That Time of Year

[Content Disclosure: Poker 0.0%; Meanderings 44%; Ponderings 37%; Prattlings 19%; Memories, Dreams and Reflections Jung%]

Other's words on the path over the last year, the last several years and all those years ago; even though it all was just a moment ago.

"Before you love, learn to walk through snow leaving no footprints."

Always choose the second best quote, it leaves you in much better company. For instance:

"Happiness isn't happiness without a violin playing goat."

A personal favorite for many years:

"An ass is but an ass, even though laden with gold."

And as a long overdue remembrance to one once loved and lost:

“As a bathtub lined with white porcelain, when the hot water gives out or goes tepid, so is the slow cooling of our chivalrous passion, my much praised but-not-altogether-satisfactory lady.”

European Union and United States Reach Trade Agreement to Continue Ban of Online Gaming

[Content Disclosure: 100% Poker, 14% Fascism, 9% Stupidity]

The hope of many US poker players was that the huge compensation over the WTO trade ruling would force the Federal government to back off on the UIGEA. Well quietly today the EU and the US have agreed on a trade deal that will allow the United States to continue to block European gaming sites from soliciting customers using US based computers.

The European Union has accepted a compensation package the U.S. has offered, in response to its withdrawal from World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements on gambling and betting services. "A bilateral agreement was signed in Geneva, which provides EU service suppliers with new trade opportunities in the U.S. postal and courier, research and development, storage and warehouse sectors," the Commission said. "The U.S. also made concessions in the testing and analysis services sector."

The WTO ruled in 2005 that the U.S. gambling ban -- which exempts certain domestic services, for online horse-racing -- effectively discriminates against foreign companies seeking to offer similar services in the U.S. market.

The European Union said it will also "continue to press for non discriminatory treatment in U.S. internet gambling legislation."

Meanwhile, a WTO decision on what sanctions the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda may impose on the U.S., over its refusal to allow U.S. citizens to gamble at foreign online casinos, has been delayed, Reuters reports.

Antigua has asked the WTO for permission to impose $3.44 billion in annual trade sanctions, while the U.S. says the country should be entitled to $500,000 in damages.

The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow

[Content Disclosure: Morose Material 3%; Travel Plans 4%; Current Visitations 8%; Moderate Poker References 12%; Life, The Universe and Everything .065%+/-]

There actually is a winter here in Las Vegas. We haven't seen 70 in over a week, this after 108 straight days this summer of 100+. The nights are almost too cold for the hottub but then I remember the tub on Sunset Road in the snow and I feel much better about dipping my toes and other parts into the warm liquid.

Amy is in town and we are working on several projects including, of course, our current book with Mike Matusow. We have met with our New York agent (doesn't NYA just sound good!) and we will be hanging out at Bellagio the next several days to pick up interviews with other players who play prominent roles in portions of Mike's story. We (that would be Amy and I) also have to formulate our "Big Push" plan to finish the text, as it appears our proposal will be seeing the light of several big publishing houses in early January.

So this little laptop and I are becoming even better friends.

I am going to write through holiday #1 and then make the trek north to Mt Shasta (actually Weed, California) for the turning of the calendar day. I haven't been to the Great North of California in several years and I miss the Sloth of Shasta. Back in the desert early in the year and back to the challenge of becoming an author on paper rather than just an editor of the ether.