Dear Reader,

Last week I was a bit exasperated with everything going on. Yes, I had a nice time with my daughter's birthday, and thanks for the overwhelming responses from those wishing my daughter a happy birthday. And thank you to those wishing me peace.

I actually received some hate mail: "you're starting to piss me off, don't start doing what these fucking actors are doing". Tsk, tsk, such language for a lady. I told her to kindly unsubscribe and to keep her half-baked comments to herself. For one thing, I live in Germany and hardly have a clue to what any actors are saying or doing. And another thing, there aren't many actors who spent 11 years as a US paratrooper. Not that my opinion is better than anyone else's, but I'm basing my feelings on personal observations.

This reminded me a bit about some comments made by the author Kurt Vonnegut. When he was writing "Slaughterhouse-Five" he was asked whether or not it was an anti-war book. "Yes, I guess," he said. And the person told him, "Why don't you write an anti-glacier book instead?" What he meant was that there will always be wars, and they'll be as easy to stop as glaciers.

Oh, what a cheery newsletter! Anyway, if anyone of you live in the San Diego CA area, pay a visit to SDSU's library and check out my MFA thesis "Tales from the Gulf War and Other Pieces." 115 pages of further pleasantries.

Pleasantly yours,

Bryan

Three turtles, Joe, Steve, and Poncho, decide to go on a picnic. So, Joe packs the picnic basket with cookies, bottled beer, and sandwiches. The trouble is, the picnic site is, 10 miles away, so the turtles take 10 whole days to get there. By the time they do arrive, everyone's beat.

Joe takes the stuff out of the basket, one by one. He takes out the beers and says, "Alright, Steve, gimme the bottle opener."

"I didn't bring the bottle opener," Steve says. 'I thought you packed it."

Joe gets worried. He turns to Poncho. "Poncho, do you have the bottle opener?"

Naturally, Poncho doesn't have it, so the turtles are stuck ten miles away from home without beer. Joe & Steve beg Poncho to turn back home and retrieve it, but Poncho flatly refuses, knowing that they'll eat everything by the time he gets back.

Somehow, after about two hours, the turtles manage to convince Poncho to go, swearing on their great-grand turtles' graves that they won't touch the food. So, Poncho sets off down the road, slow and steadily.

Twenty days pass, but no Poncho. Joe and Steve are hungry and puzzled, but a promise is a promise. Another day passes and still no Poncho, but a promise is a promise. After three more days pass without Poncho in sight, Steve starts getting restless.

"I NEED FOOD!" he says with a hint of dementia in his voice.

"NO!" Joe retorts. "We promised."

Five more days pass and the two are near starvation. Near death, the two turtles weakly lift the lid to get a sandwich. As they open their mouths to eat, Poncho pops out behind a rock, and says, "Just for that, I'm not going!"

I question their dedication to player interest

Thumbs down to Real Time Gaming. I'm just short of calling for a boycott of all RTG powered casinos. For the most part, their casinos (sparing a few, such as Crown Vegas and Inetbet) are either completely unresponsive or apathetic to player complaints. What is worse, is when the software provider remains unresponsive to a serious complaint. This was given to them over a week ago: