Where it all began or one of the beginnings of the end(s)

Shar took this shot of me smoking a Dominican cigar outside the oldest church in the ¨New World.¨ About one minute after said picture was taken I attempted to enter the edifice and was addressed by the guard apparently indicating to me that I could not enter while smoking a cigar. I thought about explaining to him that I just wanted to smoke my first cigar in some twenty-odd years, and how was that anything compared to 500 hundred years of pillage and oppression, you know rape, genocide, Wal*Mart, Walt Shubert etc. but decided my Spanish was not that good.

I´ve got to say it can be frustrating to use these machines. The folks at this Internet cafe make a very nice coffee, and will apparently serve you a beer or a shot of the liquor of your choice but they appear to know as much about the computers in here as I know about dark matter. I know--cry me a river!