Another one of those long breaks. I think blogging is defined somewhere as "regular" but well… For once, there is already so much noise in the world and on the Internet in particular, that I sometimes feel I have not much to add. So philosophic musings hardly seem worth the while shouting out to the world - everyone else is already shouting loud enough, and all has been said anyway.

So it’s pretty much down to letting you know what’s up in my life (is there actually anybody out there reading this at all?) and I only rarely summon the motivation to put together a summary. In any case, since I have recently become a budding flickr pro user, you can always have a look at my flickr page at www.flickr.com/photos/seluron and check out what’s new there – more frequent updates I’d say then here. Just needs dumping the contents of my camera there and have you guessing the story. J

So, where did we leave off… Right, the world last remaining superpower, los Estados Unidos of America.

Well, you’ve seen the pretty pictures of Washington, DC and my early ravings about its quiet and green. Now that I am back in Buenos Aires (more on that later) I appreciate them even more – I am yet again immersed in ear-splitting noise on all sides, and that in my residential neighborhood. No sub-prime mortgage crisis here, our lovely porteño property developers are tearing down antique colonial houses to make space for faceless apartment towers with the same, if not increased, enthusiasm than when I left. There are 5 constructions sites around me all within a block. Quaint. Looks like everyone wants to get rich “before the next crisis” (The “Church of the Next Crisis” has more believers than the Brazilian Evangelicals, and that does say something!) and selling cheaply nailed together apartments is the way to get there. The city gets flooded ever more severely every year during thunderstorms because there simply is no uncemented surface left for the water to go, and the drainage is mostly from the 1920s, and of course all these developers simply plunk their towers on top of it all. Make money now, and after me the flood. Indeed. Give me an “Amen!”

Yet, being back here in Buenos Aires I also appreciate that here I can simple call someone up and go have a coffee with them. That same day!! In “DC” if you DO get a physical hold of somebody, and you manage to separate them for a precious moment from the two cell phone conversations they are having simultaneously, they’ll pull out their blackberry, scroll down their agenda with a frown indicating a very busy schedule, and ask something like “Next week Thursday between 6 and 7 sounds good?” Right. Next week. Let’s talk. I’ll send you a poke on facebook.

Facebook, right. Another plague of modern civilization. For the busy DC professionals on their way up, facebook is actually a valid replacement of human interaction. I’m not sure whose is the “face” in facebook, but it’s certainly not yours or mine, since face-to-face meetings can now be efficiently replaced with facebook-to-facebook meetings. I’m not kidding. Some of my new acquaintances sent me “birthday nudges” on facebook. Instead of coming over 5 blocks to try my cake and say hi in person. It’s a busy world.

Anyway, you will remember that I went to DC to run the brand spanking new Maldives Foundation. I was going to join the fight to save civilization from the effects of global warming (or at least feel good about myself when I’d tell my children on our lifeboat that I really tried to keep sea levels from rising and the people floating next to us kept driving their two SUV’s next to their Prius and that’s why we’re here anyway). I was also going to help the Maldives Government get their democratic reform process appreciated in the US, and perhaps some qualified help from academia with some issues of importance (new legal system etc.).

Well, shortly before my departure two of the four progressive ministers in the Maldives’ government decided to resign; the good news being that the progressive foreign minister (on whom the Foundation depended) stayed. The bad news is that he resigned the day I set foot in US soil. Months of confusion ensued with everything in limbo, and in the end the foundation was bagged unceremoniously by the man’s successor. It was fun while it lasted. And I was pretty burned out when it was over.

So I went on a holiday to Vancouver/Seattle and Toronto to meet people in person whom I had only met online before (facetime, offline, yeah!!) and a few old friends. A nice trip (check out my flickr for too many images of it) and very enjoyable. I also visited my parents in Dresden and my friends in Berlin, wallowing in memories of old times. Made me realize just how long I have been here in Argentina already. 4 years. I turned 30 here and now I’m 34. Scary stuff.

Luckily, before returning to Argentina, I picked up a technical consulting contract with the OAS, more eVoting and electoral technology stuff, so I’ve been keeping in my salsa and paying the bills.

Then I returned to BsAs, only to leave for a week of electoral work to Paraguay (one week, suit-clad in 40+ degrees Celsius, running from one meeting to the other with people in light shirts, arrgh!!) and then straight to Bariloche to the house of Elisa’s mother.

There I fell into a coma. For two months.

I remember lying in the grass. Looking up the trees. Drifting in and out of sleep. Have gentle wind ripple over my skin.

When bursts of energy would hit me, I’d read. Just a little. And fall asleep again from the effort.

Seriously, I’ve never felt as exhausted in my life. I stayed as long as I could, towards the end occasionally working a little, from a garden chair and wireless laptop, the rule being “never more than a fully charged battery of work at any one time” – a brilliant concept if there ever was one!

And now I’m back in my home/construction site. Since the city keeps me awake and stimulated with its noises and smells, I spend quite a bit of time conscious. And since I quit my CTO job with HelpArgentina for coming to the US, I have no “office job” to go to. And Elisa is still in the south, working for some millionaire. I’m alone in the house and doing “too much thinking” which is never good. But you get a blog post. So I guess something positive has come off it.