Well, this took some time for me to do. I've been quite busy these past few days. And, oh, it's been an interesting thread I've seen so far. Now for my end game statement. It's been a pleasure to play with all of you, even if I got eliminated after Turkey. One thing I've learned about playing with Austria is that I should always do the Hedgehog opening from now on. (Sigh.) I had hoped to make peace with Italy, but it seems he wanted me out immediately. I do remember that I lost my temper with Italy on one occasion, and as a result he (graciously) returned one of my SC's. I still wonder why he did that. It allowed me to survive a few turns, though. I wish Germany was more vocal and open with me; he would have helped me stare down Italy in Tyrolia, allowing me to do the Balkan Gambit without any problems. But
since nobody wanted to talk to me, I decided to ally with Russia, mainly to destroy Turkey, but when he turned against me, I decided to ally with him still. Some of you may wonder why I did it, but it was because I wanted to inconvenience Italy. I would rather not bitch about getting stabbed; I would have done the same. The best I could hope for was to take somebody down with me. It's not a nice game, but that's the way things have to be. To paraphrase a quote from a favorite series of mine, "When you play the game of Diplomacy, you win or you lose; there is no middle ground." Well, there you have it. It's not much of an end game statement, but I don't think I can say anything more. Somebody in the email thread mentioned something about Simon having some Jedi mind powers or whatnot: as a Diplomacy fan, I'd like to learn that as well. I hope to play with you guys next time. 
Jeremiah