One month in MIT is over

One month in MIT is over. I am bit older, somewhat more well educated, and much happier than I was for the last 3 years when working in N. So, it was a good idea to come here. I miss all my friends/relatives etc in Finland, and in China, but even I cannot be in two or more places at the same time.

Thanks to Paul at Fairfield Realty my studio now has a new window, and my living comfort is up at least 77.5%. After all, everything turned out just fine, I have nice and cheap (relatively) place to live in the poshest neighborhood, I did not catch cold during the freezing nights, and I think there are no hard feelings on either side.

One thing I definitely miss from Europe is to have decent cafes, with real cups, not just paper ones. I have not seen a decent cafe in this town. It is all those terrible, drug-addicted Starbucks and clones. So sad, one cannot even enjoy the legal drugs here. Fun spoilers, addicts with no class. And furthermore, a real cafe has some newspapers for the customers to read.

My brains are still off. No political analysis today, even though I must repeat that I am really positively exited about the Iraqi elections.

The spring term starts tomorrow. I have registered to so many courses, that completing all of them would really make a difference. I will try my best. I will apply my new lean studying-methodology. I will drive out all muda, concentrate only in the most important issues, and manage my time relentlessly and in an adult manner. Let's see. If it works, I will write a book about lean studying, sell it to all struggling students, and laugh all the way to the bank. Or something. Maybe I could use lean studying as my product development topic?

If you feel complacent, read this report on greenhouse effect, and maybe the feeling goes away. Personally, I feel that I should devote whatever talents, skills, and knowledge I have after graduating from MIT to developing technologies and policies to combat the CO2-buildup. Thanks to Sam for waking me up from my technological dream. What about developing a new, better, cheaper, more efficient, but lots of human labor requiring solar energy system, and the installing lots of them to the Arabic countries, which have both too much sunshine and too many unemployed young men. And getting USA to finance to whole thing, because it would deprive the terrorist most of their potential recruits. Hm, this sounds like a plan. And it would be really fun thing to do!

If you want to see Mandelbrot talking about fractals, Thurow talking on China, etc, go to MITWORLD video archive. Rather nice thing to know about. Thanks to Robbie for pointing out this service.

I had an excellent dinner of fish and chips (I try to find the best fish and chips in town) with Mirja and Milton in some local Irish-pub in Brookline Village. I think the bar was called Murphy's pub or something. Their fish and chips is the best I have got here in Boston (but not as good as the one I got in Broken Bay, NSW, Australia). But good enough. Food aside, it was nice to meet friends, and discuss various topics. I walked all the way to Brookline Village, and got lost. One should always carry a map. I got to see the Boston University and some small town-like places on the way, so the walk was worth it. I came back by tram, it took 10 minutes.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs January 2005".