señor taco’s travels

This last year was a great year for me. In no particular order:

Rise Against - Revolutions Per Minute: this is the album of the
year for me. Nothing else even comes close for me. I listen to it at least
once a day (in fact, I’m listening to it right now). The previous release
from these Chicago rockers, The Unraveling was great too, but if you
can imagine great multiplied by about 5 you’d have Revolutions Per
Minute. These guys were also the best band I saw live all year (sorry
John, Rancid was good, these guys were better :).

The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium: definitely the
runner-up album of the year. These guys came out of the ashes of the El Paso
rock outfit At The Drive-In. I love ATDI and when Sparta released their album
(also former ATDI fellows) I thought it was amazing. However this album blows
that one away. It is so complete and flows so well that I never mind putting
it on and letting it go.

Rancid - Indestructible: many people claim that Rancid has sold
out. Whatever. Selling out is so not an issue in this case. What happens
when one of the song writers gets his heart ripped out in a nasty divorce? You
get a great album like Indestructible. The songs definitely return to
the roots of Rancid’s music and are so listenable that I find myself spinning
this album all the time.

Moving to California: what more can I say? I love living in California.
I definitely don’t miss the snow and ice. Making the move out here was
easily the best thing that happened to me this last year. I generally feel
happier and more relaxed than when I was living in New York.

runner-up: paying off my car 3 years early: through a serendipitous
series of events like me paying extra on my monthly payments and some bonus
cash I was able to pay off my car early. That really felt good.

Moving to California: for as happy as I am in California one of the
worst feelings was leaving friends behind in New York. Thankfully we stay in
touch, but I miss them so much. If it weren’t for good friends that are now
out here California wouldn’t be as good. Life would be better if I could see
my NY friends more often though.

This is a tough one. I really liked Lost in Translation and 28 Days
Later, but I think I have to go with something that wasn’t even released
this year. On the recommendation of my friend Andre I got a movie on DVD.
I had never heard of it but I like Andre’s taste in movies so I took the leap.
The movie? Tampopo. It’s a touching story with just the right amount
of humor and human emotion. It very much feels like something one could live
through (okay, well, maybe a little more humorous than real life, but still
great). Lost in Translation would have my vote for something released
this year though.

There were many good proclamations from friends this year. News that Mitch
& Deb were moving to California right after I did is very high on the list
because now I get to hang out with them and their son Ryan. Also a great bit
of news was that my best friends Matt & Susan were buying a house, I’m
happy that they are on the right track with that. But, the best news by far
is that my friends CB & Athena are getting married. I can’t wait to go to
the wedding next year. It’s going to be a hoot!

Minako: located on Mission Street in San Francisco this restaurant is
one of the few places I’m glad that a good friend, Andre, knows the owner and
the chef. Even if we didn’t know them the food is top notch and the service
stupendous. Every time we go there I expect to get a good meal and instead I
end up with a fantastic meal. I also come away from there so stuffed that I
generally feel like I should be rolled out. I can’t give enough praise to
Minako. If you are in San Francisco you should go there. If you know Andre
you should get him to go with you, it’s a blast.

(update Thu Jan 1 15:59:11 PST 2004)

title="Stiff @ Amazon.com">Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
by Mary Roach. This is by far the best book of 2003 for me. I loved
it. In fact, I like it so much I bought a copy for a friend. While some may
cringe at the subject matter Ms. Roach provides a very human, humorous, but
respectful look at the realities of human cadavers. A definite must read.

As it’s the end of the year and that tends to have some religious significance
for a lot of people they give gifts to celebrate. This year I went along with
it (not in a religious manner mind you, just the gift giving) and gave gifts
to my friends and family, although I am going to change that this next year
(due to issues beyond my control my bank account took a beating this last
month, which would have been lessened had I done gifts during the year. Oh
well, laugh at me if you must). At any rate, I also got good swag this year.

• One Flew Over the Cookoo’s Nest DVD (2 disc edition)
• Brazil DVD (Criterion Collection edition)
• The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
• Gift Certificates to Amazon.com, Amoeba Music, Land’s End, and Target

By far the oddest thing I got (and not a holiday gift, but swag and a gift
none the less) is one of these:

class="divImg" />

I’m not sure what to make of it being given to me, but I think it’s cool
regardless. It definitely has great craftsmanship. The engraving on top is
from Evil
Bikes and is a skull with flames and gothic lettering ( href="http://www.evilbikes.com/images/gear/hat_flexfit.jpg"
alt="evil bikes hat with logo example">as you can see pictured on this hat).
That I love. The skull is so perfect (although the skull and flames a bit
larger would have been even better :)

We all have odd dreams sometimes. I generally don’t remember my dreams and
when I do they always seem to be of the odd or disturbing variety.

The latest couple were just odd enough for me to write them down. The first
was me running around San Francisco as a cop. I was being chased by other
cops and bad guys driving a black van with flames on it. When they got close
to me they would throw a molotov cocktail at me. I kept calling for backup
but the guys on the other end of the radio would laugh and say things like
there were no available units. That went on for what seemed like hours and
then I woke up. I’ve been having trouble figuring out where the parts come
from that assembled in the dream, but that’s actually the fun part.

Another dream I had recently involved all my friends, but it was my vision that
was wacky. I either was constantly looking through an image that looked as
though it was a TV with poor reception (lines, fuzz, horizontal jitter, etc.).
At certain points it switched to having the surfaces of everything having that
TV poor reception look, not my vision.

Those dreams aren’t so bad though. The ones that you don’t really feel like
analyzing are things like you dragging people outside at work and hanging them
on meat hooks. Where does that come from? I mean, geez, I would never do that
in real life…even if I thought it.

alt="EA Billboard" />

Cruising around the net this morning I checked href="http://www.decafbad.com/blog/" title="0xDECAFBAD">0xDECAFBAD to see
what new quick links where there. One of them was titled href="http://www.pbase.com/images/24017078.original.jpg" title="EA Billboard">
EA billboard ad for nerds (one line of C code) so of course I had to look.
It’s a great ad (as you can see above) for us nerds.

For those not of the nerdly persuasion (or for those nerds that don’t speak C)
here is the rundown for you. The code in full, compilable C:

#include <stdio.h>

int
main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    const char msg[] = {78, 111, 119, 32, 72, 105, 114, 105, 110, 103, 0};
    printf("%s\n", msg);
    return(0);
}

and then, once compiled you get (click and highlight to see the answer, I don’t
want to spoil the fun for everyone):

underdog: ./billboard
Now Hiring

Overall it’s pretty cool. I wonder how many people will understand it and how
many will apply based on it.

Well, around six months ago I decided to href="http://danimal.org/SenorTaco/2003/06/02#WB-zero-day"
title="Wild Brain Zero Day">take a job in California. The most major
reason I had for making the move was I was sick of living in New York and
messing with snow and ice. Sometime last winter there was around two feet of
snow for me to shovel off of my walk. Then, because I had to park on the
street there was almost double that around my car thanks to the plows.
Granted, I was not alone in this, but I realized that was the last straw and I
had to move someplace where it didn’t snow.

Cut to now and I am living in the San Francisco area. It’s gotten cold some
(into the 40s last night, and even 30s in some areas). It’s rained a good bit
the last few weeks, but there has been no snow. Then I read that there were
between one and two feet of snow in the Northeast. Eeep! I’m so glad I’m not
there. I hope my friends are doing well, but I know I never want to live in
that again. I’ll take brutally hot summers to avoid that. (of course, I say
that now, but really, I’d do it to avoid shoveling snow and bad snow drivers).

This morning, while driving to work I noticed that it was a bit foggy out.
Little did I know that while crossing the Bay Bridge I would only be able to
see three or four car lengths (not cars spaced in front of me, but about 60
feet or so) in front of me. It was very tripy. I liked it, but once in a
while is plenty.

Yesterday was a different story. The weather was misty with the sun just
poking through clouds behind me and in front of me was a rainbow. I snapped
a picture of it, I’ll post it soon.

It’s all been nutty stuff. At least with the rain and cold there isn’t snow or ice.

Well, Thanksgiving this year was just as good as last year. Once again the
group of former Blue Sky folk got together and cooked some mighty fine vittles.
Andre got a turkey from him employer again this year so the gathering was set
in motion. We had 11 people, 6 types of sides, the fried turkey, and 5 pumpkin
pies (Keith accidently doubled the 2 pie recipe and someone else brought one
over). All in all it was a good time with much delicious food and not a lot of
left overs, except for pie. Mmmmm, pie.