I love this bad boy. It’s got a flavor and texture unlike any chocolate bar made for the US market. It was made for Mexican tastes… and mine as well, apparently. I love how it crumbles in my mouth as I eat it. I find it a perfect complement to a lunch of al pastor tacos and try to eat it when I still have the taste of the pork, cilantro, and onions lingering in my mouth.

It’s not for everyone. Some find its sweetness presumptuous and its texture off-putting. Not me. I love it.

Carlos V is also smaller than US candy bars. This is a good thing. It’s bigger than a fun size, so it doesn’t leave me wanting more, but it’s smaller than a full size, so I don’t feel like I got mugged by the Sugar Bandit when I’m done with it. It’s just right. Also, it has a great finish: a good, sensible sweet chocolate flavor that lasts. Too often, I can eat a candy and it leaves me with a bad aftertaste. I can always count on Carlos V to rule my tongue fairly and wisely.

When you have Internet access during presentations you’re not totally engaged with, the time just flies.

Thank you, Mr. Gore. Because of you, I did not have to chew one of my legs off today.

One of the many reasons I’d love to go back to Mexico.

Also Mexican sodas. No high fructose corn syrup in those bad boys! Just straight up sugar, the way they were intended to be made.

But back to the orange juice. The oranges that went into that juice were chillin’ with their homies on the tree just the day before. They never knew so much as a refrigerator, let alone a freezer. Picked, halved, and juiced all within 24-48 hours. That’s why the juice there tastes so much like orange juice, but more so. There’s orangeyness in that orange juice one does not know about when dealing with oranges less fresh.

I know I’d do more than just have a glass of OJ if I went back to Mexico, but that glass of OJ is at the top of my list.

I know something titled “The Gate of Hell” seems to be an odd sort of reason to live, but I’m sticking with this one. No, it doesn’t turn your gray skies to blue. It just puts your life in perspective. This is where “The Thinker” was intended to go, by the way. The iconic Rodin sculpture is not just some guy thinking about what to have for lunch or anything mundane like that. He’s sorting out where he is in the scheme of things.

As long as you’re alive, this says to me, you can still sort things out. No spiritual problem is insurmountable. They seem huge, but are not insurmountable.

Ah! Saint Celia! When she starts to sing, the heavens open up.

Don’t believe me? Well, go get some of her music and see what happens. I don’t care what mood you’re in, Celia Cruz can get you to get up and start shaking your body to the music. Her career spanned decades and all through her amazing time on stage, she got people to move in their hearts and minds. Whether calypso, cumbia, or salsa, Celia mastered the rhythm and the melody and made her voice do amazing things.

Above all is the happiness in her singing. There’s an upbeat, lively, bring it on quality in her voice that, no matter what, speaks to the joy to be had in every moment, even the painful ones – for they are still moments we live. And, no matter the pain, a touch of Celia can make the clouds pass and the tropical fruit stands appear.

So, go and find Celia and know what she meant when she said, “¡Azúcar!”

Seems ironic to consider the song “O Death” as a reason to live, but it’s the honest truth. The great Ralph Stanley has a voice and a presence that has earned him the title “The Godfather of Bluegrass.” I first heard this song in the film O Brother! Where Art Thou? and had to know more about it.

Once I found it, I discovered Dr. Stanley had sung just about every song from the soundtrack of that film and relished each of his recordings. But, always, I came back to the chilling a capella of “O Death.” The YouTube version I’ve linked has excellent sound quality, and with a voice like Stanley’s, nothing less than excellent will do.

Should Death spare me over for another year, I shall listen to this song at least once more. This song is one for the ages: it truly transcends time, age, and genre.

I’m not posting this to try to convert anyone as much as I am to put forward something that always makes me proud to be who I am and prouder still of who went before me. My ancestors sang these words as they crossed the plains, even after burying those family members who died before their journey was through. I chose this hymn for my son Jarom’s funeral and I will want it sung at mine. It is a song that epitomizes what it means to do what we all must do – endure to the end with patience, hope, and joy. Even in our sorrows, all is well. All is well.

I love steampunk. Science fiction without flash and flare, but grunge and grease. Films that sweat through some incredible stories and leave you fantasizing about living in that world. One of those films is the excellent, if extremely offbeat, Russian sci-fi classics, Кин-Дза-Дза (Kin Dza Dza). The film starts here… You’ll have to see it in segments, and I strongly recommend downloading them with Tubesucker, which I use to save up YouTube clips, especially ones I really enjoy. You never know when a video’s gonna get yanked or an account suspended, so save what you can when you can.

If you liked the Jawas in Star Wars and wished the rest of the movie was more like that, this is the film for you. What I find fascinating is that hardly any of the sets were fabricated for the film. Rather, they were found among the ruins of abandoned installations in Soviet Central Asia. The characters from Earth are totally earthly in their aspects. The aliens are truly inhuman in their culture, without any Star Wars or Trek makeup to tell you they’re alien. They accomplish their otherworldliness through a dash of wardrobe, but even more so through their dialogue and actions. Of course, in their alien nature, they serve to reflect back on humanity something of what it means to be human. The ending is completely justified and satisfying. I love this film, even though I know it’s an odd beast not everyone will appreciate.

They’re just flat-out awesome. Great harmonies, soulful sounds, strong lyrics… they know how to do it right. If you’re alive, you can always enjoy an O’Jays song one more time. Go get you some O’Jays if you don’t have any on you right now.

Go to Mexicali at the intersection of Northwest Highway and Jupiter – it’s just west of the Lowe’s – and see where I’ve been keeping clean for the last 18 years, two years less than it’s been in business. I remember when it used to be over by the Casa Linda library and how my heart sank when it wasn’t there one day… and when my heart leapt as I discovered it had moved closer to me.

Whenever I go away for a while, I come home to Mexicali. I don’t eat there because it’s the best food in the world. I eat there because it is home, and therefore the world to which I return. No matter what fantastic things I taste abroad, I come home to lunch combo #6 and then I know I’m home. Nobody else makes the Tex-Mex like they do at Mexicali. There are plenty of great ones, sure. But nobody makes it like they do and they make it great. They’re part of the treasures around my house, part of the world I call home.