DonXML and I are at an Avalon session right now, and it's nice to finally get to see this stuff for the first time.

Yesterday technically would have been the first time that I ever saw Avalon in action, but I was so tired that I don't really count it. I was very surprised to wake up in LA this morning, and had to go through a brief question and answer session with myself to determine how I had come to be here. Managed to figure everything out, and I'm feeling much better now, thank you.

But, as I was saying, we're digging Avalon. I want HalfLife 2, the next LOTR, and Longhorn to be released early. Those are the items on my list that need to come out now. I kind of hope that the next Star Wars movie never comes out (or is at least released and rebranded as a Muppet movie), but that's another story altogether.

There's a strong population of users who don't like all the eye candy in various operating systems and window managers, but I think it's absolutely beautiful.

Even better, though, is that there's a nice little hidden surprise that is the result of Avalon raising the bar so high: To top it, someone is going to have to do something ridiculously incredible, and I can't wait to see that. It's nice to have things to look forward to.

It's so nice to know that the several bajillion dollars I spend on graphics cards each year isn't gong to go to waste anymore. Windows XP dutifully ignores my $400.00 GPU, and this has been a source of frustration for me. I probably have the hardware to render Tron in real time, but Windows still stutters when I try to do something really simple, like open up 900 copies of Notepad at the same time. That sucks. Avalon doesn't suck.