What's New through 2003

The original What's New file got too big so I have split it placing the content for 2003 and earlier here now.

• December 6, 2003 - Added note on Product Sales page noting that the PayPal window might open under the current window on some browser setups.

• December 6, 2003 - Removed several references to prairienet.com in links and email addresses. All references should now be worksandwords.com. The former no longer exists.

• December 5, 2003 - Put my 2003 Holiday Message and History of the year online.

• November 28, 2003 - Moved the Elgin and Fox Valley Coin Club home pages along with their Connections page on this web site because I am no longer using Prairienet as an isp.

• September 9, 2003 - announced that I am returning to Europe to continue walking. Also closed the coin store until I return and am able to support it.

• August 28, 2003 - Updated From Ventosa Camino page.

• August 19, 2003 - added Some Words that Accumulated along the Camino to the Santiago notes.

• August 19, 2003 - Updated Camino Insights page and split off Finisterra page from it. Will put Finisterra page back online soon.

• August 14, 2003 - added A walk along the Camino de Santiago - a poem.

• August 5, 2003 - on Pamplona page, I added larger pictures and cleaned up the smaller ones. I have also did some minor changes to text and added a picture.

• August 2, 2003 - Reorganized the Spanish trip pages now that I am home and planning on adding more material not specifically on the Camino.

• July 22, 2003 - on Finisterra page, I added larger pictures and cleaned up the smaller ones. I have also did some minor changes to text and added a picture or two.

• July 19, 2003 - added Some Thoughts for your Camino page.

• July 17, 2003 - during the time I was in Spain, I periodically updated the Camino de Santiago pages. Tonight I have removed the messages from several pages saying I am away in Spain.

• May 1, 2003 - added note on several pages that while I am on vacation May 5 through July 14, I will not be filling orders. I will fill any orders as soon as possible after returning. I apologize in advance for any inconvenience.
• April 15, 2003 - added new Spain 2003 page announcing my upcoming trip to Spain and the Camino de Santiago de Compostela and periodic reports from that trip.
• March 24, 2003 - adding words asking for prayers and peace to the A Veteran against a Pre-emptive Invasion of Iraq page.

• March 6, 2003 - added new pictures to the Photo Gallery. You can now view pictures of Monreale Cathedral in Sicily.

• February 20, 2003 - added a message to Mike's Coins pages indicating that the lists are out of date.

• February 9, 2003 - added A Veteran against a Pre-emptive Invasion of Iraq page. I also put links to this on both the Works and Words home page and the Kagnew Letters home page.

• February 3, 2003 - minor text modifications on Home page.

• February 2, 2003 - removed Home page links to 2002 Christmas Holiday letter and My 2002 Musings. Links are still on Writings page.

• January 7, 2003 - Added reference to the Montfort, WI Wind Turbines pictures on the Home page and made them accessible via the Photo Gallery page. Also added descriptive text following the pictures.

• January 5, 2003 - Did more cleanup and modification on the Home page and corrected spelling of Montfort, WI.

• January 3, 2003 - added pictures of Montfort, WI Wind Turbines.

• December 28, 2002 - This was clean-up morning. I changed the introduction on the Home page moving some of the text to Who's Mike and adding links to the Home page introductory text. I also added links to my My 2002 Musings on the Writings page and cleaned up some old text in a few other misc. places.

• December 18, 2002 - added 2002 Christmas Holiday letter and My 2002 Musings, an extensive listing of musings, insights, and quotes gathered over 2002.

• November 1, 2002 - I removed the Message board from Works and Words and moved it the Kagnew Letters area of the site. It was not being used here and will likely be used much more there.

• November 1, 2002 - added an Ask Mike page, a query form letter, so you can send me an email automatically asking me anything you are interested in or pass on any comments or suggestions. In the process I removed the form from the bottom of the Eritrea Revisited page and changed wordings on several pages where I invite readers to send me email.

• October 18, 2002 - added banner for Elgin Coin Club Show to home page

• October 4, 2002 - added picture of Asmara from Ethiopia: Travels of a Youth to the Revisiting Eritrea page.

• September 28, 2002 - placed entire text of Money Meanderings: An Introduction to Numismatics online so you can preview entire text online now before buying the CD.

• September 16, 2002 - updated my Foreign Coins list page.

• September 10, 2002 - added a picture of me in the summer (without beard) to the Who's Mike page. Now one of these days I should get to updating it since a lot has changed since I went online over a year ago.

• September 9, 2002 - modified the Home page so the eBay announcement now says whether or not I have current auctions active.

• August 23, 2002 - modified pricing structure on the Product Sales page to more accurately reflect true shipping and handling costs now that I have sent out several packages. As part of this, added Global Priority mail list of countries that the post office ships to.
• August 18, 2002 - added Eritrea-Ethiopia Bibliography page and included link to it on Connections page.

• July 19, 2002 - removed note on home page, product order page, and coin order page saying I'll be on vacation because I am now back.

• July 3, 2002 - placed note on home page, product order page, and coin order page saying I'll be on vacation July 4 - 24.

• July 2, 2002 - Added a map in to the Asmara to Massawa by Road chapter of the Ethiopia: Travels of a Youth sample. When you click on the map the browser transfers you to the text associated with the map location.
• July 2, 2002 - Modified the sample version of the Ethiopia: Travels of a Youth sample text so that it no longer searches for graphics that are not there. Such graphics are marked with [image] to indicate they are missing.
• June 23, 2002 - Added order form for those wanting to send order by regular mail. Also added text on Product Sales page to more clearly outline order options.
• June 22, 2002 - Added entire text of Ethiopia: Travels of a Youth for users to preview book before buying it.

• June 19, 2002 - Several changes that include the following:
  • Rewrote the Home page changing the tone and celebrating 11 months online.
  • Added a conceptual Site Content page listing the major options available on the site.
  • Added email address for questions on the FAQs page.
  • Removed the question of the availability of Ethiopia: Travels of a Youth from the FAQs page because you can now buy it. Click the link to learn all about it.

• June 14, 2002 - Added a web page for the Hillside Coin Club, a group of collectors who meet in Hillside, Illinois, the first Monday of every month.
• June 14, 2002 - Inserted the latest versions of the chapter text samples on the Ethiopia: Travels of a Youth page and made several minor tweaks to smooth operations.

• June 11, 2002 - Several changes that include the following:

  • Changed Ethiopia: Travels of a Youth page to announce that this book is now available on CD-ROM.
  • Lowered price for Money Meanderings: an Introduction to Numismatics and reorganized text on page.
  • Added Ethiopia: Travels of a Youth to the Product Sales page and lowered price of Money Meanderings: an Introduction to Numismatics from $15.95 to $13.95.
  • Reorganized text of Axum: Coins and Places page.
  • Changed banner on Home page to announce availability of Ethiopia: Travels of a Youth and new low price of Money Meanderings: an Introduction to Numismatics.
  • Reorganized Writings page and added CD-ROM books and Videos to the list.

• May 28, 2002 - Added a from to the Ethiopia: Travels of a Youth page so you can ask for me to notify you when the book is available.

• May 17, 2002 - Rewrote the Ethiopia: Travels of a Youth page introducing the CD-ROM book with that name. Also added book's actual Table of Contents and the Graphic List appendix with thumbnail pictures of all graphics in this book.

• April 7, 2002 - Removed Chicago Coin Club April 6th 1000th Meeting Press Release page.

• Mar 9, 2002:

  • Modified text on Photo Restoration page.

  • Mar 9, 2002 - Modified text on Scanning services page.

  • Mar 9, 2002 - Added links and modified text on Home page.

• Mar 8, 2002 - Added graphics to Home page banner jumps.

• Feb 17, 2002 - Added two poster links on Travel page.

• Feb 15, 2002 - Added Chicago Coin Club 1000th Meeting Press Release page [Removed 4/7/02.]

• Feb 6, 2002 - Updated the Product Sales page so that it now uses PayPal.com's shopping cart to facilitate your order.

• Feb 2, 2002 - Rewrote and added details to the Web Services page.

• Feb 2, 2002 - Made minor changes to the HTML Services page.

• Jan 17, 2002 - Added link on home page to my eBay auctions.

• Dec 31, 2001 - Added a collection of the poetry of Graeme Petterwood, a friend in Tasmania. Access it from the Writings page. Also made several minor modifications to the text of the Writings page but added no other new material.

• Dec 16, 2001 - Added preview chapters to the Ethiopia: Travels of a Youth page, which introduces that book. Also changed the release of the book to early 2002.

• Dec 13, 2001 - Modified index of sample Money Meanderings so all its links work.

• Dec 7, 2001 - Added a menu reference on the Home page for the new Kagnew Letters site listing letters from fellow travelers on the roads of Kagnew Station, Asmara, Eritrea.

• Dec 5, 2001 - Added graphic title to Home page.

• Nov 23, 2001 - Added Ethiopia and Eritrea, Trains, and Military Service categories to Connections page along with several new links in these categories.

• Nov 21, 2001 - Added several questions and answers to the FAQs page.

• Nov 1, 2001 - Added missing picture of US currency on U.S. Coins For Sale page.

• Oct 24, 2001 - Added poetry to Writings page.

• Oct 16, 2001 - Added coins to Foreign coin page.

• Oct 16, 2001 - Added new U.S. Coin Page.

• Oct 9, 2001 - Added link to Seti@home to home page.

• Sept 29, 2001 - Added Search function using the www.atomz.com search engine. The version on the Home page is a simple search. For fine tuning your search choose Advanced Search from the menu options. Currently search is available only on the Home page. I'll add it as a menu option to other pages as I update them. After you receive your search results, use your Back key to return to Works and Words.

• Sept 29, 2001 - Updated all Meta tags so that search engines can do a better job of directing you to the service you are looking for. This change is not visible to you the reader.

• Sept 25, 2001 - Added a gallery of pictures from Sicily to the Photo Gallery page.

• Sept 24, 2001 - Put the first working version of the Connections page online. The links include annotations telling you in some detail what you'll find if you choose to view the linked page. All links worked when I created this page. Knowing the internet, there will be some dead ones almost before I get this online. Let me know if something does not work.

• Sept 20, 2001 - Changed the wording on the Coins and Mike's Coins pages to shorten the text and tell you more quickly what I have available for you.

• Sept 16, 2001 - Updated the Newsletters page to replace the original temporary page with a page clearly identifying what I have to offer you.

• Sept 15, 2001 - Added "last changed" message to Home page to let you know the last time something was changed on Works and Words.

• Sept 15, 2001 - Updated Writing Services page to replace the original temporary page with a page clearly identifying what I have to offer you.

• Sept 4, 2001 - Removed short-lived, obnoxious alert message telling of recent changes. Someone wanting to know what's new can read What's New? or, if I really want someone to know what is happening new, I can put in the opening table. Sorry for any inconvenience.

• Sept 1, 2001:

  • Changed some wording on the Scanning Services page and added some pricing for the services.

  • modified the HTML Services page for better reading. Added more examples of documentation converted to HTML online books.

  • Added opening window alert listing most recent changes.

• Aug 30, 2001:

  • Added list of organizations I belong to and made minor modifications to the text on the initial Coin page. To clarify the page contents, I made several small textual changes on the various coin pages.

  • Added article on ANA summer seminar vacation.

  • I changed the Inspirations page title to Writings, changed much of the wording there, and added several more links including a writeup of my vacation to the ANA summer seminar this year. The page is basically new.

  • I changed most of the menu links to read "Writings" instead of "Inspirations." I wonder how many I missed. If you find an old one and want to go the Writings, come back here and use the link on this page. It works.

• Aug 27, 2001 - Added Mike's Coins an online coin store where you can by coins and currency from me or sell yours to me. I also do appraisals. Mike's Coins currently lists only foreign coins for sale. I'll add U. S. coins soon.

• Aug 27, 2001 - Changed the payment procedures on the Product page to make it easier for you to pay through PayPal.

• Aug 23, 2001 - Streamlined the procedures on the Product Sales page so the page now takes customer mailing information, sends the entire order to Mike's Works and Words' Orders email box, and then sends an order confirmation to the email address provided by the buyer in the order.

• Aug 19, 2001 - added photos to Eritrea photo gallery.

• Aug 13, 2001 - did minor wording cleanup on several pages.

• Aug 12, 2001 - added photos to Eritrea photo gallery.

• Aug 8, 2001 - to better divide the services and offerings, I changed the Photography page so that it now goes to two sub-pages, Photographic Services and Photo Gallery and then I added a couple initial pictures to the photo gallery.

• Aug 3, 2001 - added a counter to the home page.

• Aug 3, 2001 - added a Guestbook and a Message Board to the functions available on this site. They are currently only available from here and on the Home page. Use the Guestbook to let us know you visited or to post a public message not requiring a response. Use the Message Board if you have a public comment or question you'd like to pose to all who visit the site. Click Ask Mike if you have a question or comment but do not want to post a public message.

• Aug 3, 2001 - to be more visible to web search engines, added META description and contents tags to the top of each file on the site.

• Aug 3, 2001 - added link to the Elgin Coin Club Newsletters on the Newsletter page.

• Aug 3, 2001 - to be more in line with standard formatting practices, changed calculation check box to a button on the Product order screen.

• Aug 1, 2001 - changed background of An Eagle's Morning Flight and added Return button.

• July 31, 2001 - removed unused Etc. option from menu.

• July 30, 2001 - added Scanning Services and Restoration Services pages to the Photography pages. These pages are not finished yet. I put them there to give you an idea of what I have to offer you. I'll detail the entire service soon.

• July 30, 2001 - added a reference on the Coins page to the coin and currency scanning service I provide.

• July 28, 2001, 11pm CDT - this is the official opening time and day. If you did a sneak peek before this, you have probably missed several minor changes and the major remake of the Products page. Otherwise, as of now it is all very new. Have at it.