señor taco’s travels

Tonight at work they screened 30 Days of Night. While watching the movie There came a point where it didn’t seem like there should be all that much bass, but it felt like it. Then a second or two later you realize that it’s not bass, but it’s a 5.6 magnitude earthquake. ¹ It went on for about 20 seconds I’d say. Thankfully I was in the main building so it was really dampened.

This was the largest magnitude quake I’ve ever been in, but the one that probably felt like more to me was the 4.2 in July.

1. Centered in the South Bay, near San Jose.↩

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↩

04:42 - a 4.2 earthquake rocks you awake¹. It’s the “natural” alarm clock. It was about 8 miles or so to the South-East on the Hayward fault. Now I try to get back to sleep, heart pounding and all that.

1. Of course, being on the landfill part of the county tends to accentuate the shake a little. It seemed like it went on for about 7-10 seconds↩

This weekend my friend title="K-Pizzle">KP along with Sarah, Todd, Maria, and Leon came
out for a visit. Friday we went up to href="http://www.nps.gov/pore/home.htm" title="Point Reyes National
Seashore">Point Reyes National Seashore and had a fire and hung
out on the beach. We were the only people out there. It was a lot of
fun with the sun going down and the fire blazing.

I sure miss KP. I wish he’d move out here but I know how it is.
We’ll keep working on him and get him out here at some point.

Pictures are available href="http://gallery.danimal.org/Point_Reyes_Beach_Fire/" title="Purdy
Pictures">in my gallery.

Just a quick one today. As I was walking down Mission Street from the

BART station (you see, I like to mix up my routes a bit to make it more
interesting and keep people guessing) I was witness to one of the most bizarre
sights I’ve ever seen. Now, I’ve seen people peeing between cars, smoking
crack, and probably having sex of some sort on the street. This morning though
pretty much takes the cake. Walking towards me was a woman with no pants on
(they were over her shoulder) and just a t-shirt, shoes, and jacket on. She
was following a fellow and kept asking him to let her give him a blow job for
a dollar.

Sometimes I don’t like walking through the Mission District, but then there are
days like today that make it interesting.

So, this weekend the Houston Astros got the
Wild Card spot for the National League. Eliminated in their wake were the
San Francisco Giants. The Astros really
turned it on after the half-way point in the season and deserve everything
they’ve gotten.

The funny thing is I grew up in Houston and I am still an Astros fan. Today
I’ve had many people at work get upset about the Astros clinching the WC spot.
Now, the Giants aren’t a bad team, but I mean, really, they lost it on their
own. They could have beat the Astros in the whole series when they were out
here. They could have not lost to the Dodgers. Oh well, they get to go home
early now. I just love the people coming up to me and saying “FUCK THE
ASTROS!” Makes my day. Now I need to find my Astros cap to wear around
one day.

So, normally my BART rides consist of me reading a book or magazine and
a little bit of people watching. The last week has had some interesting things
though:

• Last Tuesday I went home a little early because there had been a bit of
  flooding due to a busted sprinkler system. Thankfully nothing was wrong at
  the house, but on the way into the href="http://bart.gov/stations/stationguide/localareamap_16st.asp?ct=1"
  title="BART Maps!">16th Mission station the guy in front of me was walking
  on the left side of a small hallway. People had to move out of his way and
  one guy got particularly pissed that me, being on the right side of the
  hallway didn’t get out of his way. He did the ’shoulder hit’ thing and said to
  me “watch it bitch.” Being the courteous bastard I am I replied with a
  “whatever cocksucker.” At this point he gets enraged and starts bumping into
  me with his chest (given that he was a good 6 to 8 inches shorter than me I
  found this particularly humorous) and repeating “what’d you say?” To this I
  decided to just stand my ground and stare at him which could have been dumb if
  he had a knife or gun, but it was crowded so I felt a little more confident.
  Now, walking in I had seen the BART Police standing at the station attendant’s
  booth so I also wasn’t too worried. Before I knew it the officers had moved
  down to where we were (you see, the “hallway” is actually just a concrete
  divider with a glass wall that doesn’t go all the way up). They asked if there
  was a problem and I said “I don’t have one, maybe this gentleman does.” When
  they looked at him he decided to take off running up the stairs, which was
  where he was headed anyway. One of the cops then ran to a nearby gate and was
  up the stairs after him. The other officer told me to have a nice day and
  that I could go. Amazing, had they guy not be dumb and ran (or caused a
  problem in the first place) he probably would have gotten to just walk out of
  there. I guess when you’re dumb enough to have a warrant or be wanted you’re
  dumb enough to run.
• The next day I was walking my usual route (yeah, bad idea, I know) from
  work to the BART. As I passed a low wrought iron fence that blocks off
  a small alley on the side of a house a man came over the fence. I freaked
  the hell out because, as is par for the course, people don’t generally
  jump over low wrought iron fences at me. As I was still walking down the
  sidewalk the man walked the same way I did. The first thing he said was
  “I hope I didn’t offend you.” So far, so good, he’s polite. “A man’s got
  to find a place to smoke his rock you know.” Oooookay. Now we’re on the
  same page. As I look over and down the small alley I see a woman pulling her
  pants up. Yup, smoked some rock and got it off too. Great. Anyway, for the
  remainder of the block we were on he proceeded to talk to me. Asking me
  if I wanted to by some 600mg Ibuprofin or if I knew if Codeine was better. A
  lovely conversation I tell you. At the next corner I turned and trucked it to the BART. Rude? Possibly, but the guy had a crazy look and little patches of hair that hadn’t been shaved off his head in an attempt at the Curly look. Eeee.
• On Monday I was doing the usual. Bart to 16th Mission, accend the stairs,
  and then walk to work. This morning however I got the pleasure of being
  accosted at the top by a lady getting in my face and saying “JESUS LOVES YOU!”
  at the top of her lungs. My reply? “Good for him.” That, apparently, was
  the wrong thing to say. At that she attempted to stay in my face as I
  walked off and started calling me a heathen and an unbeliever. Now, mind you,
  those things aren’t necessarily untrue, but I mean, come on. You like Jesus
  and that’s good for you. Respect my choice to be an atheist and leave me the
  hell alone. I tell you, people.

The sad thing is I really like where I work, but I don’t like walking through
the Mission any longer. It’s mostly the distance, and while not too bad, it
could be better. It is, however, better than driving and trying to find a
place to park.

Last night was fun. I went to the title="Conga Lounge in Rockridge">Conga Lounge in Rockridge to see some
Elvis related events (what with it being the anniversary of his death or
disappearance). The lounge is tiny, and actually much smaller than I thought
it would be, but still a good little place. I’ll have to see about going back
there when there are fewer Elvis revelers. As it was, the Elvis snacks they
had out, toasted peanut butter and banana sandwiches, donuts, and fried chicken
were just fine. Anyway, if you’re in the Rockridge area I suggest you give it
a try.

In my last post I
had mentioned that a park near work, Franklin Square, seemed to be one of those
detractors for a city that brings the neighborhood down.

It appears I was wrong. While I was out picking up some lunch this afternoon
I happened to be waiting on one of my co-workers and I looked across to the
park. From my elevated position I could see kids running around in the fenced area of the park. That leads me to believe that the construction that was or
is there is to rehabilitate the park and it is still used because it’s the only
thing like it in the area.

That doesn’t, however, solve the problem of homeless using the park and making
the public facing areas cast a pall over the entire park. The fenced area is
used and mostly hidden from the public. That fence only does one thing, create
a divide and force there to be essentially 2 parks. Now, without the fence
there would probably be not as desirable a usage of the field areas and quite
literally the park might be overrun by homeless (in fact, I suspect that was
once the case). However with the lax attitude San Francisco has to the
homeless it’s no surprise that the park appears the way it does.

I’m still not going use the park because it’s inconvenient though.