Technologogical
So I'm typing this from my bed back on Lookout Mountain. If you're familiar at all with "The Property" (the 200ish acres where I lived from 6th grade through 12th), you know that we're a bit isolated up there. It's a half a mile to the nearest paved road, so the cable company never really wanted to run a line up here. Thus, we've been stuck with a dial-up connection for the past ten years or so. Satellite was an option (we've used it for tv), but it's kind of expensive, and it has a tendency to go out when the weather's bad. Our house also seems to have a tendency to get struck by lightning as we're on one of the highest points on the mountain. Thus, we've had a fair share of fried electronics over the years.

Whenever we come back home for the holidays, it severely impedes Ray and my ability to stay connected with the world. It can be nice to get away from everything, but it's frustrating when you have to spend gobs of time waiting for web pages to load (or for the one net-connected computer to be available). As we play quite a bit of p-game, it's also not a happy time when we're playing and the connection drops.

With this in mind, I finally gave into all of the marketing that Verizon has been doing and signed up for their wireless internet service. They don't have high-speed service in Chattanooga or Auburn yet, but on the normal network, we're still getting triple the speed that we were getting with dial-up. High-speed service is available in Atlanta and seems to be quickly expanding to other metro areas, so I'm hoping that it won't be long before it migrates here. I have to say that it's pretty cool being able to surf the net while riding in a car. I'm still not entirely sure if it's worth the price, but I've got 14 days to decide, and so far I'm liking it.

In other geek news, I mentioned in the last entry that I picked up an iPod nano. I've had a running bias against Apple for years, but I finally caved when it became pretty clear that they've got one of the best mp3 players out there. I haven't had a decent one in years, so I'm quite happy rocking out when going to and from class.

Is it really a job?
These two treats were made possible by things going really well with work for the past few months. The winning has been extremely consistent. I've won something in something sick like 59 of my last 60 sessions. As I mentioned in the comments, I made a huge score with taking down my first big tournament last week. Having watched my brother and some friends win fairly big in them, it's nice to finally get one under my belt.

Ray's also doing quite well lately, so I've enjoyed having him share in renewed enthusiasm. The positive competition is nice.

Edumacation
School has been most of the same. We're getting close to the end of the semester. I think my French has improved quite a bit in Conversation and Composition. There are still some finer points of the grammar and pronunciation that bother me, but I feel much more competent than before. My Italian has also improved, and I've enjoyed learning the basics of Latin. The connections with the other Romance languages have helped me coast.

Our robot isn't quite operational yet. I think we've rewritten the code for the third and hopefully final time, and we've got all the parts and the chassis assembled. We just need to get the sensors working. We're supposed to present the project in a week, so I'm hoping my partner and I can finish putting it together this next weekend. I know we're cutting it close, but hey...what do expect? =)

Les Sports
In sports news, my second favorite team, the Chicago White Sox, won the World Series and ended a very long curse.

Auburn had a heartbreaking loss to LSU after missing an insane number of field goals. Bama basically flushed their and Auburn's ability to make it to the SEC Championship by losing.

And finally, Auburn crushed Bama during their visit to the plains this weekend. There's still a small chance of getting to the BCS bowls, but it's going to take a miracle.

Peopling
Funny anecdote from Tiger Nights a few weeks ago...I was hanging out with my brother and Dixon when we ran into a girl that knew my brother. Upon being introduced, she asked me, "So what grade are you in?" Embarrassed at the answer, she apologized while we laughed.

In apartment rumblings, we haven't seen quite as much of Will and G lately, but Kev and D are still over pretty regularly. We've also had the pleasure of seeing Matt quite a bit. This past weekend was a bit of a reunion. Some of the Birmingham people came into town for the game and to visit. We got to hang out with Natalie, Sara, and Ros. Susan also supposedly came, but we didn't get a chance to see her. Cat was going to come...but he wimped out.

It's going to be strange when Kev and D leave for Birmingham. I guess it means I'll have to pay a visit to the city occasionally seeing as most of my college core now lives there.

I'll try to chime in later if I think of anything else that I left out. I can't promise pictures until I get back to Auburn.