señor taco’s travels

Warren Ellis writes:

“The more creators who only took on housepainting as a part-time gig, the healthier this medium would be.”

Oh man, so true. This is why staring my own work up is very appealing.

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↩

The future is born from the mind of visionaries. Arthur C. Clark is one of them. He first conceived of communications satellites in 1945. Ninety years is a good long run. Farewell ambassador from future times.

NY Times

My friend Rob¹ has written a nice article on Evolution and Wisdom of Crowds.

1. BTW, Rob is an insanely smart fellow. I’m glad I got to work with him if only for a little while.↩

I try to donate blood about every 60 days or so. I usually get a call from the Red Cross to remind me and set an appointment. Today at 14.00 I gave my pint (473.2 mL) and while I was donating they noticed I’m a pretty regular donor. Today they asked me if I wanted to see if I have a high enough platelet count to do apheresis donation. It takes longer but you get your plasma and red blood cells pumped back into you. If I qualify I’ll probably try it once to see how it is.

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↩

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

Sometimes you hit on a song that will make you want to buy an entire album. “What’s A Girl To Do?” from Bat For Lashes has done that for me. To bad I have to wait a couple of weeks to buy it here in the USA. It’s also a great video, I love the bunny-hopping masked BMXers (notice how responsible everyone is with a light on their bike!).

(via How to Avoid a Bummer Life)

“So it goes.”

Back in January I told you dear readers about href="/SenorTaco/2005/01/10/">Jeff proposing to Natasha. Well,
according to Jeff the show, href="http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/perfectproposal/perfectproposal.html">Perfect
Proposal, will air on June 2nd.

Enjoy.