OS 10.4 - iMac Newbie with OS X problems

I hope someone here can shed some light on these problems. I have had my Intel iMac about 2 weeks & I have been trying to install OpenOffice. I understand I first have to install X11 from my OS X Install disk. When I try to do this, the install just hangs & I wind up doing a Force Quit. dTravis suggested I Repair Permissions & try again so I sign on as Administrator & try to open the Disk Utility. It sits there for about 45 minutes "Gathering disk information" so eventually I Force Quit it, too. When I look at the console, I see the following message:
Jun 2 21:18:14 Administrators-computer /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskManagement.framework/Resources/DiskManagementTool:FIXME:
IOUnserialize has detected a string that is not valid UTF-8

Then I tried to run Software Update and its status bar moves about an eigth of the way & it hangs up and I have to cancel it.

Am I looking at some real potential problems with my OS? As my name implies, I'm a real dope about this stuff. I got a Mac because I was tired of being a system admin on a PC.

Would sacrificing a chicken help?

Thanks everyone.


Never mind. Reebooting cleared it up.