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
2010: Jan-Jun  Jul-Dec	2011: Jan-Jun  Jul-Dec	2012: Jan-Jun  Jul-Dec	2013: Jan-Jun  Jul-Dec

December 28, 2009 – Osan's Second Snow of the Season
Light snow started on Sunday afternoon and continued into the evening before tapering off. By Monday mid-afternoon near the main gate the snow looked like this. The ROKAF snow removal equipment was out, i.e., shovels operated by junior Airmen. The only place where the snow was relatively pristine was in the former CE area.

December 6, 2009 – Osan's First Snow of the Season
We had a bit of snow on Saturday, so I braved a biting cold wind to get some photos. Then went out on Sunday to enjoy the sunshine. Near the main gate the snow looked like this. On Sunday afternoon, it looked like this. The snow on Hill 170 looked rippled from the strong wind. From Hill 170 I headed toward the Chapel as the snow picked up. A couple of balloons had blown past, me and I found groups clustered around the Chapel entrance here and here. From Hill 180, I saw a strange sight. The town of Jinwi, just north of the base, was bathed in sunlight while everywhere around it was covered by clouds. On a bright, clear Sunday, Jinwi looked like this.

November 27, 2009 – Retiree Corner Column Updated
The Retiree Corner column in today's Morning Calm newspaper needs to be updated. After submitting the column, I wandered through the electronics displays at Osan Main Exchange. Lo and behold, the netbook I wrote about is now available locally. So here's the column that should have been.

October 28, 2009 – Internet Explorer Change
One of the problems that bothered me without affecting the web site performance was how some titles were displayed. Internet Explorer decided that titles in the left navigation menu and titles on many pages should be italicized. This was not what I intended and not how other browsers displayed them.

So I did some exploring and found that IE has a problem if the selected font style (bold, italics, etc.) doesn't exist for that font. It selects another style that does exist, something the other browsers don't do. So I decided to change to another font that does display properly in IE; however, that one didn't display sufficiently bold in the other browsers. So what's a guy to do?

Go back to exploring. The solution turned out to be pretty simple. As I've done with a number of other areas on the web site, the solution was to create two style sheets, one for IE and another (the existing one) for other browsers. (The style sheet tells the browser the details of how the display is constructed.) So now IE users see the pages almost exactly how others see them — and I feel better.

October 17, 2009 – Around Osan
I found an acorn hunter (no, not that ACORN) on Hill 170 near the old CE buildings. She was picking up those that had fallen and putting them into the shopping bag at the left. Passing the airmen's dormitories near the Challenger Club, I found a lonely wheel, evidence that you keep what you secure.

Coming down Hill 180, I noted that the hillside behind the family housing had pretty good vegetation cover to minimize mudslides. In front of the housing is a radar speed detector to remind motorist to slow down near family housing.

Then I got a nice picture of the U-2 passing overhead on a maintenence flight. And another flyer, this one grounded, was a moth taken in closeup while playing with my camera's macro capability.

September 26, 2009 – Social Security Improves Pacific Area Services
The Social Security Office in Manila has been redesignated from Social Security Administration Divison (SSAD) to Federal Benefits Unit (FBU). This change comes as part of the upgrade of the Manila office to have a direct connection into the main computer system. So what, you say?

The change allows the Manila office to take applications over the phone. So what, you say? Up to now, to file for any Social Security benefits, you have had to complete at least four application forms and include supporting documents to prove who you are, who you are married to, who you were married to, that you're not a wanted criminal, etc, etc.

Now you make an appointment and give your preferred phone number. You will be notified of the date and time of your appointment to apply. At the appointment time, your Social Security Claims Examiner will telephone you (they're paying the bill) and will start with a security question to confirm your identity. Then you respond with information to fill out the application form. When the application is completed, the Claims Examiner will give you a short list of supporting documents that you must mail to the Manila office. These can be the original documents, or, preferably, copies that have been notarized by the Legal Office or certified by the U.S. Embassy.

The Manila office has been staffed up from six to eleven Claims Examiners to handle the added time each person must devote to taking each claim. The only requirement to use the telephone application process, besides being eligible to receive the benefits, is to be able to understand and speak English.

If you're a retiree applying for your spouse's benefits, Social Security must start the process by speaking to your spouse and confirming her/his identity. You can then assist with responding to questions your spouse doesn't understand, but you can't make the application on behalf of your spouse. When you're ready, start the process at Applying for by calling or e-mailing the Manila office and providing the worker's name (normally you), SSN and phone number and type of benefit (retirement, spouse, disability, etc).

The benefit to you of the new procedure is that the application process is now complete when Social Security receives the documents you must send. This speeds up the process by eliminating back-and-forth mail and phone calls. And, because the claim goes directly into the Social Security computer from Manila, the time you wait to receive the first check is significantly reduced. The Claims Examiner will tell you it could take up to three months for the benefits to start. The first retiree to use this system reported a significantly faster response time.

September 18, 2009 – Slide Show Updates
All the slide shows in 'Then and Now' and 'What Was It Like' have been upgraded with new artwork. The photos remain the same, great images provided by those who came when it really was a remote tour. The menu screeens for both slide show series have been standardized. Interestingly, when I was testing, I realized that both the side menu and the main menu backgrounds are identical. As a result, when scrolling the main menu, it was somewhat disconcerting to see the main menu background move while the adjacent one to the left remained unmoving. The main menu background is now fixed so it doesn't scroll.

In addition to the more standardized visual parts of the slide shows, the code operating 'behind the curtain' has also be upgraded and standardized, meaning a more reliable – and hopefully more responsive – operation of the programs. Where an Introduction and Then and Now photos of the contributor are included, these have also be upgraded to match the accompanying slide show design.

A new retiree to the Osan area visited the MRAO on Sep 16 and advised that he has a lot of photos to provide to me. So expect more visuals of the way it was in Korea.

September 6, 2009 – RAO Lookback; Flora and Fauna
I thought it might be fun for visitors to the web site who might enjoy taking a look back at how the web site was originally developed and how it 'morphed' over the years. Some of the old-timers should remember the first one back in June 1999. For those who have not traveled the full distance with me, I thought it would be helpful to explain how it came about and how I gained the title of Webmaster.

I didn't realize how large the site had become until I tried uploading six versions of it. After completing and testing on Saturday (Sep 5) morning, I started the upload at noon. The first two went quickly, mostly because I was restricted on what I could post to the military server. Then I created the commercial web site and got my camera out. In short, I lasted until 10pm, then stopped the download. I restarted it at 6am on Sunday, and it took an additional 2-1/2 hours to complete. As explained in the note below the Lookback menu page title, some of the links might not work because things change over time. But I hope you take the time to look back. I found it enlightening to see reinforcement of the phrase, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." It doesn't apply to Osan AB, but it certainly appears to apply to the fight for health care and other benefits for military retirees, their families and their survivors, a fight that has been going on for years and will continue.

Flora and Fauna: I took a walk around Osan with my camera this morning and found a couple of subjects that might interest you. The autumn brings forth flowers such as the Rose of Sharon (the national flower of Korea called mugunghwa in Korean) and this small blue flower. Of particular interest to me was this mushroom that reminds me of some of the rice cake that I've eaten. As to the fauna, when I got up this morning and looked out the bedroom window, I found a dragonfly sleeping on the protective frame covering the window. After warming up later, he (or she) flew off. Not warming up and flying off was this Magpie that may have been the victim of a 'hit and run' on the road coming down off Hill 170.

August 29, 2009 – More on Newsletter Print Capability
The previous entry explained how the newsletter 'Print' capability had been fixed. That was all well and good until I started experimenting with the Internet Explorer side of the printing problem. There I uncovered a different problem. When printing the newsletter, the "Notices" section would print, then the "In This Issue" would start on the second page leaving an empty half page. After much testing using different variations of page code, as well as exploring the Internet for a solution, the problem remained. I finally came upon a solution that seemed to allow the printed newsletter print to look exactly the same irrespective of the browser used. Each newsletter is printed with Adobe Acrobat to produce a PDF file. The PDF newsletters are stored on the web site so that each time a user clicks on the 'Print' button on the newsletter, the PDF-formatted newsletter is displayed for printing. Of course, the option still remains to use the standard print capability, but variations remain with that option.

Why so much effort spent to provide a print capability that few will probably ever use? Well, I try to encourage retirees who have access to the Internet and who access the newsletter to help those who don't use a computer. Printing a copy of the newsletter once a month doesn't take that much paper. So I'm encouraging Korea retirees who have an acquaintance without computer access to help get the news to that person by printing the newsletter.

All archived newsletters have been modified to add this capability. Also, the newsletter index has been modified to provide direct access to the PDF version of the newsletter. A link has been added to the first line of each issue and it's positioned between the standard link and the Text version link. Finally, I found the 'tour' of the past newsletters to be very interesting. I saw information there that remains current, and other information that has become of interest once again. You might enjoy a 'walk down memory lane.'

August 16, 2009 – Newsletter Print Capability
If you've tried to print a newsletter by clicking on the 'Print' button, up to now you got a print that looks a lot like what you see on the screen, and that's if the 'Print' button was even working. That means you used a lot of paper to print it, a third or more than printing the Text version. I've been recommending that those who want to print the newsletter print the Text version posted on the web site and e-mailed to Text version subscribers.

This weekend was 'fix the print' weekend. First I tried to find a web site containing instructions that would allow printing of the Text file by clicking on the 'Print' button. It worked – but only in Internet Explorer. So I settled down to rewriting the stylesheet that converts the newsletter from the display version to a more efficient print version. After much trial-and-error testing, I got a working version. The biggest downside at this point was that I had to install the fix manually on each of the 57 newsletters because WildEdit wouldn't do it.

The good news for both Internet Explorer users and others – like me – who use different browsers, is that the newsletter now prints efficiently. My testing showed that it used 25% less paper than printing the Text version. So if you want to print a newsletter to give to a friend who needs one, now it can be done reliably and with less paper.

August 15, 2009 – Post-Completion Follow-up; Reminders Around Osan; In the Neighborhood
Post Completion Follow-up: A final task in newsletter cleanup was to ensure the standardization of the Text version of the newsletters. That has been completed. Also, a coupe of disconnects were noted in the heading of the Director's Corner and those have been standardized. It's nice to see Internet Explorer and Firefox react the same to the code without special 'fixes.'

Reminders Around Osan: To beat the heat and humidity, I took an early Saturday morning walk around Osan with the camera and got a few photos for you. On Hill 170 was this wall of vegetation that reminded me of a jungle. Speaking of reminders, I saw an electric vehicle being recharged, and it reminded me of a question about converting vehicles in the U.S. to electric energy. Without an adequate source of electric energy to recharge all of them, will the rechargers cause brownouts and blackouts? And the trunk at the bottom of this nicely-sculpted tree reminded me of the legs of some European women. Sorry if that offends anyone, but that's the non-PC image it brought to mind.

In the Neighborhood: The Rio Steak House (previously referred to as the Brazil Steak House in Aug 9 entry) work was completed, sort of. When the city saw this result of the sewage tank vent installation, it was directed that a less-dangerous (and less-ugly, IMHO) option must be installed.

August 13, 2009 – Post-Vacation Task Completed
As noted in the previous Feedback, after doing a lot of code validation and correction on the web site, I decided to do the same with the newsletters. Today (or rather tonight) that was completed. The end result is that the code that causes the newsletter to be displayed has been upgraded. It has had some positive results:

• The code upon which the newsletter is based is more stable.
• Internet Explorer and the other browsers all display the same way.
• A standard pattern of coding is established, meaning they all look the same, now and in the future.
• Some errors in the text were also corrected.
• I gained a lot of new knowledge that was reinforced by the repetitive nature of the task.
• (Note: The first several issues did not contain my photo in the Director's Corner. It's not an oversight.)

Going line by line through hundreds of lines of code was painful, but it certainly was made easier by the World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C) code validator. Going back through the newsletters was interesting, particularly seeing where we were on some issues and how we've progressed.

I invite you to take a stroll through the old newsletters if you can find the time. I think you'll enjoy it as much as I did (but maybe I'm biased). Many of the jokes still brought a smile — sometimes a laugh.

August 9, 2009 – Post-Vacation Task; Osan Sunday; In the Neighborhood; Over the Hill
Post-Vacation Task: As noted in the previous Feedback, I was doing a lot of code validation and correction during my summer vacation. That continued and some more files were checked and validated.

But then it occurred to me that the newsletter code goes back to 2004 when I started the e-mail newsletter. So I tried to do a code upgrade using the August newsletter as a test. It's a painful process because the code formats change; the good part is that, if successful, the newsletter and web site use the same code base. The resulting upgraded newsletter can be seen here. The only difference you should see is the XHTML 1.1 at the bottom left. It has successfully been e-mailed. Also, as part of the e-mail testing, the "Print" option has been removed from the e-mail version because it doesn't work. It does work in the version posted on the web site. Update: All 2009 newsletters have be updated.

Osan Sunday: It was a beautiful Sunday morning at Osan, blue sky, moderate temperature and the humidity was down to maybe the high 80s or low 90s percent. The ladies of Civilian Personnel added some class to Building 936 with decorative gardens at the left and right of the main entrance.

On Hill 170, I saw this interesting bug. What makes it interesting is that it almost seems to magically change color when it takes off. I found the reason why when I later found a dead one on its back, exposing the colorful underwings. Another interesting find was this tomato plant growing in a 'benjo ditch' with adequate water supply. I won't reveal the location because, if it survives the monsoon season, it should produce a bountiful crop for me.

In the Neighborhood: Near the Military Retiree Assistance Office is a new restaurant called the "Rio Brazil Steak House." Two weeks ago, I asked when they would open. If the inspection went okay, "probably two weeks" was the answer. Well, as with so much in Korea, and particularly with foreigners, starting a business is not easy. They learned that that the sewage system needed to be upgraded. It required installation of this tank between the building and the sewer line. This morning, the front of the building looked like this. It'll be awhile longer before we can enjoy Brazil Rio steaks.

Over the Hill: And finally, I don't know who this guy is, but I want to welcome him to the rest of us who are over the the hill.

For Internet Explorer Users Only: On the home page is the image of a guy reading a newspaper. For all browsers except IE, this is animated. If you, as an IE user, would like to see what the animation looks like: 1) open rao-osan.com web site; 2) place your finger over the image; 3) close the web site; 4) open the web site and, quickly while it's loading, place the pointer over the spot where your finger is; 5) when the page finishes loading, watch the newsreader's head pop up with a big smile, then go back to reading news. The same can be done with the USFK logo, that spins. This only works in IE when you open the web site.

August 1, 2009 – Vacation Tasks
One of the purposes of taking a vacation is to catch up. I caught up on my Honey-do's and then proceeded to catch up on some web site work. In the previous Feedback, I noted that Internet Explorer has some 'Quirks.' I felt that the task had not been completed, but I needed some dedicated time to attack it, rather than squeezing it in between office tasks.

I had become more concerned about the variance between the way the web site displays in Internet Explorer and the way it displays in most of the other browsers. The difference is standards — whether a browser follows the standards of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) or follows the beat of a different drummer.

Unfortunately, Internet Explorer wandered off to follow a littler drummer boy who was lost. So over the past several weeks, I've been searching out ways to reconcile the differences. I found out how to get IE to display web pages very closely to the way the standards-based browser (such as Firefox that I use), and I was generally successful.

I actually started the process more than a week before vacation week, but I needed to be able to focus on determining the best way to fix each web page on my site, and then verify that the page is displayed the same way in all browsers and that it still meets the standards. I did and they do, at least the pages that display the W3C logo at the bottom (mostly). In the process, I learned better ways of doing things in general.

The final task was to fix the newsletter index page for all browsers. It was too wide for my standard of 1024x768 screen display, and there was too much white space at the right of the newsletter contents display. That was completed on Friday, and once that was done I did a Link Check on some of the pages that have a lot of links, such as 'Korea Links', 'Applying for' and 'Health Links' pages. That was actually pretty easy because the W3C web site has a Link Checker.

So enjoy the updated rao-osan.com web site and if you find a problem, let me know. Who says you can't teach an old to do new tricks?

July 15, 2009 – Morning Calm; Windows Quirks; USMRAK; Osan AB RAD
You may have noticed when you brought up the rao-osan.com home page that there's been a change. If you use Windows, there may be several more changes, though some are sort of invisible.

Morning Calm: For those who receive and read the Morning Calm newspaper, you may have noticed that you're finding at the bottom of page 2 a recently-added column called, Retiree Corner. For those who don't receive the Morning Calm, I've added it to the home page in place of the U.S. Military Retirees Association Korea (see USMRAK below). There are three links: 1) View the current issue; 2) Access the Morning Calm archive; and 3) Access the Retiree Corner Archive. Option 1 may be slow because it's served from the military server. Option 2 is hosted on a commercial web site and is faster. Option 3 accesses files on the rao-osan.com web site that are PDF versions of the original Word format. (There may be slight editing differences between what I submitted and what was put into the Morning Calm.) Only one column so far has not been on page 2, and that was the second column (May 1 issue) placed on page 14.

Windows Quirks: I've complained about Windows before and for those of you who use Windows and notice some problems with layout discrepancies (such as the home page up to now), I can only apologize. I try to keep the web site aligned with standards. However, Microsoft seems to ignore most of the standards. I tried to think of an example appropriate to designing a web page: In a car, you turn the steering wheel clockwise to go right and counterclockwise to go left. In a car designed by Windows, you turn the wheel counterclockwise to go right, etc. What I discovered is that you can insert a command that essentially says, if this is Windows, ignore the standards and turn the wheel counterclockwise to go right; for everybody else, turn the wheel clockwise to go right.

Because I use Firefox as my primary browser, I failed to notice that, as the standards got tighter, Windows displays deviated more and more. With the addition of the Morning Calm on the home page, it became too obvious for even me to ignore. I did some testing and found that I could apply the same Windows-unique command structure into the file header of the home page as well as to other pages that don't display correctly. So now Windows users join the rest of the browser community in seeing pages the way I designed them rather that the way the non-compliant Windows displayed them.

USMRAK: Korea has two Retirement Services Officer positions in addition to my return to full time volunteer service. There are annual Retiree Appreciation Days in the north and south and Osan AB has quarterly Retiree Appreciation Days. With all these assets serving the Korea-wide retiree community, the need for the U.S. Military Retirees Association Korea reduced to the point where the final annual members' meeting had a very small handful of people show up. It was finally decided to suspend the organization. The information on the web site will remain in hibernation, ready to be recalled if ever needed. I, and many members of the retiree community, express appreciation to LTC Allen Chellis (USA, Ret), who remained a driving force to keep the USMRAK viable for as long as it was needed. Thanks, Al.

Osan AB RAD: The Osan AB Challenger Club hosted the quarterly Retiree Appreciation Day on July 11. Prizes and gifts were sponsored by the Osan AB Exchange, the USAG Humphreys Credit Union, and McCain Foods, Ltd. There was a great turnout with several folks estimating 90 attendees, and this was without notification letters. Member of the Osan Hospital Dental Clinic provided a briefing on dental support to the retiree community on a space available basis. Mr. Jim Genesy of the TRICARE Office provided an extemporaneous talk to retirees about TRICARE services. There were problems with the video projection system that prevented many of the PowerPoint slides from being displayed. That might explain why Mike Connolly was seen standing back in the corner drinking 'something' The problems did not deter folks from lining up for the excellent meal of barbequed spare ribs and chicken, potato salad, baked beans, dinner rolls and cheesecake.

Feedback I received after the event was that a number of people complained to the club about the meal and other aspects of the RAD. That is uncalled for. The Osan AB MWR and the Challenger Club stage this quarterly event to say "Thanks to the retiree community for your service." The retiree community should respond to this free – no cost to the retirees, their families or their survivors – event by saying "Thanks to MWR and the Challenger Club staff for the hard work they put out to give us the great meal and the other parts of the RAD." There is no reason to complain. Complaining is an insult to the people who work so hard to provide this great opportunity to get together and share information and a free meal. So please don't spoil it for those of us who enjoy it. MWR and the Club are under no obligation to provide this service to us. Neither are the sponsors who provide the gifts, nor is Mike Connolly who works so hard to organize each event. The event is free and, if you don't like it, you're under no obligation to come. It can be cancelled in a heartbeat if we're not appreciative of their efforts. The only appropriate response from attendees is, "THANK YOU!"

July 5, 2009 – Dragonfly Die-off and Other Stuff
On Saturday (Jul 3), I took an early morning walk around Osan to take advantage of the cooler weather. Not much happening at 6am on a Saturday, until I started up Hill 180 from the Fitness Center side. Near the 35th ADA Brigade buildings, the sidewalk was littered with dying insects, mostly dragonflies. So being the helpful guy that I am, I immediately whipped out my first-aid kit camera and took a few pictures: dragonfly with pine cone, gounded dragonfly, flipped dragonfly, and dragonfly with gum. They were all moving slightly but were obviously dying. There were several other flying insects (all the same type) in varying stages near death as shown here, here, and here (sequence looks almost like stages of death).

On a lighter note, my walk took me behind the family housing tower across from the hospital. Last year I took some photos of construction activity to build a playgound. I thought you'd like to see the finished product.

I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable Fourth of July. For 24 hours, I put up a slide show of beautiful scenes of the U.S.A. In case you missed it, you can see the slide show here.

July 1, 2009 – Changes Not Coming to Newsletter and Web Site
On June 19, I delivered letters to JA and PA requesting a point of contact for the person designated to review the newsletter and web site updates prior to releasing/posting them. As of the end of June, response has not been received from either office. Thus, I'm operating on the principle that silence gives consent and I am pressing on doing my job of getting the information out to you as quickly as I can.

Speaking of getting the information out, I thought you might enjoy this letter in the June issue of Military Officer magazine published by the Military Officer Association of America (MOAA). It was submitted in response to a story in the April issue about mascots under the title, Animal Allies:

It needs to be said that animals are not our friends. They simply latch on to anyone who feeds them. They stick around for purely selfish reasons. Animals latched on to America's foes; the Nazis used dogs to harass concentration camp prisoners. Hitler had a dog. I don't admire an animal so stupid it can't tell the moral difference between Churchill and Hitler.

I thought the dog lovers out there – and the rest of us – would enjoy this one. Imagine, a person who can't tell the obvious difference between a dog's instinct and a human's reason.

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