Susie and I are up late again, messing around and working on facing computers like the serious geeks we are. The past two nights have been fun, though the days have been a lot of hard-core Web development work.
Tuesday of our trip, we took a taxi to downtown Lima. We were dropped off in the central square, by the cathedral. To its right, the presidential palace squats behind a metal fence and a large courtyard.
So, I’m still talking about Peru. One of the event’s venues was a club called the Jazz Zone. I was going to order a snack at the Jazz Zone one night late, but Amy vehemently objected. The previous night, she said, she’d seen hideous things happening in the kitchen. What do you mean? I asked, turning away from the musicians to concentrate.
Peru’s official drink is the pisco sour. By official, I mean I never found a restaurant that didn’t serve them. Pisco comes in a glass the size of a water tumbler. It usually contains two ice cubes, a dollop of beaten egg whites, a little lemon juice, and enough pisco to cauterize a wound.
“Almost every American I know does trade large portions of his life for entertainment, hour by weeknight hour, binge by Saturday binge, Facebook check by Facebook check. I’m one of them. In the course of writing this I’ve watched all 13 episodes of House of Cards and who knows how many more West Wing episodes, and I’ve spent any number of blurred hours falling down internet rabbit holes. All instead of reading, or writing, or working, or spending real time with people I love.”
“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)