I'm off for seven days on Vacation. If anything breaks, It'll be fixed when I get back.

I'm made an article covering the events that happened over at Silver Wings over this past holiday weekend. [Read it.](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.tradewars.org/articles/silverwings.shtml) Christmas really does bring out the best in people doesn't it? If your wondering why it wasn't posted yesterday like I promised, that's due to [my adventures of trying to find a TV](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.worthlessbastard.com/newlayout.asp?page=rants). Go ahead, laugh at my pain.

Well It looks like The players who participated in December's TW League game got a great Christmas Gift: They no longer have a place to play! I'm still scrounging through the egroups finding what I need, but it looks like the case of a sysop on a power trip. Full report tommorrow.

January 1 is coming up real quick. Here's the deal. If the new site design isn't completely finished by the first of the new year TRADEWARS.WS will temporarily shut down until it is complete. There will only be a splash page up until I have everything ready to launch. Then I will make an announcement in the the various TW eGroups, via ICQ/AIM, and an e-mail sent out to those of you on my various TW lists when it launches. I'm not going to launch it half-done...the sections that I have featured will be complete up to that point and then I'll add more as I'm able. I'm hoping to get a new start with the new design and start updating on a daily basis once again.

Well some people have been doing a little bit of work with their TW sites recently despite the upcoming holidays. [Bad Girl's page](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://hometown.aol.com/twarsbadgirl/) is starting to roll in full force now. Also, Cruncher has redesigned the look of her [main page](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://tradewars.fament.com/cruncher/tradewar.htm). Kitty Moon changed the look and layout of her site back near the beginning of the month. It looks smashing as well. I also want to thank Tweety for adding me to the Boo! Inc. [web site](/files/Site%20Caps/BooInc/news.html). Good work folks!

A lot of players have been added to Guardian's "[Player Spotlight](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://tradewars.fament.com/guardian/player.htm)" page on [Dragons Elite](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://tradewars.fament.com/guardian/). Go over and check 'em out. While you're there you can add yourself to the list!On a personal note: I want to thank everyone that mentioned me in their Player Spotlight entry. I never expected to make such an impact on people and I'm completely flattered that you folks mentioned me :o) I've played with some of the coolest, nicest, knowledgeable, and most generous people I could have asked for.

Two new teams have entered the USO '01 since my last update. "Rogue Mercenaries" consists of Earth - CEO, Adder, Nefidar, Peanut, Dunbar Felton, and Doctor Who. The second team is one of my original corporations since I've begun Internet TW play, "Nav Haz Unlimited" consisting of Dark One - CEO, Fuseblown, Darth Vader, Illusion, Deathwing, and one TBA. Check out the yellow text at the top of the page for a link to the official USO '01 page and information.

The current league game hosted at Silver Wings TWGS has been taken down and destroyed. I'm not going to comment on this personally...I'm sure most of you know what I would say anyway. So if you've been trying to connect today and couldn't, now you know why. Check out the TWLeague eGroup if you want more detail.

Thing have been really slow just about everywhere in the TW community the past week or so. I decided to download the Dreamweaver 4 demo here in PA and do some updates for those of you with nothing better to do on Christmas day than sit on the computer and play Trade Wars. I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a safe holiday. Time to forget about Trade Wars for a little while and pay attention to the more important things in life. Take care and don't waste too many brain cells this coming New Year's Eve.

This is a message from badboy over at [www.goosemoose.com](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.goosemoose.com): * "I am announcing the newly released open beta of my new Java TW Helper for playing games over the web (and eventually a standalone java app. ([https://www.goosemoose.com/~jtwat](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.goosemoose.com/%7Ejtwat)) This is going to be a free, opensource java helper, and right now contains most of the functionality of all those pay-to-play helpers, with already some cool features not found anywhere else. This tool is going to allow the most powerful scripts ever to be written in pure java. Right now you can try it out and see how you like it by connecting to [https://www.goosemoose.com/tradewars/connecttw.htm](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.goosemoose.com/tradewars/connecttw.htm) Goosemoose has just rebanged all the games, with a 20K, 3K turn Gold game, and a 5K, 750 turn game. If you just want to play with the tool, try the Test game (log on as Test, no pw)."