Chris Mewhort Blog of urban artist Chris Mewhort, Vancouver Flash / Front end developer, living in Argentina

Let’s set the scene for a minute… Argentine’s take their football (futbol, soccer) seriously. Incredibly seriously.

I woke up March 21, 2010 excited to go to the BOCA JR’s v. RIVER PLATE football match and had had trouble sleeping the night before. It has been hailed as one of the biggest football match-ups in the World and Argentina as a whole has a far reaching reputation as having wild fans — I can attest to that having been there.

The day was gloomy and overcast skies loomed overhead daring the wrong person to take the slightest step from under their awning shelter. As luck wouldn’t have it, apparently that wrong person happened to stand in line with us for this particular football match. Release the hounds! We got pissed on (figuratively, but keep reading). We waited outside the stadium for two hours, inching forward in what seemed to be a never ending line. I worried whether the progress we were making was more because people were getting sick of being rained on and resorting to cuddling under others’ umbrellas, or actual movement; in the end I realized it was more the umbrella’s because as we got closer, the line free’d up — we were jogging by policemen and security to free ourselves from this god-forsaken torrential downpour. They didn’t seem to care, to be honest.

As we neared the entrance the line slowed, we got out our tickets — now nothing but blank cardboard cards due to the ink washing off in the rain — and handed them to the doormen. We were pat down to make sure we weren’t carrying anything lethal, such as a knife, gun, lighter, or belt (I told you they got crazy!)

Inside, the group of foreigners who had purchased their extremely over-priced tickets rung out their socks, shirts, and shoes (I shit you not) and made our way up to our seats. I use the term ‘seats’ quite loosely as we were in the Home team section which is standing only. Our guide took off, leaving us to fend for ourselves in what is known to be one of the rowdiest sections of any football team in existence; no problema.

We slinked our way down through the crowd of fans each of whom gave us increasingly dirty sneers. Leaning on shoulders, stepping on hands, feet, purses, and children, we found ourselves in what I guess would be considered a comfortable area. There was zero room between us and the people beside us. I felt a little bad for impeding their experience by crushing them into each other on either side, but realized soon after we were still only a third as cramped as we would be. An intimate section, one might say.

So here I am, in the stadium, at the World renowned Boca Junior v. River plate game. They let the fans in two hours before the match, not only so that atmosphere can build but also so they can allow the home team fans & away team fans enough time between them to enter the Stadium without encountering each other. A far cry from my Vancouver Canucks teams where most people sit down half way into the first period; I used to think we Canadians were proud fans of our sport; Argentines put us to shame on oh so many levels. The hardcore home team fans are situated at either end of the stadium, the away team are stood directly above us on one end of the pitch, upper deck.

Hours of chanting ensued, our end screaming to the opposing end — and them screaming back at us — riling restless spirits of football fans here to watch their respective teams play their hearts out. Football in Argentina is larger than a sport, truly & literally larger than any one fan’s life. The chanting quickly turned into a shouting match between the home fans situated below our section, and the away fans sat (and I use this term loosely) above us. Some fans took quite seriously to this shouting match, and ended up missing the game because they were so intent on the impossible task of shutting their opposition.

Soon, lighters began flying to and fro. I didn’t see any casualties but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few. Lighters snowballed into any small rocks, half full bottles of water, and then into what I found a weird choice of weapon (but effective nonetheless): the away fans were dropping shopping bags tied full of water onto the heads of the home fans. They would land upon a mesh overhanging, or if lobbed far enough beyond and on peoples heads. They landed with deep thuds that you could feel when you saw impact. These were unlike any water balloon I’d seen, using weight as a weapon, on top of the liquid — wait a second… They’re not full of water, but a yellowy, orange liquid.. what is th… uh oh… Over the course of 2 hours, 20 or 30 bags: thud, thud, thud…. splash, splash, splash. I’ll spare you the details, suffice to say the whole section smelled like urine when the winds changed. I assumed this would be the extent of warfare extremities, but as always in life, years of having nothing obvious at your fingertips provides plenty of time for creativity. Cracks in the concrete allowed for us to be pee’d on, rolls of adding machine paper were used not only as thrown streamers but as weapons as well. Large (and I mean m-80, take yer-fucken-fingers-off large) firecrackers were thrown between the two sections and my favourite, shooting flare guns at each other… Damn, these dudes are RUTHLESS. Note to self: any time you’re shooting flare guns into the stands at grandma’s, children, women, and fellow lovers of sport, you are officially too competitive.

Eventually, the players took to the pitch. I’m going to save you the reading (this post has turned into a monster not only to read, but to write, and to manage/edit), and just show you the video. The sound cuts in and out as I nearly drop my camera, or have it bumped out of my hand. Everyone was hopping up and down and the sound was DEAFENING… The first people to run out are River Plate, the away team. You’ll know when Boca hits the pitch:

The sad part about the whole experience wasn’t the peeing on each other, the long hours of waiting in the rain, losing my second iPhone to water-damage, losing my ticket, or the fact that the game ended only ten minutes into play (rightfully so, the game was dangerous with the ball hitting puddles and people tripping over not only the ball but each other) — but that I never got to experience the cheer of a Boca Junior goal. The day ended in drunken haziness which I’ll spare you (I have parents that read this, you know!)… It’s a small slice of my Buenos Aires experience, but hopefully you survived reading this far and enjoyed what you read. Speak soon!

When I made the switch from code monkey to well… freelance code monkey there were a lot of considered benefits but most importantly was being able to work on projects I want to work on instead of being handed projects/designs I had to work on.

In a similar vein, today I asked myself the question (and for the record this is a question I ask myself outside of work too but in this case I was speaking on professional terms):

“If you could work on anything in the World, what would you work on?”

I came up with the answers WordPress theme development and ActionScript development. Of all careers options I want to be doing web development and of all web development options I want to be doing WordPress theming & ActionScript. Defined. Simple.

The interesting thing is that this isn’t anything new. I’ve always known that I like these types of projects more I’ve just never put it into a question where I answer for myself “what’s the best case scenario here?” and been able to define it to myself. In other words while I’ve always known, I’ve never actually cognitively thought about it. This change of approach to looking at projects has had many offshoot advancements in terms of my freelance direction. What does it all mean — big picture?

Well, aside from now knowing where I want to pick my projects I’ve also been able to define niche advertising markets for myself, further branding, a new email signature, a new approach when quoting projects, and I’m sure a ton more once I delve deeper into what it is I want to be doing while focusing more and more on those two areas!

What a rush! Ask yourself, “What would I be doing if I could be doing anything?” and if the answer is different than what you’re doing now (it almost invariably will be) then make the change. Life is short, spend it being happy.

To me, life’s always been simple: Black & White. Get busy livin’, or get busy dyin’. Unsurprisingly, I see no difference on the Internet.

There are people making it better and people making it worse.

To me, BA Expats (marketed: Buenos Aires Expats – Online Community of Expatriates and guide to living in Buenos Aires, Argentina) is one of those who moves the Internet backwards.

By disallowing members of their forum community to post certain keywords (like their investors competitor names) they withhold information from the community. How can you be a “Buenos Aires Expats guide to living in Buenos Aires” when you don’t even allow the people who live here to share their experiences with each other openly? Stop lying.

I asked about it on the forums and how did they react? Well naturally, they canceled my account. Lame.

I’m all for capitalism, but moreso than anything, when you run a website with an online community you must be open to the communities discussion, allowing free-flow of information. These are the members that make up your community. If you want to tout your business and not allow others to do so then that’s one thing, but if you’re not allowing the actual community to share with others their experiences… Then to me you’re not helping, you’re hindering.

And so it begins…

Now that I’m situated in my (at least semi-permanent) house in Buenos Aires, the time is officially upon us — I’ve made the switch to finding freelance work. I started by emailing some of my previous employers as well as submitting offers on choice Craigslist ads that suit my development style or strengths.

So far so good! I’ve lined up a couple smaller projects which will pay rent for the next month; sweet! Coupled with my savings, I’m excited at how positive the response has been this early into the full-time freelance gig.

Continuing forward once these projects are completed I will email the second half of my previous employers/clients list to see if they have any odds or ends they’d like fixed, also mentioning that I’m accepting new projects; tweeting all the while.

Be a pal and pass on the word that you know of a spectacular, well experienced front-end developer with plenty of WordPress knowledge, an attention to detail, and a good work ethic, won’t you?

I’ve had just short of two weeks to make an impression on Buenos Aires. Some would say it’s had just short of two weeks to make an impression on me.

Either way, time has been ticking and I figured it’s high time I let you in on a few of the things I’ve taken note of when it comes to BsAs. Firstly, they were not kidding… Argentina is incredible in a lot of ways. Beef, Wine, Women, Pizza, and Ice Cream are but a few of the highlights… I’m still waiting to get to a Tango show but I’d be willing to bet that will be amazing as well.

Culture shock was predictably less intense in Argentina in comparison to Indonesia; the country is quite a bit wealthier over-all. For reference I’d say that an Argentine ghetto is similar economically to the whole of Indonesia, though plagued with much worse drug use from what I’ve heard and seen (my first-hand experience is extremely limited due to the safety hazards of Buenos Aires ghettos — I’m playing the safe & secure card)

I’ve relocated from a lovely little hostel to a small barrio (neighbourhood) called Palermo Soho (For you Google Maps users/abusers: http://tinyurl.com/hort-in-ba) which is definitely upscale in comparison to most of the City, surrounded by lots of fashion shops, bars, etc. I chose it because most of the friends I’ve made live here, as well as there being a good nightlife scene and it being a “younger” part of town in terms of habitants. Truly a nice area and somewhere most anyone would be happy to stay, I’d wager.

I moved in on March 1st so as of this posting I’ve been here three days, and so far so good. The landlord and his girlfriend are nice people who have allowed us to stay out of the way for the most part. Who’s us? Before moving down here I was perusing Expat forums and made a few friends ahead of time to make sure that I could hit the ground bars running, and so one of those friends and I live together here in perpendicular doorways to each other. Estibaliz and I have become good friends, and seeing she’s from Mexico, I’ve had a leg up on the competition when it comes to getting around the city, what with her being fluent in Spanish and all. We have the entire bottom floor to ourselves, a connecting staircase to the second floor where a kitchen is shared, and from there one more balcony connects us to a huge patio — life is good.

More to come; specifically on Wine, Beef, and Pizza.

Imagine for a second that you’re most coveted possession (aside from wife & kids), your be-all-end-all, your everything, your entire set of records, invoices, expenses, work, source files, works-in-progress, all just went down the shitter. *flushhh*

Thankfully, the above is a false statement. That’s what could happen to me — and you — since the chances are pretty good that you don’t consistently back-up.

When I worked at a computer repair company the story was always the same, “I’ve lost my work, and no I did not have backup. I will pay and and everything to have my data back.” More often than not, I would have to send them to a data recovery house, and I wouldn’t hear back from them — I can only assume they got their data back and carried on with life without making backups.

It was such a consistently recurring event that I became completely desensitized to it. What shocked me was the fact that a business would exist without making regular backups.

To me, it’s simple, “If you are running a business and not making backups, you are flat-out stupid.”

Tonight, I doubled my Hard Drive space strictly to keep a mirror of my working files. This is important for any business, freelancer, or professional worker and I’ll be damned I’ve I turn into one of those sad souls crying to the computer guy who couldn’t give a shit less, ’cause I’m that stupid business owner.

Viva la backups!

The switch to full-time freelance brings a lot of changes to an otherwise employees fairly predictable schedule.

Working a traditional ‘job’

You work to pay bills, buy food, and entertain yourself. You put in 8 hours (or in our industry many more), you go home, you eat, work, sleep, roll-over, hit snooze, eat, work, sleep, roll ov…, ad nauseam. Enter freelance…

Working as a freelancer, self-employed

You are in charge of all advertising, bills, taxes, receipts, invoices, payments, work, and deadlines. Sounds like a lot? It is, but luckily tools have been made available to us to make these tasks easier.

Companies like 37signals create tools for project management, and companies like FreshBooks create software for receipts, invoicing, tracking payments. (there are others but these are the ones I endorse on my own faith, without incentives)

As far as I know, most freelancers work within the arts sector. I am a web designer, but work alongside (and with) many freelancers who specialize in copywriting, web design, flash development, business development and marketing.

I rely on these people, colleagues, dare I say… friends, to get me where I and my clients need to go. I spend enough time editing my blog posts and don’t need to spend more time editing client copy — I have friends who can do it better so I utilize them and focus on what I’m good at: Flash, and Web Design/Development.

Outsourcing is the age old, extremely effective way of lightening work load, and in the realm of Freelance work where most of your work is generated through word-of-mouth, it’s only smart business to pass work that can be passed.

What do you do daily that isn’t your favourite thing to do? Are there any options to have someone else do that for you? It may cost you a bit of money, but what is your time worth? Could you be using that time to do something more productive, profitable, or enjoyable? What are those worth?

This change of thinking proves monumental in the switch from employee to freelancer — think differently, you’re now a business.

As with any writing profession, often the largest roadblock blogger’s face is lack of inspiration. Content is king in the blog world — any blogger knows that — So when faced with the task of creating great content from an uninspired brain… well, the phrase “you can’t squeeze blood from a stone” comes to mind.

My solution? Stop thinking. There’s no need to explain yourself, there’s no need to gather your thoughts, there’s no need to do anything but begin towards the end goal…

Start writing.

The benefits of bypassing all the pre-emptive organization of thoughts? Ten fold:

• You actually have something to show
• You force your mind to think creatively
• You force your mind to create internal discussion
• You research ideas which spark other thoughts
• Your research finds other blog posts on similar subjects, meaning networking opporunities

We know the benefits of having something to show, and the benefits of creative thinking sparks internal discussion, thinking of new ideas, new topics, and often leads you on a Google quest for further information which also drums up new ideas.

From this post I’ve drafted ideas on the Top 5 slept on free Freelance Tools, and Dealing with Limited Connectivity. Found this blog because you’re stuck? Writers block? Go blog something; you already have all the tools and brainpower you need to put that next blog post out — just do it.

Yesterday I arrived at my temporary residence (my parents) before taking off to Buenos Aires on February 16. My life goal of being self-employed is becoming a reality before my eyes; the clock seems to somehow be ticking that little bit faster than usual… tick.. tick..

There are a lot of aspects to think about when setting yourself up as a freelancer working from abroad, but nothing seems more coveted than money, except free money! Coincidentally, I entered a contest (albeit easy!) with my friends at PokerListings last week — lo-and-behold — I won! Sweet!

This is the first time I’ve won any contest which makes me certain that indeed the stars are aligning and now is a positive time for me to be making this transition in my life.

As of February 17th, I have no tongue. Not so much physically as metaphorically: I’ve decided to move to Argentina.

The idea is to move for three months and use the opportunity to finally put myself out into the world of freelance again, it’s been 5 years since I was freelancing full-time and the World/Internet’s come a long way since. I welcome that.

My Spanish needs a little touching up is non-existent so at the very least it will be an adventure. I’m looking forward happily at the idea of being able to take some of my time back, work on more artistic projects, and hopefully get one or two of my own off the ground as well (a boy can dream).