guestbook and my guestbook entries disappeared. As noted in the Apr 21 'What's New' entry, I converted the web hosting service's Guestbook entries into the format readable by my new Guestbook program.

Yesterday, while exploring the web site files, I discovered the original Guestbook entries that had been replaced by the web hosting service. So yesterday and today were spent converting those entries to be readable by the new program. So if you want to go reminiscing (as I did while converting them), there are now 31 30 pages of Guestbook entries to go through. (Page count changed after cleaning up some errors and cleaning out a couple of questionable entries.) I even left a few entries from my old friend MUGU.

So how do you tell the difference between Guestbook programs? Look at the format of the date at the bottom of each entry.

April 20, 2008 – Spring Has Sprung
Summer-like weather has appeared rather abruptly in Korea over the last several days. Yesterday it was around 80°F (26°C) in the Osan area and Dongducheon (Camp Casey) was 86°(30°C). The VFW Post 10216 barbeque was well-timed and well-received. Not to fret though about "global warming" in Korea. The forecast is for a high temperature of 60°F (16°C) by Wednesday. Let's see how many t-shirts and shorts appear then.

After yesterday's early posting to the web site, I took the camera and headed out to walk the base and enjoy the great weather. I so much enjoyed the weather that I took only a few photos. A couple were of the flowers on the hillside adjacent to the senior officer housing near the AAFES Service Station. A closer look reveals the flowers are going to have some competition for the sunlight.

The frosting on the cake for Osanites is that the IG team has arrived to perform a Unit Compliance Inspection of Osan units.

April 19, 2008 – E-Mail Newsletter: Mission Accomplished
If you're subscribed to the e-mail newsletter, then you received Still Serving in Korea on April 16-17, which day depending on your position on the mailing list. I actually started working on the project on March 14 by locating the necessary software and finding a nice platform on which to install it. The development platform is a USB thumb drive, and the software that I used to emulate a web server is XAMPP. Once that was installed and working, I installed the actual mailing list software that goes by the name, PHPlist. It has a lot of options and a very attractive price – it's free! Exactly one month later, April 14, I was able to upload everything to the web site and successfully send the first test message to myself over the Internet. After cleaning up some of the testing mess, I was able to send the initial notification e-mail to all subscribers on April 15 and the April newsletter went out to you the following day.

There are a few things I'd like to tweak, such as the sending process. It goes to sleep periodically and I have to kick it in the butt. Learning that painful fact meant it took three hours of constant monitoring on the evening of April 16 and another 30 minutes the morning of April 17 to get all the newsletters sent. It looks fixable as far as I can see. I just need to find out the best way to fix it for the rao-osan.com environment and learn how to do it.

When you received the newsletter, did you notice at the bottom there are a couple of options (in addition to "Unsubscribe") that you didn't have with the commercial mailing service? First is "Preferences" where you can tell me some things about yourself. There are some options I'd like to add in the future to tailor some e-mails to you. For example, if you tell me the Area in Korea where you live, I can send you information that's relevant only to the retirees in that Area about activities of interest to retirees and their families. So please take the time to update the information. There's also an option to "Forward" the e-mail to someone else. With this option, you can help me to build the subscriber base from the current 517 worldwide subscribers. If you tried to use Forward shortly after receiving the newsletter, it didn't work because I'd cleaned out the send queue and that's where the forwarded message is picked up. It's working now and I learned something in the process about the additional role of the send queue.

I have been very careful to avoid asking you for information in Preferences that could open you to identity theft. That way, I can leave the information more easily accessible to you by not asking you for a password. However, if enough people complain, I do have the option to make you set a password to access your Preferences page. I also have the option to leave the password visible in the data base so that if you forget it, I can send it to you. Or I can specify that the password is encrypted. In that case, I can't see the password and all I can do is reset it to a generic password to give you access to your page where you can install a new password. One caution about passwords: it's an all-or-nothing option. Either everybody has to use a password or nobody uses a password. Oh, and a password would be required to Unsubscribe you so nobody else can take away your Still Serving in Korea without your permission (except me, of course). The information as it's currently installed is reasonably safe and secure.

Finally, it's been pretty quiet here on the web site with the effort to fix the newsletter problem. Now that the hard work is done, I can pay more attention to keeping the web site updated. The improved weather will also mean more photos.

March 16, 2008 – E-Mail Newsletter Situation Update
As reported in a hasty e-mail to newsletter subscribers, the e-mail version of Still Serving in Korea has been blocked by the mailing service because it contains "spam." The so-called spam consists of discussions of medical care and pharmacy. The text version of the newsletter is also classified as spam because it contains my e-mail address. Who knew?

So what am I doing about it? Discussions with the mailing service were fruitless. Their suggestion was to change my newsletters to comply with their spam filter. They ignore the fact that spam is sent to unsuspecting recipients. Because you subscribe, then receive an e-mail that you must reply to in order to activate the subscription, I don't see how it can be classified as spam if you want to receive it.

In any case, there doesn't seem to be much that I'll gain by continuing with that mailing service. So, I've decided to build my own. My web hosting service provides the software to do it. All I need now is the knowledge, so I'll proceed just as I did in 1999 with the web site. At that time, after a knowledgeable person built it for me, he told me he was retiring and could no longer continue. So I bought some books and in six weeks felt qualified to call myself "Webmaster" for rao-osan.com.

Because that worked so well, my first response once again has been to order some books. But I'm more knowledgeable of the web now, so I've also downloaded the Windows versions of the programs that I'll need to learn and, using on-line tutorials along with the books, I can practice on my own computer to ensure I don't make mistakes with the hosting service computer when I feel I'm ready to go on-line. (Crashing their computer is not a good idea and could cause assessment of damage claims.)

I'll continue to use the current mailing service to send out the notice when the next newsletter is ready. Displaying my own "Audacity of Hope", I believe the next issue will be the only other time that I'll have to tell you to go look for the newsletter. After that, I'll be able to send the May newsletter using my own mailing service, because "Change is Good." (If the politicians can use these phrases, so can I. But I'm confident that I'll have more substance in the meaning and results.)

March 5, 2008 – Posted Newsletter Improvements
The previous week has been yet one more busy one for me. For the first time in awhile, I ran the current newsletter through the code validation service. It had a lot of coding errors that needed to be corrected. So I've run all the newsletters through and corrected many errors. The result is that the newsletters, all 39 of them, should now appear correctly in all browsers.

I also went through the newsletter indexes and applied the code validation. Some minor problems were found and corrected. What continues to be interesting when doing something like this is to see the difference between how web pages are displayed by Internet Explorer compared with the other (code-compliant) browsers.

February 24, 2008 – More Web Site Changes
The previous week has been another busy one for me. All of the Songtan pages have been reviewed and updated as necessary. As I went through and developed addition helpful tools on those pages, I went back and added the tools to the other pages I'd updated previously.

The big update today was to go through each of the construction pages and fix the coding errors. I found that the family housing page had grown to unmanageable size, so it's been broken down into three parts – 2005, 2006 and current – and that should help speed things up a bit. I'll try to monitor pages like that which can grow to unloadable size over the Internet.

February 17, 2008 – More Web Site Changes
The web site updates have been pretty sparse for the past two weeks. It's not that I've been slacking, though. I've been working "behind the curtain" on the slide shows in "Then and Now" and "What Was It Like." All the code has been updated and verified so that there's less likelihood of glitches as you go through the slides. The most visible proof of this on each page is that all text is now displayed on a white background for easier reading.

I noted (in the Feb 4 post below) the icon that started appearing on some of the pages. That icon has now infiltrated the slide show pages. Although it doesn't appear on each individual image's page (two per screen), each one has been individually updated and verified.

Another image that has appeared, at the bottom on the home page first, is and this identifies those pages where I use a Java Applet. One example of what a Java Applet does is the "What's New" scroll on the home page. In the slide shows, the image display controller is a Java Applet. The version of Java that was used to create these great Applets is out of date, so I had to fall back in those cases to the older code verification symbol.

One part of the very tedious and repetitive task that I did enjoy was looking at those great images again. And it made me appreciate once again the generosity of those retirees who donated them. I highly recommend a revisit if you haven't looked at them for awhile.

And for those with a technical bent, I discovered a very useful program that helps take some of the repetitiveness out of the updating of similarly coded web pages (and other stuff). It's called "WildEdit" by Helios software, makers of the text editor I use to code the web site pages. I wish I had come upon it earlier than halfway through the project, because it saved a lot — A LOT — of time. I did as much in less than two days as I did in the first 11 days.

February 4, 2008 – Web Site Changes
The title of the web site on the home page has been updated from Retiree Activities Office to Military Retiree Assistance Office accompanied by appropriate images. In the lower left navigation panel, About RAO is now About MRAO with an associated new page describing the MRAO. RAO Home is now MRAO Home.

You can see the icon appearing at the bottom of many of the key pages on the web site. This means that each page has been validated as containing the correct code to display without error in all the major web browsers. This process will continue until I run out of pages or steam, because it's a tedious process. You may also have noted that this icon is at the bottom of the Still Serving in Korea newsletter.

January 27, 2008 – Social Security Forms and Instructions
A retiree provided me with a printed copy of a newer edition of the form SSA-1 used to file for retirement benefits. So I sent an e-mail to SSA Manila and asked if there were any other new editions. Marila Atienza, a Claims Examiner, e-mailed to me the new SSA-2 and said those were the only two forms that had been updated. So I scanned the SSA-1, pulled it into Adobe Acrobat and created fillable form fields, then rewrote the instructions to go along with it and covering all forms needed to apply. I also added at the top of the instructions the table showing when a person reached the Social Security Full Retirement Age (100% of benefits) based on year of birth.

When that was done, I took the SSA-2 PDF form that Marila had sent and used Adobe Acrobat to create the fillable form fields for the form used to apply for the spouse benefit. As part of the SSA-2, the worker must also submit a Marriage Certification form, SSA-3, so I also created that as a computer fillable form. I then wrote the instructions to go along with it and covering all forms needed to apply.

That's how I spent my weekend, working hard for you so you don't have to.

January 20, 2008 – New RSO Visit Schedule; Photo Updates
Tarita Harris, your Retirement Services Officer, has found it necessary to shuffle the Tuesday visit schedule to accommodate other duties associated with pre-retirement tasks. The new schedule is:

• First Tuesday – Seoul, Yongsan
• Second Tuesday – Dongducheon, Camp Casey
• Third Tuesday – Seoul, Yongsan
• Fourth Tuesday – Daegu, Camp Henry

There is no change to the visit locations and visit hours at these installations. For more information call the RSO at DSN 753-3872.

Photo Updates: I was surprised when I started photo updating to realize how long it had been since I'd visited the area near the golf course. During that time, the new golf course clubhouse and the Readiness Dorm had been completed. I think that I should now be able to stay on top of what's going up at Osan.

Speaking of the new golf clubhouse, I was also amazed to see how much it had changed the area between the new location and the previous location. Rather than try to describe it, I'll have more photo updates very soon to show the expanded parking and the adjacent driving range.

As I was heading up Hill 170, I glanced off toward the high school area where so much of the current construction has been going on. One thing really caught my eye, and that is how insignificant the once-towering senior NCO dormitory now looks at the left of the new family housing tower.

January 13, 2008 – Picking Up Where I Left Off
As I noted in the previous post below, I was very slow in updating the web site. I've been trying to catch up and rest up from the RSO hiatus. Now I've reached the point that I have picked up where I left off on updating and sort of standardizing the web page format. In the process, I'm getting rid of a lot of old "Front Page" code that clutters the page with repetitious and unneeded commands. Style sheets let me enter the command once and then a single code on the web page refers back to the style sheet. The same style sheet is used for many different pages, so it saves space and hopefully results in faster response at your end.

The latest effort is to update the USFK Retiree Council information as part of the page update. I'm awaiting the current information on all the council members before I post it. However, if you'd like to get an idea where it's heading .... I was experiencing some problem with the Firefox browser where horizontal table lines were appearing and disappearing as I scrolled up and down. (Yeah, yeah, I know. Tables are obsolete and Divs are in. I did the RSO web site using the latter method. However, tackling the RAO site will take much more time. Maybe someday.) Anyway, if you have any problems, let me know the problem and the browser (such as Internet Explorer) that you're using.

While waiting for the updated council information, I've proceeded to to the more complex U.S. Military Retirees Assocation Korea that has more sub-pages. Also, I wanted to finally get away from the annoying white letters on the blue background (don't know what I was thinking when I did THAT). I think it's at the point where the pages can be opened to the light of public scrutiny. Go check it out.

December 23, 2007 – Hey Jack, Where Ya Been?
The web site has been unusually quite lately. The reason is that I've been trying to complete a number of tasks to prepare for the changeover of the Retirement Services Office to a new face; and to try to delineate the separation of tasks and responsibilities between the redefined RSO and my return to volunteer service to you. When I had some time to walk around Osan, I did take pictures, but I didn't have time to edit and post them. I caught up on that today.

The Army RSO will adopt a role more attuned to an Army RSO operating in the U.S. Mrs. Tarita Harris, the new Retirement Services Officer, will be supporting pre-retirees with briefings and counseling on retirement concerns such as the Survivor Benefit Plan. She will also be more directly supporting the Army installation retiree councils around Korea. She will be responsible for planning the Korea Retiree Appreciation Day at Yongsan, as well as leading or assisting in planning for Retiree Appreciation Days at other locations. For example, if USAG Humphreys decides to organize a Spring 2008 RAD, Tarita will be the primary planner. She will also assist Steve Davis as necessary in planning the USAG Daegu RAD, though Steve has two RADs under his belt and they get better each time. It would be hard to imagine how anyone but Steve could beat him at outdoing himself.

I will focus on providing the "personal services" such as applying for Social Security, resolving problems with the Internal Revenue Service, ensuring that benefits continue to flow without interruption, and the other tasks I've picked up in ten years of service. I will also continue maintaining the web site, the monthly e-mail newsletter and the Korean-language print newsletter for the widows. Tarita will start producing a quarterly print newsletter for retirees. This will cover the gap that started when I lost funding for the print newsletter. A number of retirees without computer access were left without the newsletter information. Also, the number of retirees who have actually signed up to receive the e-mail newsletter is very low, especially considering that a number of those who signed up live outside Korea. The new print newsletter should close that gap.

One task that kept me busy for awhile since the last web site update has been to write a Continuity Book based on my experiences with planning the 2007 Yongsan Retiree Appreciation Day. This will give Tarita something on which to hang her hat.

The other pressing task for me is to ensure that the downtown office we've prepared outside the Osan AB gate will be ready in January to provide the full spectrum of assistance you've expected from me. Most of what we need is ready. However, a couple of weeks ago, the wireless connection to the office stopped functioning and I've been very much involved in trying to get it working again. Nothing changed to cause the problem, as far as I know; it just stopped getting the signal down to the office. It's almost as is the signal generated by the Router that connects to the Internet suddenly got weaker. I may do some more testing to see if I can find a stronger signal an another channel, but as a backup I've ordered a new, more powerful Router.

The Military Retiree Assistance Office, as the new Songtan office is called, will be closed until after the New Year holiday period. Once it reopens on January 7, the office hours will be 0900-1500, Monday-Friday. Thereafter, both U.S. and Korean holidays will be observed (volunteers and Embassies can do that, you know).

In case you're interested, the Korean sign translates to, "Foreign Military Retiree (and) Widow Volunteer Service Office."

November 11, 2007 – Daegu Retiree Appreciation Day
Steve Davis pulled off another winner with the 2007 USAG Daegu Retiree Appreciation Day yesterday. With outstanding support from the Daegu community, retirees had lots of information and, most importantly if you can judge from the crowds, lots of medical care. In a number of photos in the slide show, one area consistently had a large crowd around it. That was the medical folks giving flu and pneumonia shots as well as medical screenings. On top of that, retirees were able to make appointments for more extensive medical checkups and for dental examinations and cleanings at the nearby medical and dental clinics.

The barbeque chicken and ribs, along with all the side dishes (including kimchi and rice) were excellent and the dessert pies were great, too. A cake was there, and the cake cutting was performed by yours truly (Jack Terwiel on the left) and Bill Christman, the Chairman of the USAG Daegu Retiree Council.

Speaking of the Retiree Council, we had the opportunity to bid a sad farewell to Vice Chairman Will Plumley, the dynamo who made the Retiree Council a reality and, together with Steve Davis, the Retiree Appreciation Day an annual event. Will is off to become the Deputy Garrison Commander at West Point.

With the prizes that Steve amassed for the drawings, the prizes just kept coming and coming. And finally – taking a cue from the RAD location in the Kelly Gym – prizes were awarded in two contests held for retirees, one for the top three finishers for the number of pushups in two minutes, and the other for the top three finishers for the number of situps in two minutes.

The first image in the slide show is the reception table where the retirees signed in and received their gift bag (shown under table). Reception was manned by volunteer active duty soldiers who signed up via the BOSS (Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers) program. And they mingled with the retirees when things slowed down at Reception.

Each year it gets better, and I'm sure the Daegu area retirees are already looking forward to next year to see what Steve can pull off to outdo himself once again.

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