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Travis Tucker made the cut tonight on American Idol! Fortunatley, two other guys were cut, bringing the total number of contestants down to 20 (10 guys, 10 girls). Looks like we’ll be pulling out the phones Monday night again, dialing as many times as we can in the 2hour span… I think I may develop an ulcer each Wednesday, however, as the cutting process is so suspenseful!

So after spending the past 48 hours glued to a computer.. I thought I’d share an addicting game that we’d play in moments of frustration, anger, or boredom. http://www.ebaumsworld.com/squares.html It’s a simple game – you are the black square, and you collect the other black squares. The more black squares you get, the faster your score goes up, but the bigger your square gets. But watch out for the red squares – if you hit them your game is over. Get the black circles for powerups, while the red circles have a negative effect.

My personal best is 12300, can you top that?

Due to abuse by Sprad (see picture in post below) and overcoming laziness, I’ve finally decided to update and hopefully continue updating.. so since it’s been about a month, I’m going to work chronilogically from past->present the best I can… I warn you, this may be long..

Rush is over!
After a LONG 3 weeks, Rush is finally over. For those who don’t know, I was the Rush Chair this year. Basically, I planned, financed, and organized every event over a 2 and a half week span. The events ranged from simple BBQ’s and Cookout’s at the house, to paintball, bar nights, all-you-can-eat wings, Massanutten, Atlantic City, and just plain partying! Needless to say, Rush absolutley wore me out. But in the end result, we ended up with a really strong pledge class of 20 guys. Bid day/night was amazing..

Second Semester E-school Woes
My classes are currently kicking my arse. While Database Management (Sys 204) and Solid State Devices (ECE 303) aren’t too bad, Operating Systems (CS414) and Advanced Software Development (CS 340) are painful. I’ve had to learn Linux for CS414, so I downloaded and installed Fedora Core 3 on both my desktop and laptop. It’s a pretty awesome operating system, I love using it… it’s still not user friendly enough for the everyday computer user, but it has a lot of perks over Windows XP. My philosophy class (Phil 206) is an eye opener for me. It’s definitley a much different class then Ive ever taken, and it studied the philosophy of law. Basically, it discusses issues such as is ___________ law philisophically correct… blah blah. I have my first paper due Friday, should be interesting.

If you haven’t seen this yet..
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/lyle_24/myhero.swf

Summer Internship??
Probably the most annoying thing ever, applying for summer internships has been a real pain! We’ve had lots of career fairs over the past few weeks, and dressing up and taking your resume and talking to interviewers is all a bit tiresome. I’m currently in the stages of interviewing with a few companies, the one most notable is Microsoft. I’m looking at jobs in Hampton Roads, Charlottesville, Washington DC, and even California and Seattle, Washington! I hope to have my summer internship figured out by the end of March…

Spring Break – Costa Rica!
It’s been set. I’m going on Spring Break (on my own cost..) to Costa Rica. Seth, Luke, Rob, Beau, Chad, Matt, Jay, Erica, Ashley (although not excited) and myself are all making the journey down South. We’ll be gone from March 4th-March 11th. Surprisingly, we found plane tickets for only $415 three weeks before the trip. Seth, Luke, Beau, and Rob are all staying at the same hotel Seth and Luke stayed at last year. I found a condominium for the rest of us (4 guys, 2 girls) for only $1400 for the week ($233.33/person). The place looks really nice. You can look at where we’re staying here. Needless to say, I’m thrilled. Everyone I’ve talked to that’s been to Costa Rica has loved it. It’s supposed to be a gorgeous country with tons of fun things to do: surfing (great waves), white water rafting, ziplining, horseback riding, MONKEYS!, and of course bars restaraunts casino’s etc… it’ll be a blast. I’ll be sure to have plenty of videos and pictures from the trip… only a week and a half away!

ACC Basketball
Duke losing to Maryland twice? Duke losing to Virginia Tech? Then Duke beating Wake!? Georgia Tech getting beat by NC State on the road? UVA being third worst in conference?? Ok, so maybe it’s not all unbelievable… but this year of basketball in the ACC has definitley been surprising. While UVA doing so poorly (4-9 ACC) isn’t shocking (By the way, nice 3-13 from the free throw line Saturday Elton), how about VT being tied for 4th? And Georgia Tech falling to 6th? Oh how interesting March will be.. MARCH MADNESS baby. I’ll be running my 3rd annual March Madness online pool.. consisting on a $5 buy-in, online stats, and gametime updates… last year the pot was over $200..

Travis Tucker on American Idol!
For those of you who don’t know, my friend Travis Tucker is one of the final 24 contestants on American Idol! Travis goes to UVA and plays club soccer. He’s a phenominal guy, and a great singer/entertainer. We’ve known he was trying out for American Idol all year, but didn’t find out until a recently aired show that he was selected as a semifinalist. He performed last night, and contrary to what Simon said, I thought he did really well. I know he got at least 500 votes from our household alone (the LD House), but let’s hope he gets enough to move on. You can read more about Tucker here. I’ll definitley post more about him as he (hopefully) moves on.. we’ll see Wednesday..

Upcoming..
Now that I’m out of the bender (of not updating), I hope to update more often.. I have collected some great videos that I need to put online, including the one from Colorado, so expect that to come soon.. Until then..