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Sorry for the techno post. I try to stay away from them, but this is something that affects most everyone out there because at some point, you'll most likely be confronted by the next incarnation of Windows, Windows Vista. I recently downloaded the RC1 (the RC stands for Release Candidate) version they put out and took it for a test drive on my Thinkpad Z60m.       It all seemed to install fine and run without a hitch which is definitely a first for a piece of Windows software. I remember the Windows 2000 days when after you installed it, your machine basically crumbled. But here we are on what I assume to still be the NT 5 or now 6 kernel and everything seems to run a lot tighter. Something that was a bit spastic were the screen transitions which would "glitch" out and pixelate briefly before going to where they should be. Makes sense given that my displays system is really not optimized for this operating system. But, other than that and a rather long boot time (might be shortened if you do a clean install and not an upgrade) it ran without any problems.       Now as to whether or not you really need this upgrade, I'd have to say no, you don't. Until programs aren't being released for XP anymore and are truly faster on Vista, there is no reason to upgrade. For all purposes, this is just XP made prettier. On that note, if you want the prettiness of it, then get it. It's definitely one of the nicest looking Windows systems to date. It is true that a lot of this is taken from Apple OS X, but it's not over the top. I found it pleasant to work with. Do I like the fact that this is taking away processing power when churning through photos or editing a film, yes, yes I do.       And this is one last note I'd like to mention is that there is a rating for your "Windows Vista Experience" you can find when you dig around in My Computer > Properties (No, I don't like the menus that have been around since XP. I greatly prefer the "Classic" style and relate to everything from that point.) Anyways, my Thinkpad which is a brand new machine with a 1.5 gigs of ram only got a 3.7 on their scale. Talk about a slap in the face. But, given that my "experience" was mostly glitch free in what is really beta software, I'd be curious if someone who scores a 5 would see all that much more difference. And if my desktop with 10k SATA drives, an Athlon 64 processor, 2 gigs of ram, and a mighty 256 meg GPU doesn't get close to that benchmark, I'm really curious what would. Given that this is what I'm musing about when looking at the newest operating system to come out of Microsoft in five years, you can see how trivial most of this is. Welcome to Windows XP Service Pack 3.              UPDATE - One nasty thing it did was upon initial installation, my sound was working fine. Then it found this "better" Hi Definition driver which it decided to install and now I've got nothing. No sound. No way to fix the problem that I've found. Another thing that sucks is the Outlook web client integration through Explorer 7. It must be their own security tripping them up, but among other bugs, I can't uh... type in the message body when replying to an email. That's something of a pain to say the least. Lastly, why does it always want to "Sleep" when I shut down? I chose "Shut Down" every time I shut down. Can't we stick with that? Nice job on getting rid of the "start" button by the way MS. Now people can't complain that they go to "start" to click "shut down".

If you don't know of him, Robert X. Cringely - www.pbs.org/cringely/ is a clever fellow. He writes about all things technology, looking at trends, analyzing what's going on and seeing where stuff is headed. He's had some great articles on Net Neutrality recently. He also is a pretty amazing guy who can foreshadow the future really well. Rightly so, in his article covering the Apple announcement on the 12th, he pretty much nailed everything that was going to be announced and also knew the reason for it. Naturally he mentions that he knew of this about a year and a half ago. Whether it's insiders that he knows or just a great sense for pronostication, he's a good read.       Admittedly, it can get technical at points, but being challenged is a good thing. He also "kinda" updates once a week. Sometimes it's faster, sometimes it's slower. Whatever the case, it always a good read and he's got one of the few blogs (although he's actually going to be fully converting to this format properly in the future) that I know of with a PageRank of eight. Pretty awesome seeing as how Hudin here only has a three and I've done a lot to earn that three.

They've pushed me too far finally and I've had to come up with a proper word. That's right, from now on, any idiot white person with those damned caucasian dreadlocks now has "kockalocks".       Yes, it's a foul word, but this is a foul thing. I've mentioned it before, say, here, here, and here. Needless to say, I don't like dreads and I don't like the people who where them. It's a choice that one decides upon and it's a ridiculous one at that. And when you toss in the fact that with a little bit of history they are in fact often a shown of resistance against the white man slave overlord or what have you, the fact that white morons have this mangy crap makes it even dumber.       Just to add more fuel to my "radical" theory about white folks with dreadlocks (in that any white person with dreads is the lamest idiot you can meet) I ran in to a guy in Berkeley with quite a mange. He was walking up from Bart on Center Street and playing with his mange while talking incredibly loudly on his cellphone. Like most of these idiots he was talking about all this worldly crap and instead of just using the English word he kept dropping in Spanish like he was cooler than cooler, despite being a rat-faced white guy. I thankfully managed to turn off another path to Dwinelle Hall and despite getting further and further away, I could still hear his idiot conversation despite there being 40 feet and a lot of trees between us. Such an idiot. Such a set of dreads.       I'll put forth my challenge (again) that if anyone is to find someone the least bit okay who is white and has dreadlocks, let me know. Otherwise my theory seems to quickly be entering the world of fact.

I was just glancing through the archives and realized that another year has passed since I've been doing this, bringing the grand total up to three.       At this point I usually seem to look back and see what has changed over the past year. Admittedly a lot has over this last year, but I'm less than interested in that because I seem to be in some state of flux and change currently that is making me very interested in the future. I can't really say what it will bring, but the fact I've stopped giving a damn about so many things which are out of my control has made things a lot happier.       Don't get me wrong, I still get nervous when flying and seafood hasn't really rocked my world just yet, but the fact that I'll hop on a flight at any point or even try seafood when given the chance says a lot.       Well, 2003-2006, here's lookin' at you! Still of course waiting for some Cathy articles to start appearing on this thing, but I assume that will happen in time...

The one big problem in studying a foreign language is that then you want to go to foreign countries. It's one thing if it's Mexico or Canada since you can drive to those, but when it's Europe you've got a problem. There are no weekend trips to Europe.       I am reminded of this each day as I head over to Berkeley and the lovely sign pointing to SFO is poking at my eyes. I suppose he's there to remind that yes, it is really close and yes, it will get you away from the idiotic Art Academy children/students living in the dorm across the street who are yelling and making all kinds of noise as I write this at 1:30 in the morning because really, private art schools don't take up that much of your time. Once again, a reason why real artists go to public schools. You gotta work it when you in tha publick.

A lot of people mope and groan about the dating scene in San Francisco, saying that it's one of the toughest ones in the country. I couldn't really tell you since I've not really lived that many places and it seems that dating sucks as much here as just about anywhere. It's not fun to meet multiple people only to find out that it doesn't work out. It takes up a lot of time, sometimes a lot of money, and a depending on your make up, maybe even a bit of our your soul.       Of course, none of this really compares to what I have now termed as "friending" wherein you go out and make friends. People might laugh at this and think I'm a loser, but really, how many good, good friends do you have in San Francisco? What do I mean by a good friend? Well, someone you can depend on, would probably loan you their car, might possibly loan you money if you needed it, and most importantly would help you move. I've found very few people that are able to stick to these points and those who do or even go close are people I hang on to. Sure, you can go out and have lots of folks to party with, but those are just drinking buddies. We've all got plenty of them. When it comes time to move your act from Russian Hill to the Oakland Hills or vice versa, are they gonna be there? No.       I've come to find that getting friends is so much like dating, it's not even funny. Usually you meet when you're out doing things. You'll meet up at some later date for a drink or something else. Maybe you'll meet at one another's parties. And the list goes on and on. At some point, you reach some form of stability with this person. In a relationship relationship this is probably where you consider marraige. With friending, it's just that point where the person meets the above points for you and probably the other way around as well.       When friending, sometimes it just doesn't work out. This can be tougher than dating. Because there is no sex involved (or at least there better not be you freaks) you actually get to know the person. Yeah, I know, people should get to know each other more before having sex, but this just doesn't happen. Welcome to the City gang. Anyways, the parting of friends is just as tough as parting of anything else. And of course if you have loaned money or a car, you could get burned. Is there a great deal of insecurity in making new friends. There shouldn't be and in my hometown there isn't because people are really upfront. But, here in the urban land, yes, there is. People hold back a lot and you don't really get to know them as well as you should until sometimes it's too late to salvage the friendship.       Anyways, heavy thoughts for a Friday, but think about the next time you're out cruising the bars, trying to make new friends.

Damn! I don't mean to it, I swear! I just talk up stuff so well that people listen to me. I need to learn to keep my mouth shut.       Case in point, the Garden of Eatin' Yellow Corn Round Chips at Whole Foods. Well, they don't need to just be at Whole Foods, but that's where I find them. It appears that everyone else has found them as well, since the last time I went for groceries, they were out. They also happened to be out the time before that. The time before the time before that, I only got one of my required two bags.       Crap. I shouldn't have told so many people that these were the best chip (and probably one of the healthiest) ever made. Now everyone wants them and I go without. I should probably shut up about Croatian wine right now if I want to be able to afford it.

It may seem like an odd reason to go out to the De Young, but besides seeing a structure which has settled in to its setting very nicely, the Quilt Exhibit is really interesting to see. I'm used to the structured look of quilts in the US, but these are something else. So many elements of African patterns are incorporated in to these practical items from Gee's Bend in Arkansas, that each one is unique and shows great depth.       It is interesting because it goes to show that when you pull out the ordinary from real life and hang it in a museum, it will suddenly appear as art. This doesn't work with everything because a great deal of stuff is crap. But, with these quilts, there is indeed an artisty to what these women did and it is most certainly worth a view. Motivate!

Despite the common sense that might come in to play when presented with this scenario; a couple of glasses red wine and a couple of glasses of red wine sangria do not mix all that well. Call it an abomination of the natural course of mixing drinks, but really, they just don't pair up like you think they would.       So, what's a bloke to do when faced with this at a nice tapas place like Andalu? Simple, stick with one. If this isn't easily done because the alcohol keeps changing up, then go with the flow, mix it up and have fun. Do like I did and go from Scotch, to red wine, to sangria, to a couple of pints of Guinness just to see the night out. If you're lucky, you'll reach this lovely state of drunk where you feel drunk but yet don't really feel drunk. I call it the humming plateau. A spot you hit just prior to blacking out. Call it off at the right point and you might find as I did that despite the massive cranking buzz, you'll wake up fine the next day. I think it's the Guinness. That's just a fine beer and it has magical healing properties. Remember that the next time you're about to get a good bleeding by your village witch doctor and try a Guinness instead.

I was the recent victim in the planning of a surpise party over the weekend. Needless to say, I don't like these parties and I'm of the opinion that they are either a) a misled attempt at kindness based on the fun we all remember from lame 1980's sitcoms or b) mainly for the benefit of the planner. I've gotten to like a parties and having parties a lot as I've gotten older, but if anyone ever did a surprise party for me, I'd turn a firehose on all the guests. I mean, it's just kinda crappy because you sorta mope around wondering where everyone might be and then all these people you've thought were losers are suddenly in your house. That's not my idea of a good birthday.       While there are many stories (um... more like urban legends) of these things going awry, I think that one of the reasons Six Feet Under kicks ass is because of the one episode where they had a surprise party and it just kinda pissed off Nate. The last thing you want when turning a new degree is a surprise, yet everyone keeps trying to do them. Maybe we need legislation to prevent this.