Dear ${token1},

I can't believe it's almost Spring. Here in Germany, you can tell there is change in the air. It's windy, chilly, but the days are noticeably longer and the birds have returned. Winter is merely a fleeting memory.

It's been a very nice week. I had an absolutely wonderful time in Prague last weekend with our friends from Slotland, and while I was gone a couple of casino complaints that I had been working on for a number of weeks were settled in everyone's favor. More about this below. So sit back, relax, go grab yourself a hot cup o' java, and read on...

Happily yours,

Bryan

A guy is walking along when suddenly he got his foot caught in the railroad tracks. He tried to get it out but it was really stuck. He heard a noise and turned around to see a train coming.

He panicked and started to pray, "God, please get my foot out of these tracks and I'll stop drinking!" Nothing happened, it was still stuck, and the train was getting closer!

He prayed again, "God, please get my foot out and I'll stop drinking AND cussing!" Still nothing and the train was just seconds away!

He tried it one more time, "God please, if you get my foot out of the tracks, I'll quit drinking, cussing, gambling, smoking and fornicating."

Suddenly his foot shot out of the tracks and he was able to dive out of the way in the nick of time. He got up, dusted himself off, looked toward heaven and said, "Thanks anyway God, I got it out myself."

My trip to Prague

The Czech Republic has always intrigued me. Before the wall came down, and everyone became full of peace and love and welcomed the former socialists and communists with promises of BMWs and good health care, these people were the enemy: my enemy. I was an American G.I. stationed in West Germany, a combat engineer assigned as a squad leader in a mechanized combat engineer unit, and I used to participate in border exercises, setting up minefields (inert mines) and awaited the communist horde that was eventually going to invade and skewer us all.

They, the East Germans and Czechs (along with their Soviet puppetmasters) were the evil ones, and they lived in forbidden territory. Life behind the iron curtain was but a speculation for me. And when the wall did come down, and they all came swarming over here in their Trabis, I was too busy dealing with Army BS to pay any of them a visit.

But now I live in a little village in northern Bavaria, and I'm only about an hour's drive from the Czech border. I never had much of an excuse to go and visit the Czech Republic until I discovered that $lotland's main headquarters was based in the center of Prague.

Slotland has been in Casinomeister's Reputable Casino section since December 2000, and there are not many casinos that can compare with Slotland's reputation. Rarely do I receive compaints about this casino, and when someone does have a problem, it's taken care of promptly. Slotland is one of the few non-downloadable casinos where players can play from any computer that has an Internet connection. They support WebTV as well.

And their games and appearance are unique. If you haven't tried them out, you ought to. Some players have been critical that when there is no sound, they feel let down. But honestly, I feel that casino sounds can be distracting especially if they are poorly produced. Sound will also slow down the processing speed. In fact, most Microgaming casinos give their players the "tip" to turn off the sound for a faster game. And nonetheless, I prefer my own sound track. If you want to hear what I listen to while I'm online, check out Di.fm. That's my soundtrack.

But I digress. Ray St. Jon (an American), the marketing director of Slotland invited me and my family to come pay a visit to Prague, and for me to visit the offices. This was an invitaion from last summer, but only now was I able to act upon it. We drove to Prague; no Autobahn, strictly rural roads. And what a difference between Germany and the Czech Republic. Due to decades of communist rule, most of the villages were dotted with buildings that were abandoned empty shells. As if they were remnants from the war, but they weren't. They were remnants from a poor economy. But nevertheless, unlike my wife, I find old decimated buildings aesthetic. I've enjoyed too many vampire movies, I guess.

We arrived in about four hours, which seemed like an eternity to my four-year-old daughter who began to ask "are we almost there yet?" 15 minutes from home. Kids don't have a proper concept of time. We try to explain it in terms they can relate to like "it's about as long as a Barney show", but then she doesn't watch much TV. So I just say, "Yeah, we're almost there," and let her figure it out on her own. Evil dad, hee hee.

The weather was fair, a smidgen of rain, and it was cool just like home. The weather in Central Europe is pretty much the same all over. Anyway, as soon as we settled in our hotel, Ray came up and met us and we walked down to the center of the local shopping area, dropping off the wife and kids to explore what Prague had to offer shopping-wise.

Ray and I made it up to Slotland's offices via a brief tour of the subway system. The subway still had a damp musty odor from the flood; most of it had been underwater last summer.

The offices were nice. Ray filled me in on some exciting things in store for Slotland (which will be made public in the near future; I am sworn to secrecy). And we discussed a number of things, from daily operations to player problems. The graphic designers and game developers were glued to their computer screens, and I wondered how this was possible with the accounting department employing such cute Czech girls. Oh well, I digress.

The day was over, and we had dinner at a Lebanese restaurant, which was great. I was impressed at the diversity of Prague. Food-wise, you could have virtually anything. There was Thai food, Indian, Sushi (too far inland for me, though), Tex-Mex, and just about any European dish as well. I don't think there was much before the iron curtain came down.

Remnants of communism is still visible. You could see it in the architecture of the more modern buildings. It was like they were trying to make a statement with hefty cement slabs: "Working with rectangular shapes of concrete is good," I presume. And these massive buildings aren't going away for a long time.

I was also surprised how many people spoke English. It was everywhere. For a country that had only East German tourists and Soviet soldiers hanging around for forty-five years, they were pretty fluent. I guess the East German tourists were replaced by the American. You can spot them right away; retirees wearing Adidas and baseball caps.

And there is a lot to see in this city. The movies are in the original language with Czech subtitles which is a big change from the dubbed movies you get in Germany. I guess the Germans are too lazy to read. I visited a bookstore next to where Kafka lived, and a cafe where Albert Einstein used to entertain friends by playing the violin. The architecture was very ornate and detailed with human faces and other creatures. A very cerebral city which had escaped the bombings of the Second World War. It was a very nice visit; I'm looking forward to crossing the border again.

Photo display here.