señor taco’s travels

The US$5 is getting a makeover. BARF!  Once again the U.S. Mint U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing has totally blown the chance to really revolutionize the money and make counterfeiters scramble.¹

Really, look at other nation’s currency. They are more durable. It’s easier to discern denominations on sight because of color and size differences.² Most places have abandoned low value bills because they wear out too fast and I’m really surprised the U.S. hasn’t.

With the new US$5 bill the changes seem as if they’re done by committee. Hire some real designers, make radical changes, and screw corporate interests that fight you because of new bill sizes and styles and materials. You work for the People, not the corporations.

1. Not that I think US$5 counterfeiting is rampant, I’m more concerned with the superdollars that are out there.↩
2. Although the color additions to the new U.S. notes is a big help to those of us without sight problems.↩

Over the Labor Day weekend Keith, Mark, and I were coming back from New Zealand and we had to go the long way around from the airport as the Bay Bridge was closed. Here’s a time-lapse movie of the reason why. Pretty cool.

There is a restaurant in Sausalito, California called Fish. It is a fabulous place to go and sit in the afternoon, have some great food, enjoy the harbor, and chill with friends. Speaking of the food, it’s all caught using sustainable practices. Today I had the Saigon Salmon Sandwich, a spicy feast that comes with a chili-lime cole slaw. Yummo.

One other thing that I love about Fish.¹ is that the menu has all prices with tax-included so if something is marked as five dollars you throw a fiver down and you’re done. All places should goto that, stupid $0.99 endings on prices. I hate you.

1. Yes, it is spelled with a period on the end↩

I just bought MarsEdit and I’m using it to draft and post my blog entries now. I love this thing. I can’t believe I waited this long to start using it. The coolest feature is posting from NetNewsWire when I find something cool I just want to link to, not go in-depth on.

Hidden bear in Toblerone logo

I was tucking into a toblerone today, and decided to have a look into the history of this unusual chocolate bar. Aside from a rather interesting history, (maybe Einstein handled the patent) I found that there is a secret bear hiding in the matterhorn logo.”

(Via Boing Boing.)

via May on Twitter: “at the megadeth show for work. we met with dave mustaine and he was super nice”

From a single sheet of paper.

(Via Coudal Partners Blended Feed.)

I’ve visited New Zealand — Aotearoa — twice now. Both trips were a fantastic time and I really enjoyed seeing the country, meeting the people, and enjoying the culture. Often it’s interesting to see how other countries approach issues that arise in your home land.¹

When first I visited New Zealand they had already done away with the one cent coin. In the intervening two years they abandoned the five cent piece. The smallest denomination they have is ten cents and they use Swedish rounding to compensate for values not on the ten cent mark. In the USA the elimination of the one cent coin, which now costs more than one cent to make, has been opposed by the zinc industry and it is just plain ridiculous that companies can fight something that makes sense for our country. Also in New Zealand and Switzerland² the lowest paper denomination is the five dollars/francs and anything below five units is in coin.³

What is this all leading up to? It was hard to pin down for a while, but I’ve become unsatisfied with the state of the nation I call home. For the longest time I never thought about moving out of the USA. I look at how our society in the USA is falling down and I don’t like it. I was always told to try and change the system from within, but when you have a corrupt administration blatantly ignoring the populace what are you supposed to do? Sure, the last election had some hope, but then the ugly bi-partisain nature of our political system reared its head again and showed how it will continue to fail us. There’s always revolution to be sure, but we’re not anywhere near that state.⁴

The Constitution still works, and I have faith that the legal system will work through all the issues, even if it takes a long time to happen. In spite of that I have a feeling of dread that most people don’t really care though. They’re willing to be lead about by the nose, snapping up the cheapest products and latest gadgets they can and giving fuck-all about the world until it impinges on them, and by then it’s very hard to make changes, but they can be made.⁵

New Zealand is the one country I could consider immigrating to. The country was clean, the people friendly, and the government seemed responsible from the discussions with Kiwis that we had. People didn’t seem concerned about showing off if they were wealthy but more about if they were living a good life.⁶

I know that while on vacation a place can seem magical and it’s hard to see the tarnish. I can assure anyone that more research would occur on my part before I jumped in. This kind of decision is not one to make lightly and I’m not going to pack up and move as soon as I can. I’ll wait and see what happens with this next election at the least. I should give our representative process a chance to work, but I do despise the fact that there are only two sides that seem well versed in shouting, disagreeing and railroading just because of perceived opposites with labels.⁷

For sure the decision is made harder because my entire family is in the USA. I’m also still single, which could be a good thing or a bad thing were I to move. Moving 6,729 miles (10,830 km) from all of my friends and family is not something to take lightly. I’ll be thinking this over but one never knows, I might revisit this subject in a month or a year and come to the conclusion that I’d be insane to move. Only time will tell if this bug will stay.

1. Notice, that’s “home land” like where you live, not the fascist “Homeland” like the USA’s security theater department.↩
2. Places I have traveled and payed a little bit of attention.↩
3. With the Swiss having a five franc coin as well↩
4. At least, the levels of oppression that would make me revolt aren’t apparent.↩
5. I too like gadgets but I’m not going to go for consumer gratification over being a citizen.↩
6. We only saw one Hummer the entire time we were there and trucks we did see usually looked like work vehicles and showed it, not showpieces.↩
7. I don’t identify with any political party because I think they’re all flawed. I vote for the candidate that best meets my ideals be they from the Republican party, the Democrat party or the Baby-Mulchers party↩

This last week Emeryville made the bike route I take even better:

Well, this morning I got back on my bike for the first time in about five weeks.¹ Man, I huffed and puffed and generally sucked getting up the hill. I was tired, but I made it all the way to Chris and Athena’s new house in the Berkeley hills. More riding for me very soon, yes.

1. Two weeks with second degree burns on my hand, two weeks in New Zealand, and one week getting back into the routine here.↩