Ah! The family. Hi to the folks Matt, hi to the folks. I want you to tell them that ol' mikex0r says hi and wishes them a happy hannukah or channukah or whatever you people celebrate over there.

So for the nth time in my 25 years of life, I am watching "The Big Lebowski." And for the mth time, I am drunk while doing so. Just getting to "Gutterballs."

But, that is not my concern. This is my concern, dude: I seem to have asked a girl out over the past week, and the worst thing that could have possibly happened, well, has happened. She said she would indeed accompany me on a "date" (to use the parlance of our times) And then I promptly lost her phone number.

But the story does not end there!

Oh no, no. No.

No.

It will continue tomorrow when I go to the place of this particular person's employment. Should be interesting. For me at least. Stick around. Dont go to Charleston or anything. Losers.

Hello from alpine Trento, Italy! I am here with my advisor on a research mission to outfit create-net with a Virtual Rear Projection display. We have setup the system over the past 3 days and it's up and running.

Trento is a beautiful place (where the Council of Trent met centuries ago to throw down on some Catholic reformations) an hour north of Verona and 3 hours northwest of Venice. I've been coding all day the past 3 days but at least with a view of the mountains out the window. I used skype for the first time tonight and it friggin works incredibly well. I didn't have a microphone but used my ipod earbuds as a mic using a paper cone and it worked out okay. 2 cents a minute.

Tomorrow we will drive to Montreux, Italy for UIST and then it's on to Paris to see the family.