This has evolved from my first look at the World Wide Web in January 1996 on America OnLine. To teach myself HTML, and because I am what you might call a "transportation enthusiast", I started encoding the Tri-Rail schedules. My "All Aboard TRI-RAIL!" website came about because there was no existing Tri-Rail site. That evolved into: FLORIDA RAILS: Passenger Trains to the Palms

Then, because I am a "cruise specialist" by profession, I searched the search engines for all the cruise line sites I could find. That resulted in the automated cruise ship & ocean liner databases and the link directory you will find here that I call GET CRUISING! Passenger Ships Then and Now

There is only so much you can do with HTML, because it's not interactive. When I first got access to a CGI server, of course I wanted to know how to change the scripts. It was inevitable I would learn how to write my own. I had experience writing BASIC and working with some database languages, but no knowledge of Unix or Perl, but I was curious enough about CGI programming to start learning. So I have learned (the HARD way) how to write Perl CGI scripts.

Using CGI, your web pages can do things like search a database, operate a guestbook or keep track of hits to a page, and much more. If you're interested in using CGI, first make sure your Internet Access Provider includes access to a CGI-BIN. If not, you'll just have to find another provider.

Since I wrote a virtual coffin-load of scripts, I decided to make the most useful ones available for FREE DOWNLOAD. If you dare, help yourself to them at Free CGI SCRIPTS From the CRYPT

I came to Fort Lauderdale in 1980, where I started a long, comfortable 11-year stay working for another travel agency. My clientele were basically upscale and very pleasant and appreciative of the precision of my work.

As the airline business became less profitable, and conversely the cruise business was growing, I decided it was time to specialize. It was any easy choice because by then I enjoyed the cruise side of the business most. I wanted to work for the biggest in the business, where there was an opportunity to make a good income.

My sources all led me to a very aggressive $25,000,000 cruise-only retail agency with 50+ agents selling nationwide via cable TV and pre-internet 800-numbers. I did very well there, becoming the first to sell a million dollars in the first year. When the company closed in 1994, my annual sales were $2.5 million dollars.

After that trauma, I went along with the other top producers to a new company that did "take-off" very successfully. It was sold several times, and the cruise specialists left to work for other companies.

Next I was a District Sales Manager for a day cruise operator, developing group business in the northeastern quarter of Broward County, Florida. After a couple years of that, I wanted to finally work for a real cruise line, which I am doing now, for a medium-size luxury cruise line based in South Florida.