So what's new? I'm home for the holidays again.

Head of the Class
School wrapped up nicely.

After working many hours over several days and rewriting our robot's code around seven or eight times, we finally got it working...for the most part. We had a lot of trouble with the sensor calibration. Basically, the infrared signals that we were shooting out weren't strong enough to bounce off the surface and get picked up by our sensors. We finally got the steering to work correctly, but we didn't get the stopping sensor strong enough. If you shined a flashlight at it, it'd stop...but it couldn't really detect obstacles. Anyway, the presentation and demonstration both went well. I'll try to get a video clip up eventually. It marks my biggest engineering accomplishment so far.

I also had to give a presentation in my French Conversation class. Fortunately, I was able to rip-off a presentation on Monte Carlo that I'd given a year ago. That's one of the nice things about language classes. You often get to reuse stories and material. Obviously, you're going to brush the material up and apply the new things that you've learned, but a lot of the work is already done. An interesting result of giving a presentation in a foreign language is that you're spending so much of your mental ability to communicate that there's not much room left over for getting nervous.

Around the apartment, we discovered another game that we'd somehow missed over the years. A game of Spades occasionally came together over the years. Kev & D usually beat Ray and me pretty soundly, but we'd sometimes catch a nice run. Well, one evening a few weeks ago, we were sitting around trying to think of a game. I don't like to play p-game for money with my friends, and even for fun, the game is pretty slow compared to a lot of other games. So finally, we struck upon Rummy. I have fond memories of playing it with my dad in a small hotel room in the Czech Republic over a decade ago. Kev, D, and I played it pretty frequently in the two weeks prior to the semester ending.

Leaving This Town
Now that D's done at Auburn, they're moving to Birmingham. I'm going to miss them. They've been a couple of my best friends for years. Matt has also left for Birmingham. The departures seem to get more and more muted. I've never been fond of goodbyes. They're often in the back of my mind, but I try to ignore them for the most part...just carry on the hanging out normally, until all of sudden, the friend is gone. I'm not sure if this is a good approach or not. I guess I've always felt that my real friendships never end - they just get put on pause. For example, I'm not the best about keeping up with my Chattanooga friends while at school, but we usually pick back up where we left off whenever we're in town. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the guys over the coming weeks.

That said, I'm considering going to Birmingham for New Year's Eve to see the old Auburn crowd. I'm not sure that my mom will be happy with that idea. Most NYEs, I've been at home, but I think I can afford to be away for one.

resort Royale with Cheese
After my final final, I hopped in the car and drove to the resort in Choctaw. Ever since this hot streak, I've decided that I'd like to play in a small World Series of p-game event next summer. In order to play effectively, I need to practice by playing live tournaments. It was my intention to play in a small one in Choctaw, and I accomplished that...somewhat. The structure ended up being really terrible which lent to luck playing a much bigger factor than skill. I stuck around to play in the cash games. While I didn't have much financial success, I felt like my reads were quite good. I picked off a couple of bluffs and felt that I played well given the cards that I was dealt.

One sad realization: I played for around 8 hours at the resort and likely saw ~240 hands. I'm used to seeing that many in an hour online. It took 4 hours to drive there, and I had to get a hotel room. The rake (pot tax) is also higher at the resort, and tipping is pretty common. I was considering making a regular (perhaps monthly) trip to the town during the spring, but now these negatives are making me reconsider. If I do go anywhere to play live, I think I may just catch a flight between Atlanta and Memphis and head to Tunica.

Miscellany
I feel like I've seen a number of movies lately. I went to see "Walk the Line" with Scotty last week. As I knew very little about Cash, I found the movie pretty interesting...even if it was mostly Phoenix looking strung out. I'll be honest...I did tear up during his childhood.

I also went with my family to see "Narnia" today. When I first heard that they were making another movie based on Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", I was skeptical. I just wasn't sure that the could stretch it to be as epic as they wanted. That said, I was pleasantly suprised. The kids aren't nearly as annoying as the first version, and the scenery is pretty amazing.

If I remember some more that I've seen lately, I'll add them here.

Finally, I'd like to take this moment to welcome Molly to our family. She's actually a student of my mom's, but we've enjoyed having her around over Thanksgiving and now over Christmas.