Full Moon over Buenos Aires Skyline, originally uploaded by blmurch.

I have been very remiss in updating this blog. The last entry is from September. Life keeps chugging along and I have been super busy with four different jobs (all part-time). I am having fun for the most part, but life can get somewhat stressful. I am taking better care of my health, and I'm liking the results so far. Just gotta keep making these changes habit forming. I really miss my family and friends from the USA, but I am blessed with many good friends here in Argentina.

I promise I will write a more thorough update soon, but in the interim, here is a list of what I think qualify as my best shots from 2009. I hope you take the time to click through to the larger images. This was harder to compile than I thought.

• January

  



• February

  



• March

  



• April

  



• May

  



• June

  



• July

  



• August

  



• September

  



• October

  



• November

  



• December

  

Flowers for Sale, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Today is the Spring equinox here in Argentina. ¡Feliz Día de Primavera! Traditionally women are given flowers on this day. I changed it up and gave flowers to everyone at the Argentimes office and to Kragen.

The weather has been crazy for the past three weeks. In late August we got a hot spell for a week - during Wikimania. There wasn't too much humidity, but it reached 30C. Everyone was walking around in summer clothes. The plants responded to the strong sunshine and buds and flowers blossomed and opened up. They have been repaid in kind with spotty sun and rain for the past two weeks. The temperature varies from 10C to 20C. Kragen still goes round in only his shirts. Everyone asks him if he's cold, but he's acclimated himself. I think he's going to be uncomfortable in the summer.

Rugby, originally uploaded by blmurch.

This afternoon, I went out to the Bosque de Palermo and mingled around with the high school students who had the day off as not only is it Día de Primavera, but it is also Día del estudiante and so almost all the students had the day off school today. I did see one boy this afternoon wearing the white lab coat that serves as many students' uniforms over their street clothes. The park was full. Kids were hanging out, having picnics, drinking mate, playing football and generally having a good time out in the park in the sun. The ground had dried off enough so that everyone could enjoy sitting on the green grass.

Leaping, originally uploaded by blmurch.

On the way back to Plaza Italia to catch the bus back I saw a new skate park. They are rebuilding the large sidewalk from Columbia to Plaza Italia and putting in new concrete and playground and walkways. The kids were having a great time on the ramps and jumps. Some had slick moves, but most weren't very good. However, every time they'd fall, they'd get right back up and go at it again. No one was massively injured, and they seemed to be enjoying themselves. It was really cool to see this park. The city government is in charge of the construction work which usually doesn't cater to skate punks.

In fact, Macri's administration (he's the mayor of Buenos Aires with presidential aspirations) is usually quite hostile to "alternative" cultural centers. A number of them have been slated for demolition and people are really quite upset. The Almagro Cultural Center was violently shut down in August, the Huerta Orgázmica was broken apart in May and the Trivenchi circus is fighting eviction notice.

New raised bed ready for planting, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Kragen and I did some "evicting" of our own and cleaned up a raised bed on the upper terrace of the San Telmo place. We cleared out the ferns, Oleander and other plants and now have a plot of good earth to fill in with vegetables. I'll be able to check in on them daily and give them water as I'm down there every day for the Argentimes, which conveniently enough is located three blocks away. I'm looking forward to planting and growing veggies in the raised bed. We've been here now for almost three years and I haven't been back to the states in over two years. I guess we're finally putting down roots. Now we just have to figure out what we want to plant!

Mafalda in San Telmo, originally uploaded by blmurch.

I took a couple of photos today and though I'd share. The first one is of the cartoon character, Mafalda. She's a bit like Charlie Brown - but here in her statue, she's smiling. Her mother makes her eat soup she doesn't like - it's the running joke, much like Charlie Brown's football. She's been placed on this corner of Chile and Defensa in the barrio of San Telmo, because it is where the author, Quino, used to live.

Patrouille de France buzzing the Obelisk, originally uploaded by blmurch.

The next shot is of the Patrouille de France buzzing the Obelisk here in downtown Buenos Aires. The flight team is touring South America now and are playing visits to Brazil, Argentina and Chile. This was the first time that a female pilot is on board. Tons of people gathered along 9 de julio to watch the aerial display. This was the best shot of the bunch.

Alorsa, originally uploaded by blmurch.

I just learned that Jorge “Alorsa” Pandelucos died this past weekend from a heart attack at age 38. He was the lead singer of a great Rio Platense tango quartet called La Guardia Hereje. I was privileged to see him in concert in June when a friend of ours took us to a local hole in the wall in barrio Almagro to see them play. I didn't understand many of the lyrics because they were in a mixture of Spanish and the local slang lunfardo, which I don't know much of. But, I was enthralled by their music, their performance and their passion for what they were performing.

I took a bunch of photos and gave them a CD of the images later that month. I had a wonderful email exchange with Alorsa who really loved my photos and I was deeply touched by his words.

son las 2 de la mañana y acabo de ver tus fotos. me encantaron! creo que nunca nos sacaron fotos asi antes el conventillo parece magico ! encontraste la belleza de cada detalle simple sos una artista !!..,.y eso no tiene nada que ver con nosotros ni con la camara de fotos te felicito ! te mando un beso y muchas gracias por devolvernos estos recuerdos .
- Alorsa / La Guardia Hereje

Programa por la luz de la vela, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Manos de Leonardo Gianibelli, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Guitarra de Fernando Tato, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Palacio de Justicia, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Crazy Crowd, originally uploaded by blmurch.

These judgments may put to rest the call for justice, but it doesn't bring back the 194 people who died that night and the five survivors who have since committed suicide. It doesn't give their families what they want, but hopefully it will bring a bit of closure to this horrible event.

More sources
My photo set on flickr
Wikipedia English Cromañon entry
Wikipedia Spanish Cromañon entry
Clarin's article
The Survivors, Friends and People from the Cromañon Fire

Kids making music, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Comforting, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Excitement, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Two shades of the same color, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Voting with care, originally uploaded by blmurch.

I haven't been paying very close attention to the news, but I have been trying to loosely follow the elections. They were congressional elections and the big news grabber was that Nestor Kirchner, the former president and husband of the current president, Christina Fernandez Kirchner, was running in the province of Buenos Aires. He lost. In fact the Kirchners took a beating and lost control of congress. There were rumours that they would leave the presidency if that happened and that chaos would break out. All was calm this past week on the politics front, at least from the point of view of the streets not being a mess.

What hasn't been calm is all the hyps about GRIPE A! OMG we're all gonna die!!!! Not really, or at least not now, but people are freaking out. Schools have been closed for a month as of last week. I'm just going about my normal routine and just washing my hands and using alcohol gel a lot more often. I see a lot of people with surgical masks and scarves around their noses & mouths out in the streets and on the buses, etc. They are useless, but make people feel better, much like the security theater at the airports. They don't protect the wearer from infection. They only prevent a sick person from infecting others as the masks are nowhere near airtight. Argentina is third in the world with the number of deaths from this flu at 55 as of this morning. This is behind Mexico and the USA. Unfortunately, this is a third world country and the government is scrambling and behind the ball and people are hording tamiflu and there is only one lab to test for the flu and it takes 15 days which is too long to get a good result. If you need tamiflu you need it quicker than the 15 days it takes to confirm. Ahhh, Argentina, I love you, I just hope you don't kill me.

Pyramid of players, originally uploaded by blmurch.

I feel so very behind with my blogging and getting photos up onto flickr. I've been doing more of the later, but still have a lot in my archives that are unpublished. I guess this is what happens when life fills up! I feel like I've gone from about 25-60 in the past month. Our business is up and running and so I'm doing admin work for that when needed, but it isn't very much right now. What is taking up the bulk of my time is my photo internship with The Argentimes. I'm really enjoying getting to see how working on a magazine works and learning more. I love to learn - especially when I don't feel so stupid while the process is taking place. I've done some photo shoots for them and also some work getting things organized. I'm also helping my parents out with a project and while I'm not in the thick of it getting my hands dirty, I am well entrenched.

A couple of the more fun things I've done recently is take pictures at sporting events. I don't follow sports that much, but it was fun nonetheless. A while ago I went to the world championship polo match here at the polo fields in Palermo. The playoffs had been held and the final two countries with their top four players were Brazil and Argentina. Upon entering the area, the first thing that struck my eye was the scrap iron sculptures of polo players on their horses. Then I noticed the marching band in all their pomp - they were dressed in the old military uniforms that the soldiers wear for official occasions. I actually see more of the old style uniforms than camouflage in Buenos Aires. The uniforms are pretty and blue and definitely old style, not really serviceable for actual combat, but very sharp.

We eventually found our seats and the people who knew polo explained the rules. Having played both field hockey and lacrosse I wasn't too lost. Argentina scored their first goal in the first two minutes of play and pretty much dominated the game. Brazil did have a good showing, but they really weren't a match. The world's best polo player Adolfo Cambiaso, was on the field and his three team -mates and their rotation of horses cleaned up.

The "pomp and circumstance" at the reward ceremony rivaled the opening ceremonies. The marching band played the anthems of Brazil, Argentina and a quick meadly of refrains from the other countries who didn't make it to the playoffs. The trophies were awarded to all players on the podium and the champagne was popped and sprayed all aroud. See more photos on flickr.

Volley, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Another sporting match I got to photograph recently was on assignment for The Argentimes. Once a month, hotel Feirs Park sponsors an afternoon of tennis as a club in Villa Urquiza for the ambassadors and consuls to Argentina. The diplomats get to socialize in a different manner than the usual cocktail meet and greet. There is some friendly competition and good exercise.

The teams rotated around to have different countries play each other. In between matches the asador handed out grilled meat sandwiches and drinks. The teams who took the event most seriously were from Germany and China. The Chinese diplomats even just played each other (very well) at the end when everyone else was having their afternoon tea. See more photo on flickr.

It was interesting getting a glimpse of "high society" and powerful people at both events. It's definitely another strata that I don't live in and I'm not sure I ever really want to. People are people, but lots of money and power does have an effect and it's not always a good one. I have always said I want to be comfortable, not rich. Living here in Argentina, I have come to learn how many resources the citizens of the USA have at their disposal. It's quite breath-taking really when you think about it.

Monedero advertised on No 8 bus, originally uploaded by blmurch.

The Monedero system is currently in use in the subway system here in Buenos Aires. It's an RFID (radio frequency id) card that you swipe and it deducts your fare. It's easy to use and helps with the stupid coin shortage (mentioned in the Argentimes, The New Yorker, Slate and numerous expat blogs), even though you could always buy tickets from the counter with bills, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

I have been wanting this in the bus for at least the last two years. There is no way to pay for your bus trip except with precious coins that you either have to save all the time or just go to the bank, wait in line and get 5 or 6 pesos (they're supposed to give you 20 if you ask) in peso coins if you're lucky. When my brother was here last year, he'd always give me a pile of coins as he never used his and he always got more each time he bought something. One of the many reasons I miss him. :D


This morning, as I made my way to San Telmo to work at theargentimes.com, my eyes bulged in wonderful surprise when I saw my number 8 bus advertising the monedero system!!! I got very excited and tried to pay, but this was just a teaser. The systems have been installed in some of the buses, but won't be active until next week. Tauntingly, the screen flashed: "Esperando conexión CERRADO".
 

This is progress. I first heard about this actually coming to fruition in the Slate article on the coin shortage in October 2008. I got very excited, but tempered that excitement with a heavy dose of "I'll believe it when I actually see it." On February 4 President Kirchner announced with fanfare that within 90 days the buses would be equipped with the monedero system. When the 90 days passed her office would just say "no comment" when questioned on the installation progress. Back in February she had said the card would "improve the quality of life for public transport users and gradually solve the problem with the lack of coins". The problem was that there was a fight as to who will actually pay for the card readers and the system as the bus companies are all privately held (there are over 100 in Bs As alone) and yet the routes and the fares are set by the govt. No one wanted to you know actually *pay* for them even though it is a brilliant idea.

I'm very happy to see them installed in some buses and am very much looking forward to using them next week when hopefully, they'll actually be in service!

UPDATE!!!  I have used my monedero on my way to and from San Telmo and I have seen them on the number 5 and 50 buses.  Looks like it's for real!

Making the empanadas, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Friday night I celebrated my 36th birthday with friends here in Buenos Aires. We had a party in San Telmo and lots of people came. I had done a lot of preparation on Thursday, but was a bit sick with a cold, so I didn't get everything completed as I'd hoped. Friday I was even sicker and slept most of the day finally doing the last of the prep in the evening before the party started at 10 pm. I had lots of help from my friends and some decongestants.

I used my empanada cooking skills I learned at Teresita's and made two fillings. I made humita and "carne", but instead of making carne (beef) empanadas, I cut up eggplants and used the same recipe with that one substitution as suggested by Teresita. Guests seemed to love it, which was awesome. There was a team of helpers who actually stuffed the empanadas and cooked them. I also had wonderful help from Frank who manned the parrilla and cooked the chorizo sausages and some beef. Earlier, I had sent Regina on a failed mission of buying grilling utensils. The store where she went was out. My friend Sarah came to the rescue with the perfect birthday gift of a beautiful parrilla set. It came in really handy and Frank did a great job! Lots of other people brought wonderful food and drinks and we enjoyed a great party until pretty late. The coup-de-grace was Emilia's cupcakes. I had asked her to make six dozen cupcakes for the party. I thought they would be ordinary cupcakes. Boy was I gladly mistaken - they were individual works of art! Sweet, delicious works of art. :D



All week long I'd been worrying about the weather and my cold which was progressing. The internet kept on changing its mind whether it was going to rain on Friday or not. Finally on Friday it was correct and the weather was a balmy 24 degrees C and there was not a drop of rain to be felt anywhere in San Telmo! The party was a smashing success, lots of people came, even though it was a holiday weekend and many people were out of town, and everyone said they had a good time.

I had a lot of help from my friends: Cate K, Amy, Alejandro, Regina, Kragen, Katie A (who came up for the weekend from Necochea), Kate S, Leandro and others helped set up and tear down the party. Another friend lent me tables so that I had something to put all the food and drinks on. I am truly blessed with wonderful friends - thank you!!

Colored Wall of Taco Box, originally uploaded by blmurch.

After a rather craptastic and highly frustrating and yet very productive day on Thursday, I met up with Kragen in the evening and we took the 151 bus from our apartment in Once to Palermo. From Córdoba and Fitz Roy, we walked to Galeria Venatica at Bonpland 1622 @ Gorriti where a friend from Couchsurfing was having his art opening of his show "Poemas sin firmar" (unsigned poems). Joan Louis is a painter from Peru and he has beautiful work. For those of you not in Buenos Aires, you can check out his blog. He is successfully making a living selling his artwork online via a gallery in Germany. Next week he is having another art exhibit "Mundo de Viringos" at Galeria Espacio 10 at Guatemala 4757 @ Gurruchaga. The show opens up on Tuesday May 12th at 19:30 and they both run through May 25th.

I was planning on going to another event on Thursday night in San Telmo, but I was too tired and too hungry, so I opted to go out to dinner with friends from Joan Louis' show instead. We all wanted to try out a new Tex-Mex restaurant that has opened up in Palermo called "Taco Box". We opted to eat outside as it was a nice evening and the restaurant next door had heaters that reached the tables. The inside of the restaurant was beautiful. The walls are lined with shelves filled with liquor bottles that are lit from behind. It's very pretty. The ceiling tiles are also interesting and don't really go with the rest of the decor, but Kragen noticed them and commented on how cool they are. We were served small mixed margaritas in shot glasses, which were interesting. The major issue was that the shot glass rims were coated in sugar, not salt. Urmmm. We read the menus and decided to share an appetizer of nachos among the five of us, which was really good. It included sour cream or crema acida. I haven't had sour cream in a very long time. It is not something you can buy in the stores. I asked about where they got their sour cream and the waitress said that they make it there. She went back inside and came back with the very recipe. Score! It seems like we were all craving burritios, so four of us got that and Kragen got a quesadilla. They were very yummy, but not very Mexican and pretty small, but that was just fine. :D The burritos were cut in half, covered in a bit of sour cream and guacamole and was presented beautifully with bell peppers and chips arranged on either side. They were filled mostly with carne with a bit of cheese. The girls had tragos (cocktails) while the guys drank a pepsi each. Cate had a margarita, which again came with sugar, but was a little stronger than the shot glasses, especially towards the bottom of the glass. Amy and I both had Mojitos which were nice and minty and fresh. We were tempted by the desserts, but passed this time. We might go back for another meal. The meal was fairly expensive but not too outrageous. We ended up paying 55 pesos each (including tip) which is about U$15. As we have been eating mainly at home for the previous three months or so, it was a bit of a shock to spend this much money, but as a once in a while treat, it should be alright.

Joan Louis
http://www.joanlouis.com
http://www.artjoan.blogspot.com/

"Poemas sin firmar"
Jueves 7th de mayo, Galeria Venatica ,19.30hs
Bonpland 1622 palermo hollywood
http://www.venatica.com.ar

"Mundo de Viringos"
Martes 12th de mayo , Galeria Espacio 10 ,19:30hs
Guatemala 4757 ,Palermo
http://www.espacio10.com.ar

Taco Box Soler 5581
http://www.guiaoleo.com.ar/detail.php?ID=3832

Recipe for Crema Acida
* queso blanco
* cilantro
* ciboullette
* limón
* sal
* pimenta

Iliana teaching, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Usually when you go on a field trip, you're leaving campus. In my case, I left the city and went to school out in the provinces. This was my first photography assignment for The Argentimes, as one of their photo interns for the next four months. This was for an article on Argentine Youths. I took the train from Once, which I had yet to do, and rode it out to Ramos Mejila, which is at Av Rivadavia 14,000. I live at Av Rivadavia 2,300 - the train basically followed Av Rivadavia west. Looking at that map, we met at the corner of Av De Mayo y Av Rivadavia on the left hand side and I live just above the little green dot on the top right hand side in "Balvanera". The journey took about 25 minutes and cost 1.10 (about 30 US cents). I had never been this far west yet, only traveling to Liniers thus far when we have taken the city bus to Ezezia Airport. It's just outside the city limits, but feels like a world away.

Iliana Gonzalez met me near the train station and we took the bus another 30 minutes or so to where she taught school. We got to know each other a bit on the ride and she told me more about the kids and the environment. She cautioned me to always be with someone so that I would stay safe. I never felt like I was in any sort of danger or anything like that, but the area was definitely rough around the edges and she said that basically everyone knows everyone and if you stand out unaccompanied, you could be at risk. The bus dropped us off about five blocks away from school and as we walked the streets were less paved, and the gathering of students increased until it was a mess of students waiting to get in through the gates.

Girls lining up for Phys Ed, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Studying through the hole, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Making sure Jesus is dead, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Semana Santa is coming to a close in Buenos Aires. I hope you are having a good Easter and/or Passover.

I'm not a very religious person, but I like to observe what people believe in and have faith in and study it, but I don't follow "the word of God". I was brought up in the Anglican Church - baptized as an infant and confirmed when I was twelve. I like to think that there is a higher power, but have trouble with organized religion and cannot see the Bible as anything more than a collection of historical myths and allegories. I understand the need for a higher power, and for an external authority to help guide the morals of one's tribe. However, I feel like I am a good person without the help of someone saying I'm going to hell for x or y. I do try to live by the Golden Rule, but that's because I think it is a good way to lives one's life. One of my own personal allegories I often tell people is that I have a picture in my mind of the different faiths. I see Muhammad, Christ, Moses, Buddha and other prophets all as individual passengers in a small boat headed downriver through dangerous waters. They all have their own ideas, own personalities, but ultimately, they all have the same goal of being a good person, living in faith and treating each other with kindness and love. To me, the journey is the important part, not the characters and foibles of the individuals along the path.

That was quiet the tangent. I really wanted to talk about what I did on Saturday. I had seen adverts for Tierra Santa and the Via Crucis or Way of the Cross. I had seen the Big Picture's photo essay for holy week and was inspired to go take photographs of the re-enactment. (Whole set up on flickr!) I glad it was just a re-enactment. I think I would have had a hard time watching real whippings and real nails being pounded into hands and feet as they do in the Philippines. The show at Tierra Santa was quite good, but still just a show.

Most, but not all the stations of the cross were represented and a woman told the story alongside the actors portraying their respective roles. There was Jesus, of course, Judas, the Rabbis - Sanhedrin and others, Pontius Pilate, Roman Soldiers, Peter, townsfolk, Mother Mary, Mary Magdalen and other followers. Jesus was kissed and betrayed by Jesus Judas (oops), judged by Sanhedrin, denied by Peter, judged by Pontius Pilate, whipped by the Romans and given his crown of thorns, bore the cross to the "hill", crucified, shouted out to God, died, and the Marys weeped over his body. People were transfixed by this show, followed Christ through the street of "Jerusalem" and raised their hands in faith at the end.

Candlelight Mass, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Fireworks over Resurrected Christ, originally uploaded by blmurch.

View from above, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Vice-president Cobos declared a three day period of mourning for the country because of the former president's death. Cate gave me the heads up that today President Alfonsín's body was lying in state in the Congress building just down the street from our house. We met up at our place and walked down to the barricades. We were helpfully told where to go by a policeman and headed down Bartolome Mitre to Callao where we found the end of the line. The line snaked back and forth between Rivadavia and Juan Peron (2 blocks) five times before you were allowed passed the barricades. Kragen and our CS guest stood in line under the hot sun while Cate and I ran around and took photographs. The nice guys at the Sede Nacional Del Movimiento Evita let us onto their balconies overlooking Callao. It took about three hours to get through the line and the actual viewing was *really* quick and no cameras were allowed. Seeing his body was strange. He's only the third dead body I've ever seen in my life. It's just so strange to see someone so utterly *lifeless*. I wasn't scared or anything like that, but it was odd. As of right now - 10 pm - the lines are three blocks long and snake back and forth six times instead of five, so now it will probably take about four hours to pay one's respect. I have heard that viewing is available all night long.

Waiting in line was an emotional experience as people would spontaneously burst into chants of his name - Alfonsín - Alfonsín - Alfonsín - Alfonsín - while at the same time clapping, cheering and crying. People are very sad at his passing, many tears were shed. Kragen said that it is if Argentine Democracy is now an orphan - the Father of Democracy has died - and now the Democracy of Argentina has fend for itself in the big bad world out there.

I took a bunch of photos with my *new* camera that arrived this morning with our CS guest. Kragen's father gave me his old Nikon D80 and it works great! The photos are up on flickr. I also took a video of the crowd chanting and clapping and threw that up on youtube.

Crowd in front of President Alfonsin's residence, originally uploaded by blmurch.

This evening as I was out I ran into a very large crowd on Santa Fe @ Rodriguez Peña. The street was shut off by the cops and the crowd. I had no idea what was going on and so asked around. Turns out the father of Argentine Democracy, former Presidente Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín died. He was 82 years old and died of cancer. The crowd was gathered outside his residence and it was very surreal. People started chanting and clapping and so it had the vibe of a protest, but it didn't make any sense to me why they would be protesting his death.

The media was out in full force, filming the crowd and interviewing people, it was a bit nuts. I happened to have my Nikon d40 and my tripod with me because I was doing a photoshoot earlier this evening, they both came in very handy.

I am *woefully* ignorant of the history of Argentina and so I only know a bit. But, I do know that Presidente Alfonsín was highly regarded in this country. He was president from 1983 to 1989 and is considered the father of democracy in Argentina. He was the first democratically elected president after the dictatorship ended in 1983. He was a champion of human rights and worked hard to restore equilibrium to Argentina. He was a lawyer, a publisher, a congressman, a president, a family man and a brave man. The display of emotion that I saw this evening was beyond what I was expecting, he will be sorely missed by his countrymen. It seems like he died peacefully, after a long battle with lung cancer, surrounded by his family at home. May he rest in peace.

Further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raul_Alfonsin
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raul_Alfonsin

Ewok, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Today I was notified that this photo of Ewok has been entered into Purina.com's "Pet Charts" for March 30, 2008 photo contest. I took this photo of Ewok in early March. I was just messing around and he gave me a good look.

This is totally silly and I don't think that we "win" anything, but please vote for my pretty kitty. He's in the number 1 spot right now and I'd like him to stay there. You don't need an account or anything like that and looks like you can only vote once, unless you're into spoofing IPs and I just think that's not in the spirit of the game. Anyway, just click on the link and when you see him looking back at you with those beautiful eyes press the green paw under the photo to vote.

Thank you and hope you're having a good Monday.
Mine got off to a slow start, but I think it's going to be a good day.

Crumpled Net, originally uploaded by blmurch.

If so - check your system. There is a worm that is set to go off on April 1 and people honestly do not know how bad this could be. It is called ConFicker and it controls a *very* large botnet of computers and could do *a lot* of damage, but we really don't know how much. I'm reposting the following information from friends...  One commenter from databeast's page has put up a mirror of the ConFicker cleanup software because if you are already infected you cannot get help from the official sites.
 

If you run a Windows machine with ANY browser- not just Internet Explorer- and you can read this post, but you cannot get to www.windowsupdate.microsoft.com, or GRIsoft.com (home of AVG antivirus), or Trend Micro, or Sophos, McAfee or Kaspersky or any other antivirus site, assume you are already infected with ConFicker. Take your computer offline and seek professional assistance to get it disinfected and patched.

For more of the gory details, go read this over at databeast's page.

This is serious folks. Serious as can be. Expect the possibility that the whole damn internet may have issues April first.

Repost. E-mail to people who aren't on LJ.

Banner of the Disappeared, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Today, March 24th, is the 33rd anniversary of the golpe by the military junta here in Argentina and the start of the dirty war. To commemorate this horrific event there is a march every year down Avenida de Mayo from 9 de Julio to the end of the avenue at Plaza de Mayo. I met up with Cate and her couchsurfer guest, Monica, and walked through the march taking photographs.

Las Madres de la Plaza were out with their white handkerchiefs and they carried an enormously long blue vinyl banner which had names and photographs of people who were taken, along with the dates that they were disappeared. It was haunting to see the black and white photos of people who no longer existed just because they held different political views. The official number of the disappeared is around 9,000, but common knowledge puts the numbers closer to 30,000. We will never know the real number though because the records were destroyed. I was struck by how uplifting the whole march was though. I have it in my head that it is a somber event - remembering the desaparecidos (disappeared) - and holding Democracy tight by exercising one's rights to assemble and protest publicly. However, today's march was jubilant and joyful as well as very serious.

Riseup, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Flags, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Nocturna invite using my photo from 2008, originally uploaded by blmurch.

My in-laws are here for a visit this week and we've been seeing the sights of Buenos Aires. One of the highlights was seeing this year's show of Nocturna, the aerobatic trapeze tango show. I took photos last year when they performed at the Konex Cultural Center and I gave them a cd of images. They liked my work so much, they used one of my shots this year for all their publicity. I didn't know this and when I was walking by the Recoleta Cultural Center, I noticed that the publicity was using my photo. I was pretty happy about that. I emailed the organizer and asked her if we could score free tickets (normally 20 pesos) for my visiting family and they said of course! Actually they said that if they'd known I was still in town they would have invited me to the press showing, but at the very least I could come see their show. They included me in the program and I took a couple with me for my "portfolio" and they said I could use them as a reference. This is good news. I organized for Friday night of last week. That didn't happen as Greg and Paula were beat from their flight (arriving that morning) and then Saturday the performance was rained out and then on Sunday we finally made it! Greg and I took lots of photographs. Between Friday and Sunday, I took over 1000 shots. I narrowed that down to about 100 decent ones and put some of them up on flickr. This show was much more difficult to shoot as the background wasn't a bright yellow wall, but a dark church. But, this time I had my low-light lens and it made quite a difference. They are performing until April 19th and if you're in Buenos Aires, I highly suggest you check them out. Thursday - Sundays at the Recoleta Cultural Center.

Feliz Dia de la Mujer, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Sunday was International Day of the Woman and it's celebrated pretty heavily all around the world, except in the United States of America. Here in Buenos Aires, there was a government sponsored event at the Rose Garden Park in Palermo. It was also sponsored by a yogurt company - Activa. I went to the park with Erica - our couchsurfer from Brazil - and we wandered around the blooming flowers and saw the gorgeous newly renovated rose garden in all its glory. It was full of families, couples and people enjoying a wonderful Sunday afternoon in the park. I got to take some photographs, which I'd been wanting to do for a while now, and I enjoyed getting to know Erica a bit more and hear about her home town of Belem. The World Social Forum as just hosted there this year.

It was a beautiful afternoon and I went home and wrote up a note and sent it to some important women in my life. I know that I didn't get everyone, so I want to say it again. Thank you for teaching me how to be a woman, and that it can mean so many different and wonderful things -- strong, loving, nurturing, independent, compassionate, sexy, fem, butch, delicate and so much more.

Graffiti, originally uploaded by blmurch.

I just completed a one-month "super-intensivo" Spanish class for foreigners with the UBA - Universidad de Buenos Aires. I went to class Monday through Friday from 9:30 to 12:30. It was a very good experience and got me to understand some of the basics I was sorely lacking. I now supposedly know objective pronouns, how to conjugate in the imperfect and perfect past tenses, how to give orders with the imperative and how to make comparisons. The classes were at the Armenian Cultural Center in Palermo. It was interesting to see the emphasis on the genocides throughout history written out as social studies projects on the walls. Some things run very deep.

Thursday, I took both the written and oral exams. We had two hours to complete the written test and I finished in just over an hour, the first one. I'm not sure if that was a good thing or not, but it's over with. I did at least go over it and read my answers before I handed it in. I took the oral with two other classmates afterward. I pick up my certificate (assuming I got better than 6/10) on Friday afternoon.

It was great to be back in school again. I really enjoy learning in a class environment. Practical experience is great, but I learn faster in class and I don't get so frustrated. It was also interesting being "the smart one" again. I spend so much time with Kragen that I forget I'm smart. Nice ego boost to be reminded. I often feel frustrated, stupid and bored trying to keep up with my husband. I'm not complaining or blaming, just observing how it is.

I want to take more classes but that will have to wait until we have more money. I don't like worrying about it, but hopefully soon we'll have things sorted out. Do I take solace that I'm not the only one these days, or does that make me worry more? Still chewing that one over.... nom nom nom....

Congreso by night, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Tangocherie tagged me in a photo-meme and I like this shot, so here goes. :D I live about 5 blocks away from the Congress building here in Buenos Aires and as I was walking home one evening I stopped and took this shot.

Choose the 4th image on the 4th page of your online photostream (whichever service you use).
I tag aka_lusi, hopeforyou and anyone else who wants to have fun with it.

I'm thinking of going to a party on Friday as it seems like a great geek theme... http://www.1234567890day.com/ There are parties all over the world - check in your area and of course, check the TIME.

I was going to go to two different parties on Thursday night, but I ended up wrestling with our crappy bike and replaced both inner tubes and got my hands really dirty and swore so much my husband laughed at my and then helped me... notice the order of that one. ;- ) I don't know if I trust the bike's back hub, but I might ride it to class tomorrow.
So, instead of having drinks with friends at two different bars, I ended up finishing off the 1/2 bottle of wine I had from dinner with Amy this week. It's not the same, but it'll do nicely.

New Haircut, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Just a quick note before I head off to bed.

Today, I visited Ryan's apartment in Recoleta. Ryan cuts hair and came highly recommended. Let me add my voice to that chorus. He chopped my braid off!! I *love* the new style and I'm really happy with how well it turned out. It feels so much lighter and not just physically, but also emotionally. Very freeing. The last time I had my haircut was in 2007 by my friend Beth in San Francisco when she trimmed the edges off. My hair was so long that sometimes I would sit on it, and the cats would play with the braid. I still have the long braid left and I don't know of any organizations that will take hair as a donation here, but have seen places that buy hair. Holding the braid in my hands feels very strange - like holding a separated appendage. We'll see what I end up doing with it.

We have power!, originally uploaded by blmurch.

I was going to write up a whole post about what I did when my powerbrick finally gave up the ghost this weekend. But, I got scooped by "Cult of Mac"! Giles calls me a "hardware hacker", and I think he flatters me, but I did fix it (mostly). I only really venture into hardware hacking when my toys tools break. I figure, what the hell, they're already broken.

You can see all the photos on flickr here.

WordCloud, originally uploaded by blmurch.

with data visualizations. A friend posted his word cloud and I thought I'd hop on that fun band-wagon. This tool takes any blog or block of text, goes through the words and creates a cloud of the most frequently used words. The larger the word, the more often it is used. I'm a bit surprised that "one" is the largest, but it's interesting to note. I'm not surprised that "paperwork" or "photography" are high up there...

President Obama's Virtual Inauguration, originally uploaded by blmurch.

I didn't make it into the Inauguration party at Sugar Bar in Palermo. I got there *way* too late for that. The doors opened at 2 pm and the place was packed by 2:10 I got there about 2:50. Instead, I went to a local Internet Cafe and got a terminal. I logged onto Facebook and watched via the CNN/Facebook event. Everything worked, but the broadband could have been better. I really liked reading what my FB friends were saying. There was a wonderful sense of awe, inspiration, amazement and togetherness. On the one hand, I wish I had made it inside as it would have been great to see people and take photos of the joy and watch the inauguration with other expats. On the other hand, I'm really glad I didn't have to deal with the crowd and it was packed. I met up with friends afterward and shared a good toast to our new President and a nearly empty nearby Brazilian bar. I have a good feeling in my body when I hear the words "President Obama". I feel proud of the United States of America again. His speech gave hope for a difficult, but strong, future.

Today was another step in our future as well. In the morning we met up with our translator and picked up the commercial reference from Ängstro that Veronica translated from the scans last week. Veronica Pía Lopez has translated all our documents from the USA in order to process our visa application request. I highly recommend her. We had everything for our visa application in mid-December except three commercial references. We asked five and four came through! It was close as we didn't get the official documents until Monday and Tuesday for the last two letters. Many thanks to Alejandro, Marcelo, Patricio and Rohit! This means that we have temporary residence permits here. We are to check in again in March to see about making them more permanent. We have been working towards this goal for about a year. This is a very big deal and we are relieved to have come this far. We sighed a big sigh of relief after we walked out the door of the migraciones office. We rode the 5 bus home from Retiro.

Our friend Cate bought a bike from her friend Sarah who left with her girlfriend to live together in Columbia. We're storing the bike and I'm taking it on rides when I'm running errands. This afternoon, I pedaled to Palermo. I took the main roads which are easier to navigate, but there are *a lot* of buses and I feel pretty small on the bike. I think I'll take side streets the next time. It's just that the intersections are harder to cross as no one really stops. I've been keeping track of where I'm going on walks and rides on Google maps. It's nice because I'm able to plot out the maps and it tells me how far I went. It's a very handy tool that and I'm so glad that it now covers Argentina.

After I left the meetup, I stopped and took photographs of Tipa trees over Honduras at Gascon. I have been so busy with stuff going on that I haven't had much time lately for photography. It was nice to spend some time on my favorite subject. I rode home and watched the speech again with Kragen. I'm very glad that we shared this moment of history together. We watched a repeat on MSNBC.com Overall, this was an amazing day!!

Las puntas del pensador, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Buenos Aires is covered in graffiti and Rodin's "El Pensador" is no exception. His toes caught my eyes and I took this shot after I was finished taking photos of a protest.

Summer Solstice Sunset, originally uploaded by blmurch.

I've been reading end of the year recaps and thinking about all we've done this year. One of the consistent questions we get asked by friends and family, is "what are you doing in Argentina?" Hopefully this will explain a bit.

• We started a business. Distributed Expertise S.A. is alive. We have clients even. There was a lot of paperwork involved in getting this together. There were many meetings with lawyers, escribanas (notaries with much more power and who are much more expensive), and accountants. This was a very slow process for us. Did I mention that there's a lot of paperwork? People here move slowly unless you're insistent and even then... and I tried very hard to not be the pushy rude Yankee, but I think I fell too much on the other side of the equation. The amount of paperwork amazed me, and being an administrative assistant in my "past life" that's kind of hard to do. Starting a business in the the USA is easy. You can do it online for the cost of about $100 in about an hour. Not so much in Argentina. There was a lot of proving with original documents who you are and where you live and what you're doing. This could tangent off into a whole other post. I'll save that for another day.
• We got our residency visas. We still have to give the immigration office 3 commercial references, but we're getting there and then we'll be golden.
• We adopted two cats. Hermanito and Ewok are two cute cats. Ewok is a long haired tabby and Hermanito is a long haired tuxedo cat. Ewok is pretty chill and only ever meows if he thinks he's gonna die, fortunately, that's pretty seldom. Hermanito is an easily bored and vocal cat. He gets into all sorts of trouble. We have to watch him a lot. He likes to eat plastic, paper and string, all of which are not good for him. They know that when we say loudly "uh-uh", they're in trouble and need to stop what they're doing.
• We moved into an apartment in Once (ohn-say) and signed a two-year lease. We will be here at least through June 2010. This is not an easy thing for foreigners to do because of the whole guarantia issue, but we worked it out. We like our landlords. We were able to buy most of our furniture second hand. This is more difficult than one would think. Yay, craigslist!
• I continue to take lots of photographs and am learning how to edit them down. This is difficult for me. I had two photograph shows. My photographs were well received and some even sold! I learned how to cut mattes and frame my own photos. That's harder than it seems and I still end up throwing away mattes that are destroyed by one small slip of the blade. My photographs have been published in a local magazine here: Buenos Aires Insider and I hope to continue to provide them with barrio photographs. I was asked by two different artists to take their portraits. This photography business is budding and I hope to see it flower over the next year.
• Our Magic Bus finally went to a good home. Carolyn wonderfully managed that process for us. Thank you.
• I got to spend time with my parents and brother here in Buenos Aires. What a true blessing. I played golf with my mother and hope to continue to play.
• We had a surprising, to me, amount of visitors. Another blessing. I'm looking forward to that trend continuing. Jon and his girlfriend will be visiting the middle through the end of January. Hopefully, Greg and Paula will visit in March. Who else wants to fill up our calendar? Reserve your spot now. ;-)
• I made new friends and continued friendships with existing one and even through the miracle that is Facebook, rekindled acquaintanceships and friendships that I had let slip through the years of my life.
• We started a garden on our balcony and have herbs, strawberries and ornamental plants growing. We need a bit more dirt and we'll then soon have green leafy veggies.
• I started a new blog on the Trees of Buenos Aires.
• We survived the default and selling of our bank, Washington Mutual. That was a bit frightening. We'll see how 2009 pans out.
• With a great team of cohorts, we made a movie in a day! And it's good! How cool is that?!?
• Finally learned how to french braid correctly!! Thank you intarwebs.
• I got to meet some luminaries in the world within their various niches.

=======================================================================================
I also want to look forward to 2009 and write out some goals.

• Tend to our garden and grow some green leafy veggies.
• Make sure that *at least* one meal a day is full of vegetables, preferably raw ones. Try to have at least one large prepared salad in the fridge at all times, but don't OD on the garbanzo bean, cucumber, bell pepper, ginger, and cumin salad I love so much.
• Exercise more. There's no reason that I can't get in an hour each day since I don't have a 9-5 job.
• Work on maintaining and deepening friendships. Try not to be such an introvert.
• Receive guests and have a welcoming and hospitable home.
• Organize our apartment and keep it clean. Surprisingly, this involves getting rid of crap.
• Continue to build my photography portfolio.
• Have at least three photographic shows. I'm hoping for the Jardin Botanico of Buenos Aires. I need to write my photography curriculum.
• Write blog posts on both blogs more frequently.  Try for once a week.
• Take Spanish classes and bump my speaking and comprehension up at least one notch. People understand me, but I make a lot of mistakes and my accent leaves a lot to be desired.
• Massage the paperwork through for our business, get the website up and running and generally keep on top of things and clients happy.
• Get out of debt. We don't have very much, but I'd rather have none.
• Get paperwork ready for obtaining our DNIs and make the appointment and wait the bureaucrats out.
• Research adoption opportunities. This is going to take a long time, but now that we're more established here, I want to get started.

Camping in KS, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Our Magic Bus had been on the market for six months, and while many people have taken it for a test drive, and one person even bought it for a day in July (but realized that he couldn't deal with the non-power steering) it has finally found a home with a man named Jon from Oregon. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Carolyn for seeing this process through.  Jon seems like a really nice guy and we're "friends" on Facebook now. He promises to put photos up on his profile so that we can keep tabs on it. He's an AP English teacher, a writer, a fly fisherman, a snowboarder, a camper and most importantly a car enthusiast. He has a Triumph Spitfire, which he lovingly maintains with his teenage son, and he had a EuroVan as well. We are extremely happy that our beloved vanagon is going to a good home. He saw the ad on Saturday, found my email address and shot us a mail with tons of questions. Sunday, kragen and I sat down and answered them together and openly gave him the skinny on all the issues we knew about with the bus. Nothing phased him and he bought a one-way ticket to the Bay Area that night so that on Monday he could drop off a check, pick up the bus, and drive back up north to Oregon. It is amazing to finally have this chapter of our life close. With the Magic Bus unsold, it always felt like we had somewhere to come back to that was ours. It somehow feels very final that we are here in Argentina. I wish him Godspeed up north and safe travels! May the road always rise to meet the wheels, and may the wind always be at his back.

UPDATE! Jon made it safely and soundly to Beaverton. W00t!!!

Hana on the couch, originally uploaded by blmurch.

It is with great sadness that I am the bearer of sad news. Our beloved family dog, Hana, was struck and killed by a car this weekend. The car didn't stop. Maybe they didn't know, but I am disappointed and horrified by their actions. We are all distraught by her loss, but she had a wonderful long life and was dearly loved by her family and everyone who came in contact with her. She will be sorely missed. She was a very lucky dog. She lived with our loving family, and friends when we weren't around, bore a litter of cute pups and got to travel the world --- going to Canada, England, Italy and even Romania. I am very sorry that I wasn't around in person to comfort my family, but friends rallied around and gave her a proper burial in the back garden. We are all blessed by having known her and having such good friends in our lives. May those blessings continue into the future.

Plane Trees over Av de Mayo, originally uploaded by blmurch.

I have posted my first post on a new blog - Trees of Buenos Aires. If someone on LJ with a paid account can create a syndicated account from the RSS feed, that would be awesome. I let my LJ subscription expire so I can't do that. I also gathered all my tree photos from here on flickr and created a Trees of Buenos Aires set. I'm sure it will be expanding soon. I've been out taking loads of pictures in the spring time glory.

Bill at the final graffiti, originally uploaded by blmurch.

Early Saturday morning, I hopped on the 86 bus and sleepily rode through the empty streets of Congreso, Monserrat and San Telmo barrios to Parque Lezama. I walked up the amphitheater steps and introduced myself to strangers. Sebastian, Martje were at the meeting point and more team members joined us over the next hour. Finally, at 10:30, the organizers gathered us all together at the top of the steps to announce the four ingredients of our short film: a balloon, freezing, "I'm here", and a spiral. Our team walked over to Bar Britanico and brainstormed over coffee and medialunas. I originally thought of something to do with couchsurfing, since that's where we all knew each other from and an element of that is left, but the story is much cooler than I could have hoped for.

I wore a "producer" hat most of the time, with the occasional donning of photographer (see photos on flickr) and everyone played a role in the development and execution of the short. We worked really well together. There was no conflict and very little stress. The shoot went well as we ran around San Telmo and the Porteños we interacted with were all encouraging our efforts along.

The major problem we ran into was getting the computer to recognize the camera. There was both a USB and a Firewire port, but the USB wasn't seeing the tape. We wasted about 45 precious minutes figuring that all out. Then, the computer program we were using to edit the film together, Adobe Premier, kept on crashing and we kept on losing a bit of work. We learned to save frequently. I tried not to stress too much because hovering wasn't going to help. Luckily, Pablo, Martje's room-mate came to our rescue by helping us download the footage via firewire to his laptop and then we transfered the files to Martje's computer. We were able to import from both the MiniDVs.

Martje and Sebastian cut their shots down and then Martje put together the first assembly at just over four minutes. We got it down to 3:35 and the end and raced over to the UNI Club in a taxi to hand in our DVD. We were the first team to turn in a finished product. And it looks like our short will be one of the featured shorts from the Buenos Aires experience.

The screening and the party afterwards was a lot of fun! It was very interesting to see what people did with the ingredients. I'm very proud of our teamwork. We worked well together and we created a funny and fun final product. I highly recommend participating in Cinemasports to anyone who gets the chance. We all had limited experience, but it really didn't matter. Maxi cut together an "unofficial" version and put that up on youtube as well. It's quite good as well!



Thoughts on the soundtrack - please read after watching the film...
The music was amazingly perfect. We randomly chose a Beethoven recording because it was about four minutes long and licensed under CC-BY-SA by the performer, Bernd Krüger (www.piano-midi.de). The ambient sounds works really well too. The tango music when the woman is unwinding some cord is in just the right pace. There are faint women's giggles when the man picks up the balloon which you can imagine as the woman who led him on this goose chase enjoying seeing him pick up the first clue. When he pauses in front of the first graffiti, there is a loud chord. When he gets directions from the second woman, the music flows at a rapid pace, with high notes. There is another loud chord when he stops right in front of the dog-shit. The light comic touch to the music as he follows the third woman, copying her motions works really well. There is what sounds like a faint alarm going off when he encounters the stencil, which plays off the electronic-nature of the camera. The music changes notes and pace when he encounters the second wrong graffiti and builds up to a slow climax as he struggles to throw away the balloon. There is a loud chord just as it is finally thrown. Then the music changes to a much deeper range and and slower pace when the first man he encounters tells him where the graffiti is. The music picks up the pace as he goes through the obstacle course and dodges the water and builds up to a climax when he encounters the graffiti and draws down as he notices the other balloon. There is a loud chord change when he turns over the other card. The walking music starts again as he gets up and walks away and continues the same as a new woman enters the scene. The music changes a bit but remains fast when she bends down to get the balloon and the high notes reflect her struggle to unhitch the balloon from the bike. The music speeds up when she encounters a man who gives her directions to the yellow building as if again to mimic their speech. Her response is even a higher pitched piece than his. The music plays off itself as they move their arms around trying to understand the directions he gives her. There is a quick chord as he nods his head. The titles are well paced and the tune fades out to return to the sound and sight of the globe being inflated at the beginning.

This was *not* planned at all. We happened to put the music in around the 15 second mark when the man enters the scene and it just followed fantastically from there. My father talks about this serendipity, but I wasn't expecting anything quite as good as this.