Wow, it’s been a while. Things have been crazy busy already this semester! First off, for inquiring minds, this semester I am taking Copyright, Professional Responsibility, Antitrust Review of Mergers in a Global Environment, International Ifs in the Mid-20th Century, and Professional Sports and the Law. This is actually going to be a pretty intense semester, I think. Lots of classes where I actually have to do the reading. Feb club will not be good for my academics.

OK, where do I begin? Oooh, Diane ROCKS for her multipart birthday presents half a year late! She got me the AWESO shirt seen here, hahaha. It is totally perfect for me…because well, it’s true. She also got me an obnoxious flying monkey that makes some crying/singing/whining noise when it hits a wall! Haha. Thanks, Diane!

And how ’bout them HOOS, baby? Another top-25 team goes down as UVA rises to 5-2 in the ACC, including rare back-to-back road game victories! Last night we overcame a 16-point deficit (aren’t we usually the ones losing those?) to defeat #19 Clemson. If you missed the ending, you missed a great game! We take on DOOK at home this Thursday.

I guess what’s been keeping me so busy this semester are the elections. No, I’m not talking about the Clinton/Obama race. I’m talking about the SBA elections. I declared my candidacy for SBA President, and I’m super excited about getting things done next year! There are three other candidates who will be making this a tight race, which, admittedly, I wish it weren’t. Anyway, you can view my platform, etc. here. Those of you reading this who are in law school, I really need your support! Everyone from 1Ls to 3Ls can vote, and this is really a race in which every vote will count! So pleeeease don’t forget to vote on February 5-6! And make sure you spread the word!

You’d think that because this is such a long-overdue update, I’d have more to say.  I don’t.  Perhaps it is because it is still before 9am…

So, today is the first day of classes for the law school. I only had one today, in which I sit right now. It’s a 4:30-6:30 PR class. I briefly contemplated skipping it, but found the irony in doing that on the first day. I’ll wait until at least the second week. I have moral standards, you know.

I have spent all day doing nothing but sitting around and watching LawReg move about as it does. I’ve been hounding the Antitrust Review of Mergers in a Global Environment class since summertime. Still no luck though.

I don’t really have anything to add to today’s journal entry. Sorry if you were looking for something exciting to read. Traditionally, even when I have nothing to say, I like to put up some sort of list or humorous article or SOMETHING. But alas, I have nothing.

Oooh. We need a dude like this on our team. Dave, please recruit a Tyler in year’s class. Thank you.

Things have gone well since my last post. For one, this is my last week working…just 2 more days. I like working and all, but I also just wanted to go out and play every day during the amazing 70 degree weather we’ve been having. Of course, now that I’m almost done, it’s back down to the 30s again. Boo. But, in any event, I’m looking forward to heading back up to Charlottesville to keep the good times rolling.

More good things - last night I drove up to Cville with Dad to see Virginia spank Maryland. The game was awesome (103-91 HOOS), including such highlights as: Sean having a new 3-pointer celebration dance; Majestic Mapp and Cal Ripken, Jr. being in attendance; and Mamadi came out as the top scorer…which is comforting to know that we DO have a 3rd scorer on the team. Jason also played a good game, causing minimal turnovers. I’m wondering, though, when Lars is going to take that aggression and passion and convert it into points and plays. Pictures are up in the 2006 Winter Break album.

Also, here are a couple quality quotes:

From ESPN’s Drive to 65:
UNC clearly will be dancing, and Clemson and Duke (despite some recent struggles) appear pretty much to be locks at this point. Virginia would have been mentioned about 10 days ago, but three more losses have put the Cavaliers on the back burner for now. [My Note: Wow. 10 days ago, we would have been a lock!]

From ESPN’s Recap of the 1/16 UVA-Maryland game:
A dunk by Jason Cain gave Virginia a 50-30 lead with 2:45 left in the first half, but then the Cavaliers self-destructed… [My Note: Pretty characteristic of our games of late…]

What else good has been happening? Oooh, my Relay for Life donations have broken $1,000, which was my original goal! That brings me joy to no end.

Alright, many more good things are happening, but I suddenly got tired of writing. So you’ll have to wait to learn what else is going on.

Ugh.  I knew when I woke up with pain on my entire right side of the body and my hearing being blocked that today would not be a good day.  I thought it was salvaged when I got to go to the driving range to hit a few decent shots today (including a 200 yarder…which is good for me (stop laughing)).

But alas.  Virginia lost by one measly point to Stanford today…a last second shot by Stanford, nonetheless.  Stanford has two 7-foot guys (twins, apparently) who are both able to run and play athletically.  But one of them fouled out with 6 minutes remaining and the other was in foul trouble as well.  So why couldn’t we close?  I don’t want to blame JR Reynolds …I mean, so what if he went scoreless the first half?  so what if he missed a free throw with merely 9 seconds remaining?  I can’t blame him just because of THAT, right?  Grumble grumble.  I also blame my dad, who, when JR went to the line, said, “This is good - an automatic two points!”  Dad.  Seriously.  You never say that!  That’s like saying, “what’s the worst that could happen??”  You’re just asking for it.
The good news is that as I was watching Comcast Sports’ little introduction montage as they were talking about UVA, my face was all over it.  It’s nice to know that they are still using footage from at LEAST 2005 (some of it could have been 2004 since McKenzie and Blair were there too).  I looked good though.

So…it’s sad that UVA has now dropped our first home game in the JPJ.  A moment of silence, please.

OK then.  Have a great week.

Well, I unfortunately did not make it to the UVA-Gonzaga game Wednesday, since it was a 9:00 game and I am working over the break. That saddens me greatly. Why? Because within the first 10 minutes, my boy Sean had already sunk five threes! By halftime, the score was 60-26 VIRGINIA.

Sean also, I believe, set a new career high of 37 points. The record he broke? It was last year’s 35 points against none other than Gonzaga. Commentators also mentioned that he was still recovering from some hip injury/surgery. Wow, if this is how he plays when injured, I can only hope that it gets better from here!

The final score of 108-87 was comforting (ignoring the fact that we were beaten in the second half 61-58..hopefully it was just that we were letting up on them) to Virginia fanst everywhere, no doubt. And it’s nice to know that we can play like this if we truly want to. But it’s no cause for complete celebration just yet. Remember this is still a home win - we’re looking at 1-3 on the road right now…that 1 being from Div II Puerto Rico Mayaguesomething, who’s sitting at an 0-10 record or something. And that was a 56-52 victory. Also, remember that this is a night when both Sean and JR were hot. We all know that both of them are streaky players (JR more so than Sean, I think). There are just so many factors here that went right for us. Also, Gonzaga had been travelling like WHOA for weeks now. The players no doubt were exhausted.

I’m not saying don’t get excited. A win is a win. A dominating win is a dominating win. But let’s not start chanting Final Four quite just yet. We have Stanford this weekend and a big game against Carolina at Chapel Hill. That will not be an easy fight. At least we’re taking care of that bad boy in January and not at the end of February!

Cheer on, Hoos. I’m excited about our all-star VIRGINIA team. I’ve been saying it for quite some time now - we’re going to make at least the second round of the NCAA this year. No doubt.

I had one of the strangest dreams last night.  By strange, I mean awesome.  I dreamt I was a walk-on for the UVA basketball team.  Those of you who know me know that I’m really bad at basketball.  I love to watch the sport.  That’s where it ends, haha.  Anyway, for some reason, I got a lot of playing time.  I dreamt that - with me playing - we beat Gonzaga tonight.  It’s weird because I actually remember the dream pretty vividly.  I got 26 minutes of PT that game.  Not just 26 minutes - I was actually a starter for the team!  Also, apparently in my dreams, I am a lefty shooter.  And I am a great shooter, but a bad ball handler.  Craziness.  I can’t explain it at all, haha.  I wish it were true though.  Maybe I’ll try to take up basketball …

I have nothing of any value worth saying in this post (as opposed to all my other posts, obvi (yes, I just said obvi)). Just wanted to wish everyone a happy new year in ‘07.

You’d expect me to have some sort of 2006 recap or something along the lines. But I don’t. Sorry to disappoint (per usual). Instead, I’m just going to say that 2007 is looking good already. I got some ipod speakers today…that’s exciting. There’s a blue background light in the speakers, and I like pretty much anything that has blue lights. I don’t know why. They just look cool.

Nor do I have any new year’s resolutions to post. Not because I am protecting my own privacy or anything like that. It’s more something along the lines of it being winter break right now and my brain refusing to do any work whatsoever, much less commit myself to something for the next 365 days. Nope - can’t fool me.

So yeah. I hope all of you are enjoying your winter break, or your day or days off, or whatever the case may be.  While you’re enjoying yourself, please consider making a donation to Relay for Life.  Please.