caliarch.net

“Monk, this is San Francisco!  There’s a million weirdos out there; some of them are wearing clothes, some of them are not.” ~ Monk

848 East Evelyn, Sunnyvale

The Sunnyvale Burrito Quest continues. Last week, it continued at Las Islatas Taqueria. It’s probably about eight times as big as Taco Jalapa, and has a little outdoor porch area where you can dine at tables with sunbrellas (I didn’t get to, as it was full).

Again, let me say that I have yet to have a full-on bad burrito at a Bay Area taqueria, and the super veggie burrito I had at Las Islatas was no exception. It was a burrito, with beans, cheese, rice, etc. inside it. Unfortunately, I have to say it was the blandest burrito I’ve had in a while (and also the most lettuce-filled). Furthermore, there were only two salsa choices — a green one, and one that looked like strawberry jelly. I avoided the one that looked like strawberry jelly. The other was okay, but not very flavorful. It made my burrito spicier, but not much yummier. The horchata was pretty good, though.

“A narrator should not supply interpretations of his work; otherwise he would not have written a novel, which is a machine for generating interpretations.”

“When the author tells us he worked in a raptus of inspiration, he is lying. Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration…When the writer (or artist in general) says he has worked without giving any thought to the rules of the process, he simply means he was working without realizing he knew the rules. A child speaks his mother tongue properly, though he could never write out its grammar. But the grammarian is not the only one who knows the rules of the language; they are well known, albeit unconsciously, also to the child. The grammarian is merely the one who knows how and why the child knows the language.”

Umberto Eco (Italian philosopher, medieval historian, and professor of semiotics) is a genius. I know this from reading his novels, but what makes me absolutely certain about it is reading what he’s written about his writing (from which the above quotes were taken). Umberto Eco was one of the first people that I read who actually articulated many of the things I knew to be true about writing and artistic creation but hadn’t ever been able to put into words. Ever since then I’ve been a hardcore fan.

I won’t go into his philosophy; you can read that for yourself if you’re interested in that sort of thing (it’s mostly at the end of his novels). My real purpose here is reviewing the book, so let’s get to it, shall we? (more…)

“Time changes everything.”

“That’s what people say. It’s not true. Doing things changes things. Not doing things leaves things exactly as they are.”

One of the reasons why I will never be a six-minute miler is my love of good burritos. And by good, I mean freaking loaded down with rice, cheese, sour cream, and guacamole (in addition to the usual yumminess). Actually, it’s not the love, per se; it’s the frequency. My current place of work, unfortunately, takes me far away from my usual burrito haunts. After tolerating this situation for a few weeks, I decided to strike out into the unknown in search of beany-cheesy goodness. So on Tuesday, having not had a burrito in, oh, fourteen hours, I decided to peruse the options near my current place of work. After reading a few reviews I decided on Taco Jalapa, on El Camino just south of Mathilda (this is in Sunnyvale). (more…)

“Obsessing over celebrity is wrong. Unless that celebrity is bacon.” ~ random Wendy’s commercial

The reason this is so amusing to me is because it sounds eerily like something my college roommate or I would have said at some point. Except for that neither of us eats bacon. Like, once I said to her, “Ice cream was not an American president, but you can still sit on it.” Which actually made sense in context.

Books:

* The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco

* Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, by JK Rowling

* The Dark River, by John Twelve Hawks

* Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke

* The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami

CDs:

* The Smashing Pumpkins — Zeitgeist 

* Imogen Heap — Speak For Yourself

* Patti Griffin — Flaming Red

* Tori Amos — American Doll Posse

“…never around when you need them, bugging the crap out of you when you don’t.” ™

I wish they wouldn’t act like they had some kind of vested interest me. I know they don’t, and that’s perfectly fine; I don’t expect them to. I know that the extent of their interest in me extends to whether or not I am pleased with their products and can find what I want. If I am not pleased with their products, there’s nothing they can do about it anyway; if I can’t find what I want, I’ll ask. (Again, proximity = good; speaking = bad.) I know that they do not care how I am today (and let’s face it, I’m going to say “Fine, thanks,” even if I’m having the crappiest day in human history). Whether or not they ask me does not affect whether or not I purchase their wares. In fact, I’m much more likely to do so if they leave me alone. I know that they are not really interested in whether I think this or that garment I took into the dressing room “is going to work out” for me (like it and I sat down and had a chat about the demands and rewards of hanging out on my body, including salary expectations and benefits). If it is, I’m probably going to buy it. If not, I probably won’t. Either way I don’t really need or want to have a conversation about it with a complete stranger.

And on a completely unrelated note, I discovered today that my town is home to the “Stop N Liquor,” which is a conundrum to me, because it makes me wonder if perhaps the word ‘liquor’ can sometimes be used as a verb. As in, “I’m planning to Stop N Liquor on my way home. Would you perhaps care to Stop N Liquor with me?”

Mmm…stop n liquor…

mwahahaha hehehe…

If what you’re looking for is an old nor cal gold rush town, this could be your lucky day…I guess…