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I've got three words for you: Oat. Bran. Flakes.       They're awesome and damn cheap at Whole Foods. Very basic flakes that are crunchy. You toss them in a little bit of milk and you've got yourself the good life. I think they're something like $1.50 to $2.00 at most for a big, huge, honkin' box of them. You really can't go wrong. The only catch of course is that they have so much fiber, I almost wonder if you should be within 10 feet of a bathroom when you eat them. This is in a good way of course. Not in the bad Mexican burrito kind of way.

I had to make a trip up to the Russian Embassy to pick up a Visa and in order to get there, I had to take the 45 Bus. This bus runs from the Caltrain Depot up to the Presidio. A more diverse terrain for a bus route, I'll doubt you'll find.       The start in SOMA is interesting, but not all that amazing. You can see the deritus of the dot-com and trendy lofts in an area that people have paid far too much for in the recent real estate boom.       You pass near to Union Square and see the retail area of town. Lots of people bustling around with fancy bags from expensive stores. It's nice and a good palce to hop off if you want to buy something from said stores.       Then you hit Chinatown. This is probably the toughest part of the trip. People pack on to the bus. The things you see are pretty grungy. There are a lot of smells which probably aren't going to appeal to most. Thankfully the worst is over soon, as once you hit Columbus, you're done with it.       Ah, but then there's the fun of North Beach passing by quickly. Then you blast past Washington Square Park. From there, it's over the top of Russian Hill. While the views aren't as amazing as the ones over the top of Nob Hill on the California Cable Car line, they're still pretty good.       After you come over the top and get freaked out by how steep the hill is and how it seems the bus is going to run away and lose control, it's just one great neighborhood after another. You see Upper Polk, Lower Pacific Heights, and of course all the shops along Union Street. Then you end at the Presidio and all its lush greenery.       The F Line Streetcar is a great ride in all that it covers, but I have to say that this bus line is a really fun way to see San Francisco from all that is new to all that has always been here. Just be prepared for Chinatown.

There's a little market on my block, as there are on just about any of the blocks in San Francisco. The fact that there is only one makes me think there must be some kind of city ordinance which makes a one per block setup the limit. So, you get something like: up-and-coming/trendy restaurant, hotel, bar, market, coffee shop, apartment, repeat... This is in downtown anyways.       It's a nice way to live though, although you can get rather insular with your life since everything you need is within the sound of a screaming crazy person. I do manage to get out of this radius quite a bit, but the convenience has made it hard. This factor has been eliminated somewhat lately due to changes; namely the fact that Louie's, my "corner" market in the middle of the block, is no more.       It's probably for the better really, since the guy who ran it (I believe his Americanized name was George) was one grumpy dude. Even when you tried to make small talk with him and get to know him, he was always massively grumpy. Money was something he clutched at. Whatever you bought was something that was thrown at you. Obviously, he didn't like being there much and this was only seen in the last few days of his little place being open.       For starters, he got immensely happy when some construction started happening to the foundation of his place. It was eerie and strange. A euphoric glow took over the man and I didn't know why, because if concrete and jackhammers were going all day next to me, I wouldn't be a happy camper about it.       Then he started trashing his place. He looked like a kid who had just discovered what a claw hammer could do. Piles of shelving and everything started building up. He was having a clearance on everything in the store. Something was afoot and it really came to a head when the dumpster arrived outside. He ripped into everything with pleasure. It was all fair game. The shelves, the floor, the walls. He was tearing it all.       When the dust somewhat settled, George was gone. In his place were a couple of Chinese guys who tore the lath and plaster off the walls today, exposing bare brick. I'm guessing they're going to do something with the building or they would have just demolished the structure and not shored up the foundation. But whatever the hell is going on with it, Louie's Market is no more. George must have retired and in the process gotten a lot of ya-ya's out of his system when his adroit participation in the demolition.

I've just had my pride scuffed greatly as I've found out the page I entered for my surname - Hudin - on Wikipedia is being considered for deletion.       I fully admit that having this information in there isn't a requisite of human advancement. But at the same time, dumping an article based on the immediate relevance of its information would seem to make a good deal of things get lost. Everything I put in was factual of course and most of the other facts are on the Hudin Family Tree which has been doing quite well in reaching out to Hudins in the world.       I'm kind of wondering as to whether I'm really annoyed by this and find it to be haughty and rude or if I find it to be neccessary. I'm kind of lost on that one. It is a rather large piece of cud to chew when someone calls your family insignificant. I suppose I should enter my parents in there as they've done quiet a bit with their lives and are in a few permanent museum art collections. Maybe that might make us mean more, but somehow I doubt it. Such a bummer.

As I have a rather magnificent cold that is ripping me up right now, I've had the wonderful opportunity to review some points on cold medication. Let me preface this by saying, cold medication is all a bunch of crap and there's no way in the world we're ever going to have a cure for the cold while the NyQuil and Sudafed folks are making a fortune on selling things that just cover up the symptoms.       So, for starters, why are the DayQuil pills so freakin's huge?!! It's like trying to swallow a horse pill when you take one of those things. And the amazing thing is that I don't think that they're enough medication for me. I'm guessing that since these are a one dose fits all kind of thing, they gear the dosage for a person around 150 pounds. That's about 50 (40 on a good week) pounds too little for me. I bet I really need to take about three of these puppies to get the effect some waify 115 pound girl can get.       The other thing I've noticed is that the capsule form of NyQuil doesn't do crap. Sure, it will kinda knock things out for a little bit, but really, it just doesn't so the trick and about 3 in the morning, you're hacking and coughing again. I would assume that this is about dosage issue for me. But, I think it's also because even if it were a heavier dose, it still wouldn't be anywhere near the amount I need. I like to really OD on the Quil when I take it. Straight out of the bottle, that's my motto.       Someday they'll have everything in capsules though, to stop idiots in college like yours truly from buying a whole bottle of Robitussin DM at Ralph's in San Diego to drink all by myself to get drunk/high. Let me tell you that it does work, but it also really doesn't work. All of us in that experiment had some pretty vicious allergic reactions to the Tussin and I'm amazed we didn't end up in the ER. So, to all you college jerkwads out there who think it sounds like a great plan because some hot chick from a private school back east told you it was awesome, think twice, find some sixth year senior who has no social life to go out and buy you natural booze to get drunk off of. Your major organs will thank you.

So, as I was poking around the Google Image Search, which has its good days and its bad, I found a shot of the Peristyle of Emporer Diocletian's Summer Palace in Split, Croatia, which is a rather popular link for folks to my site. There are of course a lot of other shots in there as well which show this pretty cool structure in the heart of the palace. One (which I somehow couldn't find when searching this time) shows that the statue of Grgur Ninski was actually sitting in the middle of the Peristyle. Must have been pretty cool to see, but it also probably blocked the outdoor seating for the cafes in a very annoying manner.       Anyways, I was being lame when I put some of the photos in my photos section and I gave this one here a pretty lame title. It turns out this is really a "vestibule" where the noble types would meet before things happened. I suppose it was only when weather was permitting since this thing never had a roof. Of course, this was built to be a Summer Palace, so go figure.       I also found out that Mario Andretti, who is Italian of course, was born in what is today Croatia, specifically Motovun which was called Montona when it was still Italian land. When I visited there this year, I had never really felt that Istria was historically part of Croatia, since among other things, I could say the name of the place without doing shots of Å livovitz.

Besides being a general piece of junk, this GM product also has a safety problem with it that I found out about during a rental last weekend.       It's pretty obvious that GM is trying to compete with the Japanese carmakers, but they keep forgetting something--the fact that they're GM and they make crappy cars. For what it was worth though, the car got me to my destination and back, although I'm amazed that I made it. You see, the windshield is at something of an odd angle on this little car. This problem only becomes apparent when you get hit with a decent-szed rainstorm while you're driving. Such an event happened for me and even with the windshield wipers on full, they couldn't keep the rain from "pooling" up on the window, making my visibility nearly zero. Thankfully the car in front of me had its lights on, so I had to follow those until the rain got to a point where I could see again.       Every so often, I would hit small spots of rain and when I did, the windshield and the wipers were not up to the task. It was pretty frightening to tell the truth and gave me yet another reason to not buy from GM. Oh yeah, while the car gets decent gas mileage, the tank is so small you'll be hardpressed to get 300 miles of highway driving before you have to fill up. That was a pretty annoying bit as well.

Normally, I'm a pretty peaceful guy. I have my moments, but as time goes on, I find myself more at ease with things. As I walk around San Francisco, I sidestep the crazy people, ignore the panhandlers and hustlers, and of course deftly avoid the cars. I'm thankful to walk, it puts me at ease with things.       Of course there are the times when I have to drive, such as this last weekend when I rented a car to drive up to my hometown. A whole different me comes out when I get behind the wheel. I'm kind of like that Disney Goofy skit where he change in to a crazed maniac as soon as his foot hits the accelerator. Needless to say, I don't like driving and it streeses me out.       When I picked up the car, the craziness of San Francisco on a Friday night was coming into full swing. For those who haven't driven around downtown on weekend nights, it's pretty crazy. Parking is non-existent and so if you need to stop somewhere, you usually just pull up in front of wherever it is and toss on the hazards.       This is what I did when I had to pick up Jenya and as I'm sitting there, people would have to go around me, honking as they did, depsite the fact there was a UPS truck in front of me and a guy with his hazards blinking as he sat on the other side of the street. There's not really much way around it and the people who get upset are usually from out of town or stressed-out over-the-top SF dwellers. I'm not exactly sure where the guy fits in who pulled out from behind to stop and roll down his window to yell at me, "What do you think you're doing?!!" A more wussful voice I've not heard before and it fits that such a pansy was driving a Range Rover to protect his tiny ass.       I should add at this point I was in a red Chevy Aveo. This is itself a pretty wussy car. I didn't really want it, but it's what I got. So, I don't think the guy in the Range Rover knew what he was getting in to when he yelled, because I responded back, "I'm freakin' parking!!!" At this point, I ripped out my seatbelt and started to get out of my car. Once the door was open I yelled, "You wanna have a discussion about it?!!" When I stood up out of the car all angst ridden, I wished I had a camea at that point to get a shot of his stunned little face as he peeled out of there.       If he got out of this feeling like he really told me off, great. He's delusional though, since the size of his eyes is something I'm still laughing about.

I mentioned it before with Bummy Sunday this month, but I had to walk up from the Powell station back home and I realized how much this damned full moon cycle is pulling out the panhandlers, whack nuts, and crazies. If I had started out my walk with $10 in change and gave some change to everyone who asked for it on my way home, I would have had to stop in at a laundromat for another $20 in change just to keep providing the rest of the way. It's usually never this freakin' bad. I blame it on the lunar cycle.       Times like these remind me of why anyone who visits here always comments on the amount of homeless and panhandlers that are lying around. It is really bad. I can ignore them, but a lot of them are really agressive, following people up the street. At some point, the over the top, "Oh no, hand them money, that's so much better than programs!" idiots are going to have to be shutupped and we'll have to deal with this in a stronger manner. I suppose that on a good note, people can feel good when they get home and tell their friends about San Francisco.       "So, how was your trip to San Francisco?"       "Oh fantastic. I rode cable cars, ate at Fisherman's Wharf, had something called Deem Suuum, saw men wearing speedos with meshed shirts oiling themselves, and I helped a lot of people."       "How did you help people? You were on vacation."       "Well, there were so many people who needed some spare change and help. So, I gave them some quarters and pointed them in the direction of the guys with oils. I feel so good about helping those in need."

One of my big pleasures lately (besides pondering ear wax) has been to do a blitzkrieg on Six Feet Under, essentially watching the first three seasons over the last two months. I'm starting in on the fourth season now. So far, it has proven to be just as intense at Season Three, which has been my favorite season so far. I have to admit I liked it at first, but wasn't amazed after the first season. It's been Two and after that have gotten me hooked.       One of the biggest reasons for my addiction has been Peter Krause. It's because, ya know, he's so dreamy. Like yeah, right. But really, I've been thoroughly blown away by his acting as the part of Nathan Fischer. He was good when the show started, but he's taken off lately. The ending of the opening episode for Season Four was just an amazing bit of work by him. He truly made you believe what he was doing.       It's not just him though, as I'm in love with Rachel Griffiths. Her work playing Brenda is fantastic. Her timing and acting chops are great. In particular, there is one scene where her and Peter Krause have a large fight towards the end of Season Three (this is not a spoiler if you watch the show at all.) The scene was so livid and alive, I've seen few bits in film that match with it, let alone television. It was like watching a play it seemed so real. The two of them are flat out great as a couple.       I've read that Peter was originally going to play the part of younger brother, David and I'm glad that he didn't. Not because I think Michael C. Hall is doing a better job (he does do a great job) but because good looking guy roles, like Nathan Fischer, are usually played by guys who don't have much in the way of acting chops. Nathan seems like a dumb ass airhead at first, but you realize that the person playing him needs to be capable of real depth and emotion, which he makes seem so easy.