To Biloxi, Louisiana to visit the Beau Rivage and BoomTown casinos. Went with a group of friends (Ryan, Craig, Ian, and Sean) to gamble and play Dance Dance Revolution at their arcades. Ate an expensive champagne lunch buffet at the Beau Rivage.

We returned to Mobile in the afternoon to watch Catch Me If You Can at the movies, before venturing to Craig’s apartment to spend the New Year. I’m looking forward to next semester at Georgia Tech.

Went to the License Office in the morning to get my driver license renewed. Peculiarly, my friends Ryan and Craig were also there, attending to their various car needs. So we went out and ate lunch at a small chicken place called Fat Zo’s, having chicken tenders, a drink, and french fries. Craig had to go to work, so we dropped him off back at his apartment.

Ryan and I then went off to Springdale Mall to play DDR. Our friend Ian met us there. We grabbed bottled water at the Dollar General and played quite a few rounds, gathering an audience every now and then.

Received a reply from Tony of Hands on Atlanta concerning my login. It’s now working again so I can sign up for projects. My little sister Tiasha got a homepage from Geocities. I more or less finalized my schedule for the Spring 2003 semester. I finished reading <em>Snow Crash</em> by Neal Stephenson. I don’t really see what all the hype was about. Spent the night watching television before heading to bed.

I started to rake the leaves in the backyard but then the rake broke. Praticed the piano, <em>Sonatina 1 Op. 36 No. 1</em> by Muzio Clementi. Also studied reflexive verbs in Spanish. Finally, I beat the Egyption Campaign in Age of Empires. At night, we had guests over with Deepon & Co.

I’m back in Mobile and life is pretty dull. My parents got a new desk and some shelves so I helped them assemble it. My sister introduced me to the original Microsoft Age of Empires and I haven’t been able to stop playing since. I’ve also been trying to fill in the backlog of journal entries.

I tweaked my Linux installation to support international character sets using the us_intl keyboard layout for X11. Like most Linux programs, it didn’t work properly the first time around, and after some source hacking and headache I was finally able to get it to work. Now I can type international characters with ease. Should make typing in Spanish a breeze.

Nicky and I ate lunch at the Longhorn Steakhouse. I left for home in the early afternoon. I went to bed shortly after I arrived, and didn’t wake up until the next morning. Fascinating.

Too tired to make the exhaustive drive home, I decided to spend Christmas here in Atlanta with Nicky. We went to Hollywood video and rented movies and video games. For lunch, we ate at the Waffle House, one of the few places that were open. It was quite crowded there. At night, Nicky and I played Tetris before heading off to the movie theater to watch The Two Towers.

Apparently we have a cat now. I was so tired last night that I didn’t even notice. Alex and Elysia went out of town and left their cat with us until Friday. The cat is a lot nicer at our house - doesn’t scratch, doesn’t claw, or anything. It just sits around and plays nice and wants to be petted all the time.

We woke up in the wee hours of the morning to walk to the station. There, we took a train which would lead us to the airport. Things were slightly rushed, and before long, we were on a plane flying back to the United States. It was pretty frustrating for both of us. The flight back home went a little more smoothly, and the airplane movies were slightly more interesting, with Lilo & Stitch, and The Road to Perdition. We finally arrived at the Detriot airport, ate lunch at Taco Bell, and talked for a little bit before splitting up - Tracy would be travelling to Memphis, then Birmingham; I’d be flying directly to Atlanta.

The flight from Detriot to Atlanta was nothing spectacular. Getting from the Atlanta airport to my apartment, however, was a much more difficult affair. Nicky worked that night, and wouldn’t be able to pick me up from the airport until late in the night. As such, I opted to take MARTA to Georgia Tech. At least then I’d be able to use a computer and find other means of entertainment to pass the time until I could find a way back to the apartment.

Eventually, I made it to the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. The building was more or less empty, and I used my key to get inside. I surfed the web and chatted on AOL, hoping to find someone who could take me home. At last, I talked to Razza, who offered me a ride back to the apartment; I gladly accepted.

When I returned home, I immediately unpacked and went to bed.

It’s our last day in Germany. For lunch, Eileen took Tracy and I to a nice Italian restaurant in the city. We spent most of the evening just relaxing and packing, preparing for our flight home, and watching Sven Hannawald performing ski jumping on EuroSport on television. Eileen had some work to do, so Tracy and I ventured out alone for dinner. I somehow managed to lose my train ticket to the airport so we had to stop by the station and get another one. Eventually, we found a small cafe in the city and decided to eat there. I had cordon bleu, and Tracy had white sausages. We stopped by the House of 150 Beers one last time before taking the bus home and calling it a night.