señor taco’s travels

What is it with people that they think I must be responsible but they can shirk on their responsibilities? Take tonight. I commute between work and home on a bicycle. There is a part of the route I take that is a greenway which is bikes and pedestrians but no cars.¹ It is also park-like and right next to several housing areas. People tend to walk their dogs along there and as long as they pick up the poop I don’t care about that.

Tonight there were two people off the paved path with two dogs. As I got close the dogs darted out across my path. I braked and as I did the lady reached out and grabbed my shirt sleeve causing me to skid out. Today I was on my road bike because I went riding with Everett this morning. Not only does that mean I was clipped in but it also meant that I had a bit of gear in my bag on my back.²

I came to a safe stop without falling and immediately blurted out “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” at her. The guy across the path and the woman both start claiming that I was going to hit their dogs. I pipe up that had I hit a dog we would have had something but I was breaking and that by her grabbing my shirt I could have crashed badly. She said I have to yield the right of way. I yelled not for dogs, looked her in the eye, and told her if she touched me again I’d break both of her hands.

Now comes my favorite part, she pulled out her phone and said she was calling the cops. I pulled mine out and said I’d join her and we could see if assault was still a reason for people to spend the night in jail.³ She said “Fuck you!” and stormed off. I looked at the guy and he just walked off.

Is it just me? Do people get shit like this happening to them too? Why do I have to be responsible for people’s dogs actions but they don’t have to control their animals in a public space? Yes, the comment about breaking hands might have been a bit over the top, but when my blood gets boiling I can bubble over a bit.

Ugh, time for a drink.

1. There is a double wide paved path and a single wide dirt path on it↩
2. Clothes, shoes, Camelback, laptop, etc.↩
3. See, I hadn’t touched a person or a dog at all↩

Last night at about midnight I had not one, but three calls from the same guy dialing the wrong number. This of course is not new to me, every so often I’ll get a call on my cell phone that’s a person asking for the SFPD. I’m apparently one digit off from the warrants desk. This has generally led me to not answer numbers that don’t pop up in the caller ID or that I don’t recognize. So last night I happened to answer because of the late hour and the number seemed like it was recognizable. For all I knew it was a friend that got into an accident driving home and needed help. The guy was looking for the SFPD. He was adamant that he had the correct number but I assured him he didn’t. I understand people wanting to take care of warrants, but at midnight I doubt the offices are open. I only hope he’s not as belligerent to a police officer as he was to me, maybe that’s how he got the warrant in the first place.

From Scott Adams at The Dilbert Blog:

I was happy to hear that NYC didn’t allow Iranian President Ahmadinejad to place a wreath at the WTC site. And I was happy that Columbia University is rescinding the offer to let him speak. If you let a guy like that express his views, before long the entire world will want freedom of speech.

I like it.

I have a post brewing about a book I read on my trip to New Zealand and tomorrow coincides with the subject. The book is Eats, Shoots & Leaves and the day tomorrow, September 24, is National Punctuation Day. Possibly I’ll put a review of the book up soon.

(Via the “blog” of “unnecessary” quotation marks.)

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↩

Coudal Partners is a site that is “an ongoing experiment in web publishing, design and commerce.” I’ll take it. They have great stuff out and point to great little bits to kill time during typing breaks. One of their projects is Swap Meat. I won’t explain it, just go check it out.

Another one is the Fleet Identity Symbol System. Today I got a bunch of the stickers from Michele at Coudal. I haven’t yet put one on my car and I’m trying to figure out how to put one on my commuter bike, but I did put one up on my office window. Fun times, fun times.

What happens when you want a new house but the local heritage council wants to protect the old run down look…you put a 1:1 scale picture of the old house on outside of the new one.  It’s very clever, but entirely silly that it had to be done.

What the hell is wrong with people in the United States? Why is it acceptable
to throw trash on the ground at all?

Last weekend I was in Berkeley and a guy
was crossing the street opening a pack of cigarettes. First he removes the
wrapper and then tosses it on the ground. Then he removes the inner foil and
throws it on the ground. All this as he’s crossing the street and walking
right at a trash can. Why dump it when he could have just put it in the
rubbish bin. I actually felt like taking a bat and beating him until he
learned not to litter, but that would make me no better than him.

Today a woman walking down the street finished a drink and tossed the
container against a building. Huh? Just carry it until you get to throw it
out. It’s not that hard.

The cap of all of this was at the taco truck.
They not only are parked right next to a city provided trash can, but they
also provide their own trash can to make sure there isn’t an overflow. A guy
gets his food, squeezes some lime on top and then tosses the lime half on the
ground. He was standing right next to the trash can. When I asked him why
he did that he told me to mind my own business and started stuffing his face
with his tacos. When his back was turned I picked up the lime half and slipped
it into his backpack. We’ll see how he likes my own business.

I’ve already mentioned
that New Zealand was clean. It was damn clean where I went. Now on my return
to the US I’m finding I am totally disgusted by the litter and trash and
disregard for society. I don’t know what has caused it, but it makes me
sick to think about it. What is it? Race? Economic status? Upbringing? Some
combination of the three? Do people feel slighted and like they’re rebelling
against the authority rather than slowly destroying their own homes? I hate
to say this, but trying to find a job in New Zealand is looking better and
better. I’m sure society in NZ isn’t ideal or perfect and has its share of
problems too, but it sure seems like a great place to live.

In the last week I’ve had the pleasure of my roommate hooking me up (meaning
he got the tickets or found out about the event and sent me an email. It
couldn’t be easier) twice with great entertainment.

The first event was last Saturday at the

Empire Plush Room. We went to see a vaudeville and burlesque show titled
The Va Va Voom Room. That was
one of the best shows I’ve seen in a long time. I was laughing the entire
time. The hostess was dead on acting as a Austrian starlet with one eye
from about the 40’s. The three-piece jazz band was tight and dead on. The
acts were all very good at what they did. My favorite performer was a singer
that came out and did two songs, but wish she had done more though. Not only
was she a knockout with read hair and a gorgeous body. She was wearing an
evening gown and above the elbow gloves, but that’s not why I was captivated by
her. Her singing was amazing. I’m just getting goose bumps thinking about it.
I will go back in the future if only to see her.

The second event was last night. On Monday my roommate sent me an email saying
he had gotten two tickets (the most one person could buy) to a show at href="http://www.bimbos365club.com/">Bimbo’s 365 in North Beach. The show
was stand up comedy by Robin Williams and had just been announced. Since it
was him working on new material I jumped at the chance to go.

I will say that he was really funny. Funnier than I even expected him to be
(I know, what was I thinking). There was a part where I had to just not laugh
for a bit because I was worn out from laughing. He did about an hour of
material and then an hour or so of improv. His stream of consciousness is
amazing. He can move from subject to subject with such easy and he’s so fast
at it you don’t really have time to think, only laugh.

All in all it was great. I look forward to being able to do both things again
in the future.

src="/SenorTaco/images/seattle-library.jpg" alt="Seattle's New Library" />


Photo by Benjamin Benschneider/The Seattle Times

Seattle has opened a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/local/library/" title="News on
Seattle's New Public Library">new Central Public Library. The 11 story
steel and glass building was designed by architect Rem Koolhaas. From looking
at the href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/local/library/photogalleries/spl1.html"
title="Seattle's New Library">photo gallery I’d say Mr. Koolhass has
successfully designed a space that is open, functional, and inviting.

I love to read, but I have been very bad about frequenting my public libraries.
I’m glad to see Seattle wasn’t shy about building such a magnificent structure
to house the public’s books and knowledge. That will be one more attractor for me to visit Seattle. I will have to make sure I schedule time to visit such a
great piece of architecture.

I will leave you with this quote from Andrew Carnegie that appears in the
library:

“There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public
Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth
receives the slightest consideration.”