Sport facilities

I've played my first game of squash just now. I beat a guy there from Spain 15x4, 15x2, 15x3. My knee seems to be okay. 

However I found the first problem here in this university: the incompetence of the people at the sport facilities. Not only they are incompetent they seem to make every single effort to appear stupid. I had all those problems trying to join. Well, I've joined but almost got denied access today because my card still doesn't work. The worse is when I speak to these people (students) here they all have that attitude of superiority as if they are full of "cow manure". Funny is that if they were really all they thing they are they would be students in the other universities here right? Not even sports they play well. From the squash team for instance I can probably beat 80% of them and I'm a 39 years old guy walking on one leg. Anyway, tomorrow I'll solve this problem once and for all. They either give me full access to the facility with my card or I will request my money back. With that money I can join a local squash club here if necessary.

Bill Frisell's concert yesterday

As I said in the previous post, the concert was really good. But Bill Frisell is for me one of the top jazz musicians alive. He is simply amazing and a very strange person as well particularly due to his shyness. I was very close to the stage but unfortunately a bit behind him so I could not see the guitar "action" a lot. Here are some pictures of the concern and a picture of a cuddly toy that belongs to Bill. I know it belongs to him because I asked his manager afterwards. 

Meeting was okay...

The meeting at a local company could have been better. It was okay but the problem is that companies loose track of the research side of things and focus solely on "if this makes money". Or maybe I'm the one loosing track of industry...

Visiting local company

I'm at a local company (can't mention the name) to talk to a colleague who works in the same field of research as me. The idea is to see if I can foster some collaboration with them.

Melbourne vs. Boston

I've been thinking about this comparison for a while but I think I have substance to actually write about it now. Since I've moved here I've been thinking about the differences between Melbourne and Boston. So here it goes (to be continued).

weather

Melbourne: nice all the time

Boston:nice for 8 months

cultural life

Melbourne: Disney
Boston: where do I start?

universities

Melbourne: Florida Tech
Boston: MIT, Harvard, NEU, Boston University, etc.

people

Melbourne: rednecks (except our group of friends :-) )
Boston: a lot of intelligent people. I'm still to me one redneck here.

friends

Melbourne: quite a few
Boston: not so many but my post can convince all you guys to move here :)

bars

Melbourne: mainstreet, chilies.
Boston: again, where do I start?

school system

Melbourne: okay if you pick the right school
Boston: almost the same except kids have a better chance of feeding into a better university.

politics

Melbourne: very very red.
Boston: very very blue.

housing

Melbourne: very nice.
Boston: not as nice, but okay.

public transportation

Melbourne: what?
Boston: anything you want

what people read

Melbourne: the bible
Boston: Fermat proof, Gödel theorem, IEEE transactions, novels,  everything really!!

chance that you'll meet someone very intelligent

Melbourne: that's it. you guys are my 1% chance
Boston: just pick one

people that know other languages

Melbourne: they are possessed because they are speaking in tongues.
Boston: They are people. Most people.

I could go forever so what I want to hear from you when we get together at the brown's is "what the hell are we doing in Melbourne. I'm open to ideas :)

Sorry for the rumblings. Good night.