I’m not sure why, but the internet in all of Buenos Aires seems to be on its knees. It’s definitely worse in my apartment, but it’s sporadic all over the city right now too. The first two months I was here it was slow, but reliable for the most part. It would take me 10 hours to download something that would take me 1 or 2 back home, but you could always get online when you needed to. It’s been getting worse over the last two weeks, and these last few days have been pretty brutal. The internet in my apartment went down this afternoon for a while, so I went across the street to a coffee shop. ...

Well, it’s officially midnight in Buenos Aires, which means I can start wishing happy birthdays. Today of course is Dale’s 31st birthday. Dale is not only a trusted friend, but the second (and arguably less good-looking) half of BraveNewCode, the company that Dale and I both own. The last few years have had ups and downs, seeing me move from Vancouver, to Chilliwack, and now to Argentina. Amongst all the turmoil, there have been only a few constants, and Dale has been one of them. For the most part, I have talked to Dale nearly every day for the last few years, sometimes about politics, about ...

I’ve always been fascinated with baseball. Back when I was a kid, my dad and step-mom took me to a few Mariners games in Seattle. While prices have changed, back then you could get VIP tickets for around $30. While it’s not as popular in Canada, I do appreciate the game, the stadiums, the hot dogs, the peanuts and the entire atmosphere that goes around with watching a live baseball game. James Earl Jones’ speech in Field Of Dreams regarding baseball is a great one. Throughout all the turmoil in the states, the Great Depression, the multiple recessions, the shanty towns, there was one constant ...

It shouldn’t be a huge surprise based on the previous few entries, but I’m starting to get a tad restless in Buenos Aires. Unlike Canada where the WiFi is generally reliable, the WiFi here is pretty spotty, which makes it hard to get out of the house to work. The last week and a half it’s been absolutely terrible, with constant drop outs and complete blackouts for an hour or more from time to time. Back home, I would often go to Starbucks to break the day up a bit, but the WiFi at the nearest Starbucks has been down about 50% of the time I’ve been there, and none of my e-mail works for some strange ...

I went for a walk at lunch to clear my mind, and ended up strolling through a little park in Palermo. There was an empty bench that was cast in a bit of shade from a large tree, so I sat down with the intention of relaxing for a few minutes while listening to music. About 45 degrees to my right was another guy on a bench casually reading a book, and 45 degrees to my left was another guy who was taking a little nap on his bench. Just a couple of dudes enjoying a nice sunshiny day in the park. A few minutes later, this old women approaches the guy reading a book and starts muttering to him in Spanish. ...

Last weekend I flew up to Puerto Iguazu and checked out Iguazu Falls. It was a great trip, and it was nice to get out of town for a few days. Puerto Iguazu reminded me a lot of Tofino actually, without the surfing. It was a quant little village with only a few main streets. The people were friendly, the food was good, and there were less bars on the windows and graffiti than here in Palermo Soho in Buenos Aires. The WiFi in my apartment (which is shared between about six suites) has been really dodgy lately, so I’ve moved over to a little coffee/pizza shop across the street. The photo pictured ...

Observe this photo from the KatKam: If you look closely, you can see some kind of flying object in the sky. I can only assume it’s an airplane, but it looks like it’s flying from the top of the photo down to the bottom. As a kid, I used to think every time I saw an object like that that it was the Space Shuttle. As an adult, I now know that the Space Shuttle doesn’t fly every day like I thought it did as a kid. But I guess that has to be a normal commercial plane and the fact it looks like it’s flying strangely is just due to the curvature of the earth. But then I have to ask, why doesn’t the ...

One of the strange side effects of being tossed through a plate glass window was that I pretty much had a complete medical evaluation of my entire body done over the course of a year. The stack of papers I collected from the hospital due to the initial injury and subsequent surgeries was about 100 pages worth of material. I also have two or three CDs with the raw digital data from both CT scans and my MRI. It’s an amazing amount of material, and an incredible amount of insight into my own body. Reading through my admission report from the night of November 4th, 2006, I remember reading that the ...

Last weekend I flew up to Puerto Iguazu to check out some of the most impressive waterfalls in the world, Iguazu Falls. Here is a breakdown of my visit to Iguazu Falls in South America. Flight From Buenos Aires To Puerto Iguazu I booked a flight on LAN airlines from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu. Round trip airfare on the weekend is roughly $380 CAD, but thanks to some points on my credit card I managed to get about $300 off, ultimately costing me only $80 or so. Unlike most international flights, domestic flights within Argentina usually leave from the Aeroparque Jorge Newbury, which is a small ...

When the protests started in Egypt, they were over something relatively benign: the increased costs of basic food items. That led to full on revolts, and the eventual toppling of the government in Egypt. We now see what’s happening in Libya, and it’s possible that these are just the first few pebbles in what will undoubtedly be a much larger avalanche. People who are hungry are motivated for change. Make no mistake, the increased costs of commodities and food is in large part the result of the United State’s loose monetary policy, especially concerning QE1 and QE2. You simply can’t double your ...

I started an Iguazu Falls posting last night, but it’s undoubtedly going to be a large post and will take me a while longer to put together. Look for it tomorrow or Wednesday night sometime. According to my little iPhone widget, I only have 37 days left in Buenos Aires. Obviously that’s not much time, and it means that I’ve already been here almost 50 days or so. I’m heading to Ushuaia for St. Patrick’s Day, which means I only have four other weekends to do some more exploring within Buenos Aires. My current landlord has $1,100 USD of damage deposit, and I’ll be looking forward to getting that ...

I’m currently at around 35,000 feet, somewhere between Buenos Aires and Puerto Iguazu. No, I’m not blogging from the plane, but rather I’ve set this post to publish while I’m up in the air. I wasn’t going to do another post before leaving for Iguazu Falls, but then I remembered my weekly Friday updates and wanted to get another in. So I thought that for this week’s Friday update it would be fun to create a few lists about what I enjoy here so far, and what I miss the most. Things I Love About Buenos Aires The People – Everyone I have met here has been super nice, especially when they find out ...

Sexy, that’s what I’ll say. When I first looked into purchasing a few silver coins, I did it under the assumption that the coins would mostly be worth value due to their intrinsic silver content (called the ‘melt value’). While some collectors coins fetch a hefty premium on top of their melt value, most bullion and high purity coins are mainly traded for their metal content. That said, I read a post recommending the purchase of the Canadian Mint’s “Silver Wolf” coin a while ago as opposed to the Silver Maples since the author claimed they would fetch more value in the after market. Sure enough, ...

Last night a few of us went down to check out a little party on a boat docked in Puerto Madero. Puerto Madero is the area on the east of Buenos Aires that is one of the newest, trendiest (also, more expensive) areas within Buenos Aires, and is home to a lot of skyscrapers, one of which houses Microsoft’s offices here. It was the first time I hazarded to take my DSLR out in public, and I’m really glad I did. Truthfully, it’s been great getting back into photography, since I essentially took a few years off when I was in Chilliwack. Here are a few shots. Puerto Madero Skyline Puerto Madero Skyscrapers Cíntia, ...

I’ve been blogging a fair deal about my upcoming trip to New York City, and how one of the highlights for me is undoubtedly going to be visiting B&H Photo in New York City. B&H is an extremely well known photography store, and it’s been on my list of places to visit for many years now. B&H Photo-Video, Photo Supplied by B&H Thanks to the power of the Internet, Hershel Waldner, Supervisor of the Online Marketing Department for B&H Photo, contacted me and asked if I’d like a private tour of the facilities while I’m there. Obviously, I said yes! So, I’ll be visiting B&H Photo ...

I originally wasn’t going to bring my SLR along at all on my trip, mainly because it would take up a pile of room. As the departure day loomed in front of me though, I just couldn’t bring myself to travel the world with only my point and shoot. As a compromise I decided to bring along the Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 lens, which I bought right before coming. On a 1.6x crop factor it acts more like a 44mm lens, which is close to a standard lens but slightly wider. I was hoping that would be a useful field of view for most situations. I find it a little long for walking around the city, but it’s decent enough ...

Photo by Gerdschenkel on Wikipedia This is my last blog entry until next week most likely. Friday afternoon I’m packing up some of my stuff and getting on a plane to Puerto Iguazu, a small city right on the edge of some of the nicest waterfalls in the world, Iguazu Falls. This will be my first real trip from Buenos Aires, and the first time getting on a plane again since I arrived. To say that I’m looking forward to this trip would be an understatement. Ever since I saw my first photo of the falls a few months ago, I’ve been anxiously awaiting my chance to see them. So this weekend I’ll finally ...

Traveling the world for leisure is obviously a great adventure. While I get to enjoy the weekends and the evenings, I’m also working as I travel, so most of my days are spent building plugins for WordPress and helping keep things afloat. But I do get to venture out from time to time free of computers and cell phones and enjoy some of what the world has to offer, for example, this weekend’s trip to the famous Iguazu Falls. But other types of travel are for more nobler causes. As an example, a good friend of mine from the Vancouver area, Rebecca Bollwitt, recently got asked to participate in a ...

Right before I left on my big adventure, almost everyone in my family was talking about going on a New Year’s diet. Years ago I was having trouble dropping a bit of weight, so I tried the Atkin’s diet when it was all the rage, and lost so much weight that it wasn’t even funny. Since that time I’ve studied up on why low carb diets work and have to come the one conclusion that refined carbohydrates are pretty evil. So while I’m not as lean and fit as I once was, I try to stay away from anything that causes big spikes in blood sugar and insulin, such as sugars, starches, flours, etc. My mom started ...

Take a look at the photo on the right. If you notice, there are four boxes for Canon Digital Elphs, two boxes for Digital SLRs, and one box for a HD camcorder. That photo was taken almost three years ago now, and since then I believe I’ve had at least one more Canon point and shoot camera. The thing is though, I’m all Canon’ed out. At least in the Point and Shoot realm, I have found myself continually disappointed with the performance of the cameras. Every Digital Elph I’ve owned has suffered from the exact same pixel bleeding issue when exposed to bright lights, such as those in a club. I recently ...