Dispatches from The Mayan Empire

“When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.” - Nelson Mandela + + + Woke up feeling good despite some setbacks. All in all it wasn't a bad day yesterday except for Tessa running off in the middle of the night and no coming home after an hour or to as usual. So far she has been missing almost 20 hours, so I have been unable to administer her medication... then my right front tire went out on me (It developed a bubble the size of a tennis ball) and I had to use the last of my cat-related savings to keep Greta from becoming an expensive lawn ornament. Thats life, you win some, you get kicked in the balls with a steel toed boot. Many hours later, nearly 24, Tessa has returned. She is clearly fond of our giant yard and the local businesses nearby, Thankfully the neighborhood is fulled with generally nice folks, and her collar clearly states where she lives, That said, seeing a couple of apparent cart...

“Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shore, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society. From the sixteenth century forward, blood flowed in battles over racial supremacy. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade. Indeed, even today we have not permitted ourselves to reject or feel remorse for this shameful episode. Our literature, our films, our drama, our folklore all exalt it. Our children are still taught to respect the violence which reduced a red-skinned people of an earlier culture into a few fragmented groups herded into impoverished reservations.” ― Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  + + + [This post is reprinted and somewhat altered from its original version on my private ...

"I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots." - Hunter S. Thompson + + +                                                                            A 3:30am drive in a futile attempt to find tacos instead found a gorgeous girl that I made a passing acquaintance with shortly after I moved here. She was walking down the street with the same half sexy-half in the bag swagger that makes her strangely eas...

Respect is one of life's greatest treasures I mean, what does it all add up to if you don't have that? - Marilyn Monroe + + + I cannot offer you self respect, but I can offer weird shit from Mexico. A few subscribers and a few friends who are also subscribers, or have assisted in this endevour in other ways, I feel are far too underappreciated. Seeing as Tess and I are living meager paycheck to meager paycheck down here while exploring, photographing, and writing about this marvelous country it dawned on me that those who have held out their hands, and wallets, to our Patreon and PayPal.Me accounts are not as appreciated as I would like them to be. So, with what little extra cash Tess and I have managed to scrape together over the last few weeks we have assembled the 'Mexican Box of Mystery'! [[Behold its mysterious mystery!]] What could be inside? Well, that is part of the mystery. There are many things for may different people. Some friends I...

"You bravos had better be ready to fight, or we'll never get out of East Texas tonight, but the trail is long and the river is wide, and my ride's here" - Warren Zevon, My Ride's Here + + + My day tends to start around 10:30am or so most of the time. No more early mornings on the corners barking or occasionally DJ'ing for Vampiz has allowed me to set my own schedule for work (writing, which tends to be in fits and starts throughout the day unless I'm on a roll). Which is nice, since I am not a morning person. I tend to shamble out of bed like something from the 'Legend of Boggy Creek' films, swallow my morning fistful of pills (allergy meds, the price I pay for my lovely cat, vitamins, and acetaminophen with codeine to allow me to move without wincing in pain constantly). After that its typically a lovely hot shower thanks to my miracle shower head with a built in heating unit. I admit its not the safest of showers, but it is hot, with...

"Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape."  - William S. Burroughs + + + Some of my faithful readers, more so those I count among my friends in the real world (meat-space, as some say) have had one question above all others for me in the last few months; " Why the fuck are you moving to Mexico? " [[To the right is the United States, to the left is Mexico, don't go swimming here on a hot afternoon.]] So this post shall at long last attempt to answer that question. To a lesser extent other questions that went along with it, some of which were somewhat insulting to my intelligence, but I don't hold grudges. OK, that last statement is a total lie as anyone who knows me can attest. I've always blamed being half-Native for that (the other half being Hispanic, a people stereo-typically not known for controlling their anger in the moment)...