The Gaelyne Gasson Story (Editor's note: I have been reading articles by Gaelyne Gasson for more years than either of us want to admit. At the beginning she was Gaelyne Moranec, writing for her local club newsletter in Michigan. Over the years her writing began to appear in magazines, and it was clear she was going through a major life change, as her home base became Australia and her name became Gasson. We sat down in the virtual living room and asked her to fill us in on the Gaelyne Gasson Story. -- Dick Estel) MAILINK: Tell us about your early years, starting at zero. GAELYNE GASSON: I was born in Saginaw, Michigan, the last of five kids. I didn't speak until I was about four due to a growth on my voice box. ML: Maybe that lack helped inspire the communication skills that you have brought to the Commodore world. GG: In school, I discovered that I loved writing. I could communicate much easier by writing my thoughts than by speaking, and that's continued to this day. My first discovery of this was when I enjoyed writing about my summer vacation. I was a bit upset to get a D on it--it seems the assignment had nothing to do with summer vacation, but I was supposed to demonstrate the use of paragraphs, and hadn't. I think I've grasped the concept these days. ML: Indeed you have. I supposed things got better after that? GG: I went to school in the same district through high school graduation from Swan Valley High in 1979. My grades were average -about 2.96 average if I recall. ML: Looking at your computer skills, one would think you might have been a science and math whiz. GG: Actually I really enjoyed English classes and did well in those subjects, but science and math were my weak subjects. ML: With high school behind you, did you choose work or college? GG: During high school I worked in the school library and often would spend extra time sorting cards (how quaint now!) and doing other tasks. I quite enjoyed it. Right after graduation I had a very brief stint in Air Force--three weeks. After that I worked for many years in a very old dime store in Saginaw while attending Delta College. I also worked for K-Mart and at one point had two jobs plus college courses. ML: What was your major? GG: I took business management and advertising courses. I attended college for two years, but did not get a degree. In college, I discovered I liked math (I had a great instructor), and computers. ML: Did you start with a Commodore? GG: My first hands on computer experience was the Lemonade game on a Commodore Pet at college, but we weren't allowed to use these computers on a daily basis. Most of what we did was on a PDP-11 main frame computer. There's a story about the college computer messaging system I'll need to tell some time as it was a precursor to my online involvement, one that is both funny but sad. (See "An Early Computer Lesson" under Light Side in the Commodore Article Index.) ML: I believe around this time you started a family. GG: Yes, my oldest son was born while I was attending college. His name is Terry, and he's 18 years old this year. For his birthday, I gave him his own domain name and web hosting as it was something I could give that I felt he'd enjoy. His website is at http://saberstrike.com/ -he's come quite a long way with web design. Hopefully he won't take my job away! My other two children are Christopher, 13, and Kerstin, 12. All my children live with their father in the US. ML: I suppose there was a family computer back about this time? GG: My first computer was a VIC 20 we bought from my brother because he was "upgrading" to an IBM-PC-jr. Within a year we put a C64 on layaway and it was a family Christmas gift that year instead of a Nintendo system. ML: A wise choice! So this led you into a computer club? GG: We joined SACUG (Saginaw Area Commodore User Group, now defunct) when we had the VIC 20, but everyone had either C64s, 128s or Amiga's. We didn't start attending meetings regularly until after we had the C64. I was really nervous about speaking up but found that my computer experiences outweighed my nervousness. ML: So this got you into the newsletter business? GG: It did once I discovered the online world I wanted to share that world with anyone willing to listen, er, read about it. And of course, as with anyone who speaks up at club meetings, I was elected to office (club secretary) and attended board meetings as well as the regular meetings. One of the first arguments I had with my ex-husband had to do with my being a few minutes late coming home from a board meeting. It was the first I'd been away from home at night for many years, but it seems that I'm always in the last group to leave any computer meeting. Conversations are hard to interrupt! :-) The first article I wrote about using my C64 was about using Novaterm to call local Bulletin Boards, and I wrote it the following September after "Santa" had delivered our computer. This article was picked up by Fresno Commodore User Group and republished, giving me a boost in confidence that I truly needed at that time. It was also this that sparked my desire to write other articles about computing, and my enjoyment of being online really helped too. ML: It sounds like your interest in telecommunications goes back to your first computer use. Was this how you met Rod Gasson? GG: I met Rod in the CBM Fidonet echo on BBS's in 1992 when he started working on his QWKRR128 program. There's a format called QWK for BBS messages that allows people to download messages and mail in one big packet to read and respond off line. Rod's program brought this capability to the Commodore. (Read more about how Rod & Gaelyne got together and also about QWKRR128 in an article by Dale Sidebottom in the July 2000 Lucky Report, also available on line at http://home.att.net/~rmestel/articles/gasson_kds.txt.) Rod and I were only acquaintances until early 1994. We shared messages with each other by phoning each other's modem and uploading or downloading files to each other once or twice a week -EVERY week. It was the only way we could be absolutely certain our private conversations really were private. This was before either of us were on the Internet, but I think neither of us would ever have shared as much of our lives with each other had we been using Email or similar. I decided to visit Rod in Australia, and arrived in April 1995 on a three month visitor visa. I soon had it extended for a full year, and that's when I returned to the states to tidy up my affairs and to apply for a permanent visa. The approval arrived in November, and on 13 Dec 1996, I arrived back in Australia for good. ML: Were you working on your book before you went "down under," or did you get started there? GG: I started The Internet for Commodore Users (TIFCU) in 1995 while in Australia on the visitor's visa. I was reading an Internet book for PCs, and looked up at Rod and said "I should write a book on using the Internet for Commodore Users." I worked on the book when I went back to the states, and took it with me to work on when I was called for jury duty. I think the fact I was a writer kept me from actually being on any jury, but the experience was good for the book--I got an awful lot of writing done while waiting. ML: Had you already started working with HTML at this time? GG: I liked HTML even before finishing the book, and I used it as a carrot to dangle in front of me so I would finish the book. I kept telling myself I'd start a web design business after finishing TIFCU. The business is called VCSWEB, and now also offers web hosting -which is where the Mailink website (http://mailink.videocam.net.au/) is located. ML: Along with other sites and the mail lists that you provide for Commodore users. GG: Something I am glad to do! ML: You also wrote for Commodore World and as I recall you edited a disk magazine too. GG: Yes, I edited CEE-64 Alive! with Jack VanderWhite as publisher for a couple of years. I tthink he gave me the job because I kkept telling him how it could be done better. You'd think I'd learn about volunteering in this way after awhile! The first magazine I had a regular column in was BBS Magazine. I got the job only because I rang the publisher to ask a question and after a conversation, ended up with the job of writing a monthly column for Commodore users. I was very sad when they decided to quit publishing. Then Doug Cotton asked me to write for Commodore World early in the magazine's history. I first wrote as Les Songa, but after I stopped editing CEE-64 Alive!, I wrote under my own name. I still write for Go64!, and lately I've written a few articles for Linux Journal as well. ML: It sounds like you keep very busy. I suppose you're making big money with your writing? (Long, loud laughter by both parties...) GG: If it weren't for the long spaces between payments, I would probably enjoy writing for publication much more often, but on a practical side, it's best to write about what you know, and to do that, you need to do other things. Most of the articles for Linux Journal have been about things I've learned in the process of being a Commodore user, web designer and web host. A recent article for Linux Journal's web area really involved how to deal with Operating System prejudice -something we C' folks have long had to deal with. The article is at http://www.linuxjournal.com/articles/culture/0017.html ML: I understand you and Rod have an "official" announcement to make. GG: We just got married on the 15th of October. The photos are online at http://gaelyne.com/gallery/ :-) We've just caught up with editing our wedding video/vcd for which we did all the effects and music, and have a stack of mail to send out to family and friends tomorrow. ML: This brings us to present. What are you doing now? GG: Currently, Rod and I each work for each other (we are business partners as well as partners in life). Our plans currently are to slowly grow our business and see where it takes us. ML: Anything you'd like to add to sum it all up? GG: Online, I have a page that describes my philosophy for Web Design, and what it says pretty much holds true for me for other aspects of life. Communication is the most precious thing we have in our lives. No matter what form we use, the ability to communicate our thoughts and ideas -and to "hear" what others are saying is essential to our lives. Whether it's speech, text, reading sign language, reading braille --all of these things are forms of communication, and are so important. The lines of communication must also be a two-way street -even if two different methods are used for getting information and for giving. It's not right if only one party gets to do the talking/typing all the time. I recently (this week) merged the TIFCU mailing list with the Homestead mail list. I did this not because TIFCU was a failure--if anything, it was very successful, but over time, I realized there were more people listening than people talking, and we need for everyone to have a chance to speak up and ask questions and have them answered in a timely manner. The Homestead list now has just over 250 members--half of which receive Email as it arrives and the other half receive the Digest version (all messages for the day in one big Email). As this list is not moderated it means that when a question is asked, there's a very good chance it will be answered the same day, and often before I've come into the workshop for the day. Before, questions would wait until I had the time to forward the message to the list and type out an answer. It also means that when someone sends an announcement, they can be sure that a really high proportion of the online Commodore folks have received it. Even though merging the two mailing lists was a pretty drastic change, I did it because I felt the communication of us Commodore folks far outweighs the pride I've always had in the TIFCU lists. I guess being willing to improve the lines of communication is also important as well. :-) ML: The Commodore community can be thankful for the day you first got hooked on a computer...and we hope you'll stay connected and communicating for many more years. (Gaelyne's masterwork, The Internet for Commodore 64/128 Users, 3rd Edition, is available at http://cbm.videocam.net.au/tifcu. Photos in this article are from her website at http://gaelyne.com/gallery/) (Originally published in the Commodore Mailink, newsletter of Meeting 64/128 Users Through the Mail. Permission given to reprint material if credit is given to Meeting 64/128 Users Through the Mail. Via the Commodore Information Center, http://home.att.net/~rmestel/commodore.html)