Blogger problem

Sometimes this blogger doesn't work well. For instance I haven't been able to upload the pictures from the room yet and I don't know why. The upload button just doesn't work sometimes. When I I fix, I'll put the picture on the post below.

New room

I have a new room! Yes, my letter to the the landlord worked and I'm in a much nicer room. Very large. Also the shower is very good. For the first time today I had a good shower in the house. I had been taking my showers here on campus because on the other unit was just terrible. Here are a couple of picture of the new room. What I'm also happy about is that the room is big enough for Sarah and the kids to come here and stay. We have this plan that they may come in July. I'd still need to talk to the landlord but it should be fine. We can get one of those inflatable beds and put in the room while they are here.

I survived the opera

I don't think this Opera thing works for me. It was nice because it was a new experience. This was my first time in an Opera. The story of Simon Bocannegra is very complicated and a little cliché. I think if I decide to go to another opera it will have to be one of Mozart. I took a few pictures of the location. One shows me entering the BSO (Boston Symphony Orchestra) and another is of the musicians on stage which I took from my $20 seat. It was a very nice location actually. I think the next concert I'll go to the BSO will be an all Mozart program conducted by James Levine. The Opera was also conducted by Levine who is one of the best conductors in classical music today. On February 17th, Levine will have this all Mozart program. If I can get my $20 seat I'll probably go.

Intermission

Intermission here at the opera. I have to confess it is better than I  thought. The opera is Simon Bocannegra from Verdi.

Opera

Im waiting to see an opera for the first time. I just found out that the "thing" is 3 hours long!!! At least I'm on a $100+ seat and I paid only $20. They have a program for young (<40 years old) people. I just made it. LOL.

Adele

I'm worried about Adele. I'll call Sarah... she was not well last night. Just wished I could be there to help :(

Photo from Birthday Party

Here is a photo from yesterday. The celebration was for the Winter birthdays. The cake (from the Whole Food Market) was very good even for a person like me who doesn't like cakes. But that one was amazing. 

In the picture from left to right: Sune, Jim, Natali, Luigi, Me, Lazlo, Juyong, and Dashun.

ACM Task Force

I had to be here early because of a conference call with people from the ACM. The system we used was interesting. They create a 1800 number and when you call you are connected to the conference. Very cool. 

Morning mess...

It was mess to come here to NEU today. The rain of yesterday froze completely and all the sidewalks were like ice skating rinks. I had to walk really slowly because a lot of people were just slipping.. it was actually funny (just because it didn't happen to me)

Meeting

After my presentation today I had a meeting with Prof. B. Very good conversation and maybe we agreed on a topic to do research. I now have to do my homework to meet with him when I return from Florida.

Changing rooms

Also this morning I had a conversation with my landlord. He agreed to put me in a nicer place. It is the same house but a different unit. On this unit they have new floors and the bathroom seems much nicer. I'll post some pictures when I move to the new place tomorrow morning.

Snow storm

I woke up this morning to find out that we were having a snow storm all day today. I don't mind snow but I really don't know how bad can this get. Leaving in Florida makes us understand of hurricanes and whatnot but not snow. I'm at work now so I hope I can at least get back to my room later today.

Good day and bad day

I had a lot done today despite the mac. But I miss Sarah, Kalil and Adele quite a lot. I'm glad Saturday I'm going there.

Lots of work

Today was again a very full day. Unfortunately my new mac book pro had a problem on the Ethernet board. Apple will fix but at is a hassle anyway.

Nice Place this Druid

Here is a picture of the entrance of Druid. Very nice place. It feels like a Starbucks but with beer instead. Wireless Internet and very small. Not very crowded. I may return here. I had a burger which was better than the one at Cambridge Common. 

Geek... but with style!!!

I'm waiting here at the Druid for my friend. Nice bar/restaurant. Small and cosy. But I couldn't feel more geek than this. I'm drinking one beer and while he is not here also writing some Java code. The bar has Internet connection so I can test my crawler.

Druid

I'm leaving work to meet a friend from MIT. Dinner at the Druid.

Time is relative.

When I got here I had a lot of time in my hands but as I get more and more involved with research in the lab I find that time is moving faster. I don't quite have the time I had at first. I know I'm in the physics department but relativity should not be applicable just because of that, right? lol.

Just some thoughts

(email sent to my landlord. I was very upset at that time)

John,

I'm sorry to be writing this long email to you but it has been now 20 days since I got here and I thought I'd let you know my impressions.

Despite all my questions to you regarding the house, cleanness of the guys living here, maintenance of the house, etc. What I found was completely the opposite of what I was given the impression.

Here are a few things:

• the bathrooms are so dirty that they get to be unbearable. I got to the point that I prefer to stay at work as long as possible just to make sure I don't have to use the bathrooms here. I have used them only when I don't have another option. And for that I had to buy wipes and clean it to a minimum. Note that the little cleaning I've done is of mess that was not mine.
• When I asked you said that the house was maintained clean. I found quite the opposite. I had to clean my room when I arrived even though the least I'd expect was to get a clean room. I had to buy a broom just to do that. The house has so much dirt on the stairs and entrance that makes me think it hasn't been cleaned in months if not years.
• the shower still doesn't work. But this I already told you.
• the kitchen is also a problem. Today I took the trash out because in 20 days the trash only accumulated and no one took it out. 20 days of trash!! Again I'm talking about trash that is not mine. I keep my on trash in the room and take it out every two days. I only took part of the trash today because of the smell of it. I'm yet to use the kitchen because I don't have the guts to do it. Call me picky but I lived in college dorms but this much worse. The result is that I'm having to spend more money to eat out every day.

Nothing of the above was communicated to me when I inquired about the unit. In fact you told me only excellent things about the state of the house. I guess this is partially my fault for renting a place via the Internet. Lesson learned. I'm starting to regret the moment I rented this room. It is awful to spend 45 minutes on the T each way to get to here and to this kind of condition.

I'm also wondering what is going to happen when the cold goes away. Given the amount of trash/dirt in this house I'm starting to think that we'll have mice/rats around. I hope I'm wrong.

Again sorry for the long email. I also wish I didn't have to write it.

Your check is on the fridge.

Ronaldo

Keith Jarrett

This may sound as a broken record to a few of you but the musical improvisation of Keith Jarrett has no par. Every time I listen to the Koln concert, I'm just taken aback and can't understand how an individual is capable of improvising in a piano, solo, for 26 minutes and provide us with one of the best pieces of music you'll ever listen in a piano. Some people are just not simple human beings and Keith Jarrett is certainly one of them.