Alexandre R.J. Francois

Spooky pumpkins. Today's stair number: 1

Visit to the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab . Today's stair number: 1

Harvard's Science Center on the clearest day so far (significantly cooler). Today's stair number: 1

The SOX are playing what could be the last game of the season, and the sun sets on Harvard Square (by the way, the SOX win the World series, and the picture is taken tomorrow... Notice the unbelievably clear sky!) Today's stair number: 4

After a mostly Argentinean day of Tango , Italian dinner in the city topped by excellent desserts at Caffe Bella Vita . Cannoli, tiramisu, cappuccino and espresso are particularly memorable. Will have to go back and try the gelati! Today's stair number: 2

Musically themed dinner (not black tie but still very nice). Tango! Dance the world around: global transformations of latin american culture Today's stair number: 2

Black tie dinner at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art for MIT's Council for the Arts 35th annual meeting. An elegant glass structure on the bay, recently completed, now hosts the ICA collection. Today's stair number: 2

gg (in the red dress) joins fe (yellow dress). eliane (orange dress) and alx (orange sweater). Today's stair number: 1

Another picture from yesterday's trip to Walden Pond. Today's stair number: 3

Fall foliage in the sunlight at Walden Pond. Today's stair number: 2

A majestic tree by the road, near Amherst, MA. Today's stair number: 6

Fall colors and Halloween scene near Amherst, MA. The car was lit at night, but I could not get a good night picture of it. Today's stair number: 4

Elaine gives a brilliant "Operations Research and Music" talk at UMass Amherst in the Business School, invited by Radcliffe Fellowship alumna Anna Nagurney.

Morning walk across Harvard campus, between the computer science and the law school building. The picture is looking towards the law school building. Today's stair number: 2

I read this everyday, several times (one of the perks of being in a diverse environment). It took me a few days to notice. The user interface design (mechanical) is not great, and the instructions on how to use the machine (typed below in plain text) are downright inconsistent. Today's stair number: 1 The instructions read: *FREE* 1. No coins necessary. 2. Turn knob slowly to extreme right until product vends. 3. If coins are not accepted, machine is empty. DO NOT FORCE KNOB TO TURN. Call matron or custodian.

We went back to Rendang, had satay, beef Rendang, and this time I managed to take a picture of the desserts (mango ice cream and ice kacang) before they disappeared. Today's stair number: 7

Today again went by so fast I did not get a chance to take a picture before it was night in Cambridge. This picture was taken in Stonetalon Mountains (World of Warcraft) where it was sunset: for some reason, it's California time there... Today's stair number: 1

We had dinner at Rendang in Harvard Square. The best satay we've had outside of Asia, delicious and tasty beef rendang, with coconut rice. The food went too fast, I only had time to take a picture of an empty plate! Today's stair number: 1

Some foliage is starting to turn reddish. This picture was taken in Franklin. Today's stair number: 1

It was wet, it was cold, but above all it was historic: the installation of Drew Gilpin Faust as Harvard's President. If you look closely and use a little imagination to make up for the distance and poor image quality, you can see her in the picture... Note: I have slightly better pictures, but they did not do justice to the experience of being there. Today's stair number: 1

The experimental setup is operational, work may now begin... Today's stair number: 1

The day went by so fast, I did not get a chance to take a picture before coming back from this Faculty Seminar at the Humanities Center at Harvard. The series is co-sponsored by the Harvard Stem-Cell Institute and the Humanities Center. The seminar was very interesting, and the others in the series promise to be equally exciting. Apart from the reading material everyone is supposed to have read before hand, the setting is also quite interesting, in a salon style (velour couches and armchairs for those who get there early enough) in the Barker Center's Thompson Room. Of course, I left my camera in my office (and it's probably just as well, I was already the most casually and colorfully dressed in the room, I don't know if taking a picture there would have gotten me kicked out... I'll have to try next time: the decor is really something, and I liked the Kronos statue a lot). Today's stair number: 2

Today was so busy that by the time I got to take a picture for today's post, it was all dark and quiet on the Quadrangle. Today's stair number: 1

The impressive number of birds and squirrels always foraging around (number apparently increased after the rain) makes for numerous "Snow White moments." The most impressive ones are very hard to capture in a picture. Here is a slightly less impressive example: birds playing in the water. Really! the blurry shadows in the water are birds, and there were many more before I tried to take a picture... Today's stair number: 1

We followed the Honk! Festival Parade ("reclaim the streets for horns, bikes and feet") from about Porter Square down to Harvard Square , where Oktoberfest activities were in full spring. The parade had a home made feel; it was not as flashy as Pasadena's Rose Parade, but had a lot of heart. Today's stair number: 1

It is still very warm (expected to cool down this week). Nice relaxed week-end. We took a walk to Fresh Pond (but I have already posted a picture of that). We stopped at the Fromaggio Kitchen on Huron Avenue to get cheese and bread. On the way back, we cut through the Harvard Observatory. Notice the blue sky! Today's stair number: 3

My game research setup is taking shape. The screen (46") has arrived, and I have started running some extensive experiments with Guitar Hero II. Today's stair number: 2

Tonight we attended the Seventeenth 1st Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony . I have enjoyed read ing about it, and it was really cool to attend the ceremony, held in Sanders Theater (in the Hogwart building). The theme this year was "chicken." Some people on stage are winners of Ig Nobel and Nobel prizes. The one with the finger up is a past winner, for his medical case report "Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage." He brought a few personal kits that he distributed in the audience... Today's stair number: 4

Today's picture is the John Harvard Statue in Harvard Yard. It is known as the Statue of the Three Lies : the inscription reads "John Harvard, Founder, 1638" but all three are wrong (the model for the statue is not John Harvard, John Harvard was not the founder of Harvard University, and 1638 is not the year Harvard University was founded... the link above provides a little quiz and the answers). By respect for this tradition, the picture was actually taken yesterday. I cannot resist mentioning the cool " John Harvard Halo " MIT hack that marked the release of Halo 3 last week (and the pictures are actually better than mine). Today's stair number: 1

Another Beautiful Day (and Evening) in Cambridge. This morning I saw many more squirrels than yesterday, so maybe they are not all ready for winter yet... The picture of the day shows Harvard's Annenberg Hall , which we have been affectionately calling Hogwarts, due to its humongous dining hall with long tables and crystal chandeliers, and because its roof has a small square top with four little flags. Today's stair number: 1

The day was especially rich of multi- (or is it inter-? or cross-? or maybe extra-? Sometimes I get confused...) disciplinary exposure and interactions, with a lunch talk by Qin Shao on "patterns of grassroots protest in urban china," and a Science Lecture by Lisa Tauxe about Earth's magnetic field. In any case, it was refreshing and stimulating. The calendar of interesting presentations and events is incredibly dense, and I look forward to enjoying as many as possible. On a different topic, there are very few squirrels left foraging around compared to last week. But I cannot take a picture of the squirrels who are not here, so today's picture is a wildlife shot from inside World of Warcraft, near Astranaar in Ashenvale. Today's stair number: 1