Cambridge common

Im here drinking a Opa Opa Ipa in this bar. It's actually quite nice. Good food and good beer. Maybe I'll come here again some other day.

Giving up on the gym

I'm not going to try to join this gym no longer. It is frustrating. People here in the lab do not put this as priority (obviously) and the people at the Marino center (gym) couldn't care less. I'll see if I find another place to go.

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Since I'm going to rest a bit tomorrow, I'm going to the BSO concert tomorrow (Saturday). It was a bit expensive even for the cheapest ticket but I don't intend to be there all the time. I had to pay $47 for the ticket. The BSO is said to be one of the best in the USA. The program will include Mozart and Handel. I'll post tomorrow about the experience.

Joe vs CNN

Very nice from Rick Sanchez to take on Joe the assh...  Here is the youtube video. Joe is now a war correspondent. Can you believe this? We'll just have to wait and see what happens to Joe the "war correspondent". 

Professor?

I'm reading Carl Sagan's Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. What a book!!! If you'd like to learn more about critical thinking, you must get it. Funny is that he talks about people that don't do anything but love to call themselves "professor". He talks about a guy that bought a telescope placed on his backyard and became a sensation because he called himself professor and has claimed to be in contact with Aliens. 

What is even funnier is that I have one of these in my life now. The landlord of my house is "professor". It's amazing, he teaches guitar on the back of the house and decided that he is a professor and that his shed on the back is a college of music. Can you believe this?! My brain has a problem understanding this type of attitude, maybe it is because I am a college professor (a real one I hope) and get no joy of the title. Titles is giving based on accomplishments, right? And they are supposed to be self-satisfying not really something you freely publicize. I learned now that there must be something wrong with a person when he/she answers the cell phone: "Hello, this is Prof. A...". Eraldo and I already knew one guy at FIT who does this but at least he is a professor. My landlord is far from being one.

I miss Kalil

Obviously I miss everyone but I'm working now with my iPod and some guy just played No Surprised on the piano... let me check his name... Christopher O'Riley. And I just had that felling that I really miss waking up with Kalil playing the Piano. I miss him... :(  BTW Kalil keep playing!!!

Time to go home....

I'm tired today (and Jerry is going to beat me on chess)... so I'm going home. I'm so upset about my last chess move. Everything was going okay (sort of..).  Tomorrow I have a paper deadline and I should try to wake up early.

Friend from England...

Paul, a friend from England gave me the phone of his (ex-)wife who is living here in Boston. I called her just now. It was nice to talk to her. I've taught (tried to) her Portuguese in England and this is how I met Paul. I tried to because I don't think I'm very good teaching languages.

Well, I told Tobey that I'd be happy to meet her for lunch some day she's around. Let's see if she calls. I gave her my email address as well.

Just hungry...

Still no luck with the gym. This is frustrating. Maybe someday...  I haven't had time to eat lunch so I'm getting very hungry. I think I may leave earlier today. I don't know. O maybe I'll just grab a "brick" there on the Qsoba (one of the 100's of mexican burrito places around here). I haven't tried the Qsoba yet but tried the other place that "invents" burrito. The one I tried was teriakki chicken burrito. Sounds good but doesn't taste that good. At least I'm having fun making reviews of these restaurants on Goodrec (a iPhone application that I like).  Ahh I just remember that there is another place here on campus that sells burgers. Maybe I could try that....

Am I me?

Well the sport facility did not accept my letter from the provost! They said the letter said I was offered a position but doesn't say I'm here! What? Am I here?! Am I me? I hate people who create bureaucracy out of nothing. Can you imagine this situation? I'm offered a position, I come all the way from Florida to Boston but I'm actually not working here. I came here just to join the sport facility illegally because that was my dream! One day I'll join the sport facility at NEU!! 

Chess

Jerry is kicking my butt in chess. I'll have to think carefully what
to here. :)

Breakfest in the house.

OMG, It was hard. I've bought a bag of bagels an cream cheese yesterday hoping to eat breakfest in the house. Well I did but the kitchen is so dirty that I wonder if it was better eat in the
bathroom. Anyway it is just too disgusting to be talking here.

I'm again in the T going to work and today I'm taking my squash racquet with me. I hope I can start practicing. I still have to convince the people in the sports facility to accept the letter I have from the provost. Let's see what happens.

Here Be Dragons

Thai was nice. Good restaurant. I'm at home and just watched a documentary called "Here be Dragons". A very go documentary on skepticism. You should watch as at it teaches how to use critical thinking. Here is the movie link. 

Thai Dinner? Maybe...

I think I'll try a Thai restaurant today. A guy from the lab asked if
I wanted to go to dinner. I really don't want to go but I think it is
important to socialize with the people here. After all I'm staying
here 6 months... Let's see what happens.

Fortaleza

I'm here in Boston but I can't forget my Fortaleza (soccer team). This morning the sub-15 team beat Gremio 2x1 and has advanced to the semi-finals of the tournament. Our forward was called to join the Brazilian squad. :) The sub-18 years old is playing now against Flamengo and we are winning 1x0. Let's hope the result continues to be in our favor. And later today the professional team will play Guarany in the state cup. I want 3 victories today!

(UPDATE: Fortaleza won on sub-15, sub-18 but only manage a 1x1 on the professionals. But it was okay!)

Got my card

Hurray!!! I got my NEU card (see picture) but no luck on registering for the gym/squash. I now have to find a letter with my visiting offer to take to the people there. Just bureaucracy. They say they need the letter to confirm I'm working here. But I have a NEU card! And I had to use the letter to get this card. So isn't the card enough proof?! Go figure! But I think tomorrow I'll be able to go to the gym here... and then I can also use the shower here and don't have to worry about it in the house.  

Pictures of the Lab

Since I was the first here this morning (and BTW last one to leave yesterday), I took some pictures of part of the lab. I'll post one of the conference room sometime in the future. The first picture is from one side of the lab where two offices (each sits 5 people) can be seen. The second picture is my office which I like quite a lot because it has a lot of natural light. The last picture is from the common room area. You can see the two printers on the back and a white board that is always being used. 

The labs are always full meaning that they have plenty of people working and more trying to work. Today they have more interviews for a post-doc position. One curiosity about the picture on the wall is that it is bio-inspired. All the art here relates to cells in the human body. Quite nice I think.

Different world! Right World?

The longer I stay here the more impressed I get with people living here. Take for instance the situation now here in the T. The guy sitting in front of me is reading a book on Gödel's proof while the other next to me is reviewing a paper from IEEE transactions. We rarely see here people just doing nothing or reading Oprah's magazine. They read a lot and concentrate on things that matter.

Just now both people reading the book and the article left at Kendall station. Do you know what is on Kendall station? MIT. Everything is explained now!

Research ideas

The first research ideas are starting to appear and I haven't even yet talked to the people in the lab. But the presentations yesterday and today were good to show me some indication if what can be done.

Now I'm going home to do a bit more work there.

Talk at CS Department

I just came back from a talk from David Lazer from Harvard. He gave the talk at the CS department here at NEU. The talk was very interesting and was about Computational Social Sciences. It relates to how computer science is helping social sciences people do a better job understanding human behavior. This is done via the concept of networks and the analysis of their characteristics. I spoke to him after the talk and I hope he can help me with some questions I have related to the research we're doing with the Enron email dataset. 

If you'd like to watch his talk, Google video has a copy of (almost) the same talk he gave here. The link is here.

(Sarah he looks a lot like Marcos André!!! lol)