Henri's real name is well, Henri, and he lives in Nijkerk in the Netherlands. Working as a computer programmer and systems designer, Henri has 3 cats, Bé, Stanley and Sukkel, as well as the occasional flea. No dogs though! Fluent in Dutch, English, German, and a little French, (as well as some forms of body language) Henri is an only child. As he says, "My parents saw me and thought that they couldn't do better anyway, so they didn't make more." Lastly about that burning question I'm sure you all have; Henri is not single and available. Attached to a wonderful lady called Vonai, Henri only has this to say:

"I can imagine that the entire female population is heart-broken now, but just remember...There are other dudes out there. Not as cool as me, perhaps.... Probably not even near, but some of them are not all that bad really."

Moving on, the Tribune asked Henri to tell us a bit about the Netherlands. In response Henri told us:

"What I love most about Holland is the general open-mindedness. People are very much themselves and don't judge others too fast on what they are. There is a lot of freedom to act as you wish, dress as you wish, and behave as you wish. The legal system is rather tolerant over here, but the people behave pretty much okay anyway."

We are also a bit of an odd country where eating habits are concerned. We eat our French fries with mayonnaise, or with mayonnaise and peanut sauce, or with mayonnaise, ketchup and raw onions, or with mayonnaise, ketchup, peanut sauce, and raw onions. We eat raw herring with raw onions. We eat boiled carrots, onions and taters mashed together. Then there are delicacies like kroketten, bitterballen, frikandellen, mexicano's and lots and lots more. You really should come and taste that some day."

On OTF, Henri told us that he found Ten Forward on November 4th, 1998.

"I was bored to death on my previous job, and then the best thing happened that could possibly happen. We have Internet access on the job. So I surfed 7.35 hours of my 8-hour working day. The remaining time was pouring coffee and potty breaks. After a couple of days, I had seen so many pages that I was ready for a new challenge. So, I entered the word "chat" in Yahoo. Even back then, I got approximately 34475039487509347523475234 hits, so the choice was a bit difficult. The night before, I happened to have seen a cool episode of Star Trek on TV. So, I decided to take a peek in the Star Trek category, and there it was; a site called Ten Forward. I went there, met very nice peeps, and got hooked."

The funniest thing that Henri saw in Ten Forward was a time when he changed the Transmit and Receive buttons around in the chats.

"People were SO confused. So by the time they got used to it, I rotated them back. And again, and again..."

Are we at the Tribune the only ones out there who think that a certain Commodore should be spanked?

Next, as to the most satisfying project Henri has worked on, it would have to be OTF Version 2. Working on it has been for him, a great learning experience. He'd also like to say thanks to Andrew "for being patient with me from time to time, and for giving me the opportunity to work on all this stuff." The biggest success for him personally would be the new promotion system.

What Henri likes best about OTF is the people that come here. He has been fortunate enough to meet between 80 and 100 people in real life that he met through Outpost 10F and it was fun for him to meet all of them. "It's a friendly place where peeps can hang out and feel at home." (We at the Tribune certainly agree)

Out of curiosity, the Tribune asked Henri what he'd do if he were an ensign with full armoury and OTF privileges for one day:

"Errr..." *L* "I already have all that stuff, but if I were an Ensign, I suppose I would shoot the Director of the ISA out with the biggest phaser I have just for the kick of it." *G*

On unions, Henri had this to say:

"Yes, I have attended quite a few, actually." *L* "It would be hard to list them all. One would be the official union in Amsterdam which I organized, being a local; another would be the one in London in June of 2000, which was attended by some 30 people; then there is the one in Mitchell, South Dakota, where 9 of us met; then the one in Copenhagen in the summer of 2002; and many, many more. I loved ALL of them. One thing I've learned from unions though, and that is to invest in stocks from beer companies beforehand."

Lastly, the Tribune asked Henri what his holiday wishes for OTF would be.

"My holiday wish would be that everybody just stays as they are. Evolve as a person, but stay as friendly and open-minded as you are. Or even try to improve on that. Learn about each other's cultures. Learn why somebody from another country does the things he/she does. More understanding will lead to more tolerance, which will lead to more freedom and peace of mind."

From all of us at the Tribune, a Merry Winter and a Happy New Year!