American in Spain

One year ago today, I got an iPhone 3G. It is, without a doubt, the most advanced gadget I’ve ever seen. Millions of words have been written on the internet about the iPhone, so I won’t say much else. But there is one benefit that I have yet to see mentioned:

The iPhone has helped RSS news feeds invade the last room of the house where newspapers still had a stronghold.

The other day when we were out and about in nearby Laredo, I saw a previously unseen contraption. A milk vending machine, right there out on the street corner. A testimonial of a friend told us that it’s the “good fresh kind” of milk that hasn’t undergone UHT processing. According to that Wikipedia page, 95.7% of the milk consumed in Spain is UHT. Despite UHT giving milk a nine-month shelf-life, the wary doubtful Americans are afraid to buy it since it’s not delivered under refrigeration (which is the whole point of the process, anyway!). It’s a little like not buying an automobile because it doesn’t have horses pulling it.
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Well, Nora, it’s just you and me from now on in the mornings, kiddo. Your mother’s maternity leave has ended and she’s back to work today. She’s starting on a Tuesday because she worked a full day on Monday, March 23, before going into labor that night. In Spain, at the moment, women get 16 weeks of government-paid leave after reproducing. Needless to say, it has absolutely flown by.
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In looking around for a subject for another close-up photography session, my eyes settled upon a bag of everyone’s favorite colorful chewy “fruit” candy. I’m so happy with the results that one of the shots has been placed in the folder for rotation into my desktop wallpaper. So colorful!
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Recently, I’ve seen three instinctual reflexes in my daughter develop into hundred-times-a-day behaviors. They are:

1. Closing the fist tightly around any object placed in the hand.
2. Pulling the hand to the mouth, most of the time empty, but sometimes with contents.
3. Investigating objects with a highly sensitive touch organ: the tongue.

Sometimes, through an unfortunate series of events, these reflexes combine powers and render her incapacitated. A complete stalemate.
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Lying in bed last night, I was attacked by an earworm. From out of no where, my brain started singing Mambo #5.

A little bit of Monica in my life … a little bit of Erica by my side …

I’m pretty ambivalent about that song. The catchy rhythm and goofiness of the lyrics balance each other out. But it did get me thinking back to exactly ten years ago, when that song got etched into my brain.

It was summer in Scandinavia as the second millennium was coming to a close… (more…)

Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as Little Red Riding Hood, does it? Nora’s only aunt, Belén, bought her this chandal at least a month before Nora was born. I know, because I remember a couple weeks before Nora was born, we bought her some red and white sneakers to go with it. The Spanish word chandal describes any sort of warm sports clothing. It’s like “sweat suit” or “track suit” in English. Anyway, we love it so much that, since her birth, we have tried to put it on her three or four times, but it was always too big. Though still a little roomy, she can now finally wear it.

Some people have clothes that make them look good, but I think with Nora it’s the opposite; she makes the clothes look good. This particular outfit is especially adorable. Gracias, Tía Belén! (more…)

I recently watched episode #19 of Seinfeld where he starts the show with a stand-up routine about buttons, as he pretends to find a bag of extra buttons in his coat.

Welcome everyone to the room…Ah, the extra buttons….yeah … what kind of a sicko would save these …have them in a huge file, drawers that wide (small fingers opening imaginary drawers) Where the hell is that … I mean is it THAT hard to get round black buttons that they have to make it into such a great thing like this? … is it such a great jacket … the buttons are so unique, so one of a kind, you’ll never find them – so we’ll save you the trouble of knocking your brains off – and we know they’re going to fall off too that’s the other thing …

One thing I’ve noticed with all the new baby clothes around here lately is the growing mass of little miniature zip-lock bags of buttons. They seemed like a reasonable subject for another foray into the world of close-up photography.
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I recently took the next step in my growth as a photographer: buying a 50 mm lens. From what I’ve learned on photography forums and blogs on the internet, a 50 mm prime lens should be in every professional photographer’s camera bag. Unlike a zoom lens, a prime lens has only one focal length, and thus its optics can be optimized for that specific length. As a beginner, a prime lens is good practice because it forces you, the photographer, to move a lot more to frame a shot, since you can’t just be lazy and zoom in or out.

The other thing that my 50 mm prime lens allows me to do is to add close-up lenses to take photographs of very small things. Below are my first attempts, within minutes of unboxing my close-up lenses.
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The last couple days I’ve been attempting, with varying levels of success, to capture a smile or some laughter on video. Below is the fruit of my labor. Apparently I know only one song. Also, it’s really hard to concentrate on making eye contact with her, sing a song, and hold a camera steady.

Enjoy. (more…)