Man, I sure do love my favorite second-floor japanese ramen house. The only problem is *noodle slurping*. And today it was bad. Ach, those *noodle slurping noodle slurpers* How can they stand it? How can *anyone* stand it? Noodle slurping almost ruined my day today! Am I going to have to find a new lunch place? Help!

I’ve been using diggdot.us for a while, but there’s a lot of junk in there, and it doesn’t include other stuff I like to read about (i.e. Mac voyeur sites), so I went looking for something else… and found it: Original Signal rocks!

I’ve had a new Keihin FCR 41mm carb sitting on my desk for a couple of months, waiting for me to get around to putting it in the Duke. I finally got around to doing the swap a week or so ago, and then Friday got a new rear tire (Metzler Sportec to match the front - they seem to work plenty well) and fresh oil. The carb went in incredibly easily, and really makes a noticeable difference. Lots more power, and a cool little hisssss from the accelerator pump. Henry and I went for a ride on Saturday up over Tam, up to Olema (my favorite stretch, the banked uphill curves on the way from Bolinas to Dogtown), and then out thru Pt Reyes to Marshall, in to Petaluma, and then back over the mountain to Novato via “D” Street. Great ride, in part because the weather was just bad enough to keep the weekenders off the roads. I’ve had a fair number of bikes, and the Duke just keeps impressing me - what a great bike.

I went back to my favorite little Castro barber shop the other day for the first time in a few months. As I drove up, I saw that Jane was using Wes’ chair, and I thought - what happened, did Wes leave the shop? It turns out Wes - a healthy, happy, 54 who looked 20 years younger - died of a heart attack back in late September, not long after the last time I had been in. Wes and I shared a taste for Old Potrero rye, and he never failed to complement me on my figure as I climbed off my motorcycle. Wes, I hardly knew you, but I’ll sure miss you.

I’m sure I’m not the first to say this, but it seems certain that the forthcoming launch of Microsoft’s latest non-release will drive folks looking for a *real* upgrade to Max OS X and the Apple platform. It just seems so pathetic! Another lame reskinning with no real features, and the same old bass-ackwards take on usability. If these are the “11 reasons to give Vista a chance“, MS should be embarrassed. In fact, it seems like they’re already scrambling to get out a follow-up release - although I don’t see how this could really be much more promising.