While online poker is the scourge of America, causing gay marriages and ruining our schools, Europe seems to have no problem with online poker.

For example, take a look at the Germans. In Germany they’re living life like normal despite the fact that one of the best online poker sites has a German specific area over at de.partypoker.com. This site is the all-German language section of PartyPoker.com, which is a rather famous online poker company that you may have seen on shirts worn by players at the World Series of Poker. Millions of people play there and love it. Were I German, I’d play there too. So, if you’re German, or Swiss, Austrian, live on the eastern border of the Netherlands or Belgium, or you just speak German, go check out the best online poker site that’s all auf deutsch all the time.

Unless you live in America, then you should just hide.

I took a tour, I rode the wind,
I went to find, Went around that bend.

I saw brilliance, a thousand little lights,
they crashed to earth and lost their fights.

We looked around to see what we could see,
we saw the things we wished could be.

We dropped our guard, and let out a yell,
decided we’d all rather reign in Hell.

We were young a dumb, like lambs of the spring.
We drove off a cliff, we done a damn dumb thing.

We had it all in the palm of our hands,
we threw it away and ate the plans.

There were a million men with ideas of gold,
we’ll be lucky if fifty can grow old.

We tried drugs and sex and rock and roll,
and told ourselves we weren’t just foals.

We wandered west from the Island to the Beach,
To discover what the world had to teach.

But we couldn’t hear what the world had to say,
we yelled and screamed and got in the way.

Then we took up arms against the men of the old,
we wanted to heat up the long dark cold.

We decided to find out what if life was worth living,
to find what she had, to take what she’s giving.

We rolled up that hill, and fell off that line.
got in a fight, paid the damn fine.

After the spring, that flower done bloom.
That beautiful son, it filled up the room.

It lasted all day, and all night, and all year, and thousand more like it.

I don’t wanna look to deep or too long,
if push it too hard then the feeling is gone.

I have to collapse and roll around in the mud,
there’s no wolf at the door, this joint is a dud.

But there’s crazy shit happenin’ here in my head,
we’re all swimming in honey and lead.

There’s ten, and there’s twenty, and thirty, and more.
We’re with you in Rockland, we’re the wolf at the door.

But there’s no use in knockin’, we’re on the watch tower, watchin’.

You’re a fool, so am I! Ain’t it great? Never die!
We’re with you in Rockland, here’s a cot, have a lie.

[ music | Journey - Open Arms ]

So, I met a particular girl in October and we did a strange dance for the next 4 months before I, in my incredibly suave and debonair manner, accidentally told her how I felt because I was not quite awake. Thankfully, it turned out very well, and as it happens, we love each other quite a lot. Which is good, because boy would that have been awkward if she thought I was a total tool. Hopefully she won’t mind me bragging that it’s Deanna Little that I’ve snagged and that I’m incredibly lucky. Love you, Red.

[ music | Michael Buble - Let It Snow ]

Merry Christmas, folks. Another year is nearly gone, and 2010 is right around the corner.  This year started like crap, got worse, and the past 4 months has shown me instead that life is still awesome, and I’m happier now than I may ever have been. I hope if nothing else, the new year is something to make all your lives brighter. Merry Christmas to everyone.

[ music | Rilo Kiley - So Long ]

I’ve been neglecting my blog all year. For this,my dear readers, I apologize. I shall endeavour to be a better blogger in the new year. Between a really busy real life, and Twitter, I’ve just neglected to sit down and write up much. Even my previous post is a half-assed attempt, and I dislike doing that. For my day to day crap, check out my twitter feed.

However, to help make up for it, I’ll soon be making a kick ass end of year wrap-up post covering the best and worst everything from my viewpoint. Unlike some year-end wrap-ups, this one will be at the end of the year, between Christmas and New Years. I like to wait till the year is over to recap the year.

[ music | U2 - Freedom for My People ]

Communication is key to a free society, and instrumental in helping a people liberate themselves. Radio helped win World War II. Television and helped bring down the Berlin Wall, and the Iron curtain. Right now, the Internet is helping the people of Iran try to take back their country. The Iranian government is cracking down on all forms of communications media, such as TV and the Internet, but the people aren’t taking it lying down. In America, many people think of Iran as a nation that hates the US, but that’s not true. Just like in other countries, Afghanistan, Cuba, North Korea, etc., extremists seized the government and that’s all we hear. The people of Iran are people just like you and me who want to have their own peaceful lives. And right now they’re fighting an obviously slanted election.

Amazingly, Twitter is a huge part of it. I scoffed at Twitter at first, then I started to use it, and now I can see it’s merely a new method of leveraging the world wide nature of the Internet with the local nature of telephones and mobile devices. Twitter is helping the Iranian people circumvent their oppressive government’s crackdown on communications, and helping organize protests as they fight for their freedom.

If it sounds grandiose and over the top, think of it this way, “the pen is mightier than the sword.” Today’s pen is electronic. And it reaches far more people than paper ever could.

APNG is a good thing. Some people think it’s not, that it’s just Mozilla carving its own course. It’s not Mozilla just being difficult, it’s that MNG missed the mark by a mile. Don’t believe me? Turns out other companies have encountered similar situations, as Raymond Chen explains why it’s ok to reimplement a subset of functions as a simple solution to a simple problem.

[ music | Depeche Mode - Wrong ]

I fell asleep in a chinese restaurant, and woke up in a tub full of ice. They stole my hair!

I’m in a hotel room in Pittsburgh, waiting to go north for the funeral. Waiting on anything gives one time to think. One thing all of this ordeal over the past few years has taught me is that I’m not as much of a lone wolf as I used to be. I have found that I actually enjoy the whole “family” thing much more than I ever thought I would. I always knew I wanted to eventually get married, and have kids, etc. But I never thought I’d enjoy the thought of helping and caring for people as much as I do now.  As a friend said to me, “you’re discovering your true self.”  It’s as though I went to sleep one night and someone switched me with someone else while I wasn’t looking. It’s odd to discover big things like that about yourself beyond your teens. I don’t just want to do big things, I want to have a positive effect on the world around me. I’m not satisfied just succeeding, I want to die knowing I changed someone’s life as positively as my mother changed mine. I hope I manage it.

[ music | Steve Winwood - Valerie ]

You know, I’ve moved quite a few times in my life. I think I’m currently at move number 24. Most were within a small radius as a kid. A couple were across town, a couple were around 75 miles, and now I’ve finished my third move of 500+ miles. That’s not counting travel; I’ve never been overseas, but I’ve been to Mexico once, and Canada three times (four if you count veering into the Canadian side of Lake Erie, but that was an accident), and 28 states. Also, I hate lines, I much prefer pacing. Apparently I’m not one for standing around, neither metaphorically nor literally.

So that brings me back to the third 500+ mile move (I’m going to gloss over the first two). Technically I’m counting road miles and not as-the-crow-flies partly because it sounds more impressive and partly because I’m not a crow. From north western PA (a cultural desert, if I may say so (and I may, I was born in Pittsburgh, I can get away with insulting the crappy parts of PA, so bugger off)) to south eastern Virginia. I packed my car up, and hit the road. It’s fun driving on the freeway with a table strapped to the roof of your car, you should try it.

And you know what? For the first time in my life, I have absolutely not a single ounce of regret or homesickness. It’s fabulous here. I arrived a bit ago and never got around to blogging about it until now. The fact that it’s so flat here is starting to sink in, but other than that, it’s great. And I never thought I’d wind up in The South. Granted, Virginia isn’t exactly on the equator, but it’s below the Mason-Dixon line, and it’s a place I never imagined myself until last November.

And tonight I went to a “tweet up”. What’s a tweet up? It’s like a meet-up but for Twitter people. What’s Twitter? It’s like crack for the ADD crowd; tell the world what you’re doing in 140 characters. Yes, I have a Twitter page too. It’s a lot harder for me to use though. I’ve written a ream of short fiction and two books with a third in process. For me to say anything in 140 characters is like packing a dozen clowns in one of those little cars. I’m most assuredly 10 pounds of manure, and Twitter is a 10 ounce bag. But the tweet-up was awesome. There was a whopping 6 people tonight, and I’m quite sure I talked enough that none will ever come to another one, but I had a blast. I forgot how much fun I have jumping into the deep end feet first.

So here I am. New town, new home, a whole new smorgasbord of opportunities, and I feel 20 again. I don’t look 20, but I sure feel it. Of course, I didn’t look 20 when I was 20, so that’s nothing new. One person at the tweet up was a quite ambitious, hard working, impressive, and beautiful young woman who was a touch older than me, but looked easily ten years younger than she is, and mentioned her husband is about that much older than her. This told me two things: one, that he is a VERY lucky man, and two, there might actually be hope for me yet. If a guy who is that much older can land a beautiful and amazingly talented woman like that, a guy like me who just looks it still has a chance.

All in all, I’m glad to be here. Stay tuned, it’s the same old me, but this is going to be a whole new show. and you bet your sweet bippy it’ll be even more interesting.