Day 2 of the Pashnit NorCal Motorcycle Paradise taken from pashnittours.com.
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Sunday, January 16, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Norway Motorcycle Tours
Here are few links to resources about touring Norway on a motorcycle:
- http://www.beachs-mca.com/articles/citybike/nor98.html - good description of a Beach tour, comparing Norway to California riding
- http://www.beachs-mca.com/articles/norway_reviews.htm - reviews of Beach tours
- http://travel.zerogdesigns.com - 3 travel logs from '96, '97, '98 describing each tour in detail
Friday, October 22, 2010
Move iTunes library and preserve ALL data
This little blog refers to the following case:
I do not let iTunes manage my music library, so I was on my own and I was about to corrupt the iTunes Library.itl file and edit/replace the iTunes Music Library.xml file. You can find a very good blog about this here.
The drawback of the above method is that, after being cumbersome and hacky -- not that I mind that, it also results in the loss of 'Date Added' property of each song.
Lucky for me, I found out that iTunes 10 will try and search for your misplaced library songs upon locating one item in the library.
Here is what I did:
- iTunes library (music, etc) was copied from computer A to computer B;
- the path of the library on computer A is not the same with path on computer B;
- iTunes does not manage the library automatically;
- use iTunes 10
- don't want to lose the 'Date Added' property on each song
I do not let iTunes manage my music library, so I was on my own and I was about to corrupt the iTunes Library.itl file and edit/replace the iTunes Music Library.xml file. You can find a very good blog about this here.
The drawback of the above method is that, after being cumbersome and hacky -- not that I mind that, it also results in the loss of 'Date Added' property of each song.
Lucky for me, I found out that iTunes 10 will try and search for your misplaced library songs upon locating one item in the library.
Here is what I did:
- Start iTunes
- In your Music library, try to play a song
- iTunes will complain that it cannot find the song: "The song 'xxx' could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"
- Click 'Locate'
- A file selector dialog comes up and prompts you to select/locate the song file. Provided that you have an idea where the song is, go ahead and locate it. (If you don't know the location, you can search for it on your computer)
- Once found, select the song, press Open.
- iTunes will now prompt you with another dialog: "Would you like iTunes to use the location of 'xxx' to find other missing files in your library?"
- Click 'Find Files'
- BINGO! iTunes will now go through your library and match the other songs to their new paths. In my case it took only a few seconds to 'find' about 2000 songs. All songs properties were preserved!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Motorcycle Trip 19
Taken from Pashnit website (Touring the High Sierras)
A 3 day tour.
Night 1 sleep at Tioga Lodge.
Night 2 sleep at West Walker Motel.
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A 3 day tour.
Night 1 sleep at Tioga Lodge.
Night 2 sleep at West Walker Motel.
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Monday, July 5, 2010
2-Up to Boulder Creek
Last week I bought a passenger backrest (also flavourdly called 'sissy-bar') for my wife. So today we tried it out.
We went 2up from Saratoga, Hwy 9, Boulder Creek (breakfast at Old Mountain Inn), then back on Bear Creek Rd, Hwy 17, home.
I loved it. She said it was 'Ooookkkkaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy (grin) (grin)' :)
Duration: 2h30m (including breakfast)
Difficulty: Medium, plenty of twisties
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We went 2up from Saratoga, Hwy 9, Boulder Creek (breakfast at Old Mountain Inn), then back on Bear Creek Rd, Hwy 17, home.
I loved it. She said it was 'Ooookkkkaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy (grin) (grin)' :)
Duration: 2h30m (including breakfast)
Difficulty: Medium, plenty of twisties
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Saturday, December 12, 2009
The books I have read: The Time Traveler's Wife
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger is an amazing love story between a woman and a man with a genetic disorder that makes him time travel randomly.
Main characters:
Henry DeTamble - a librarian at the Newberry Library in Chicago
Clare Abshire - artist, makes paper sculptures
The novel is narrated in first-person, switching between Clare's point of view and Henry's. Henry begins time traveling at the age of five, jumping forward and backward relative to his own timeline. He is unable to control his travels: when he leaves, where he goes, or how long his trip will last. His destinations are tied to his subconscious—he most often travels to places and times related to his own history. Certain stimuli such as stress can trigger Henry's time traveling; he often goes jogging to keep calm and remain in the present. He also searches out pharmaceuticals in the future that may be able to help control his time traveling. Henry cannot take anything with him into the future or the past; he always arrives naked and then struggles to find clothing, shelter and food.
What I like about this story, is that it starts with older Henry time traveling to 6 year old Clare. She simply believes him that he can travel in time, and thus their love story begins. When Clare is 20, she finally meets Henry from her present, who does not know her and has not lived any of the moments from Clare's childhood. It is a story about discovery, love and relationships.
Beautiful love story.......very sad!
Main characters:
Henry DeTamble - a librarian at the Newberry Library in Chicago
Clare Abshire - artist, makes paper sculptures
The novel is narrated in first-person, switching between Clare's point of view and Henry's. Henry begins time traveling at the age of five, jumping forward and backward relative to his own timeline. He is unable to control his travels: when he leaves, where he goes, or how long his trip will last. His destinations are tied to his subconscious—he most often travels to places and times related to his own history. Certain stimuli such as stress can trigger Henry's time traveling; he often goes jogging to keep calm and remain in the present. He also searches out pharmaceuticals in the future that may be able to help control his time traveling. Henry cannot take anything with him into the future or the past; he always arrives naked and then struggles to find clothing, shelter and food.
What I like about this story, is that it starts with older Henry time traveling to 6 year old Clare. She simply believes him that he can travel in time, and thus their love story begins. When Clare is 20, she finally meets Henry from her present, who does not know her and has not lived any of the moments from Clare's childhood. It is a story about discovery, love and relationships.
Beautiful love story.......very sad!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Motorcycle Trip 18
I found this ride on www.southbayriders.com.
Route:
Santa Teresa Blvd - 6.1 mi.
Right on Bailey Ave - 2.3 mi.
Left on McKean Rd - 2.4 mi.
McKean becomes Uvas Rd - 7.4 mi.
Stop at Uvas Reservoir
Continue Uvas - 2.3 mi.
Right on Watsonville Rd - 3.6 mi.
Right on (152) Hecker Pass Rd - 5.2 mi.
Stop at Mt Madonna
Continue Hecker Pass Rd - 4.5 mi.
Hecker Pass Rd becomes East Lake Ave - 1.7 mi.
Right on Holohan Rd - 1.5 mi.
Holohan Rd becomes Airport Blvd - .6 mi.
Right on Freedom Blvd - 4.9 mi.
Right on Day Valley Rd - 2 mi.
Valencia Rd - 2.6 mi.
Trout Gulch Rd - .5 mi.
Right on Soquel Dr - 3.6 mi.
Right on Porter becomes Soquel/San Jose Rd - 11 mi.
Left on Summit Rd - .2 mi.
Stop at the store on right - .2 mi.
Continue on Summit - 2.5 mi.
Right on Old Santa Cruz Road - 5 mi.
Stop at the Fire Station on the right
This is the end of the ride.
Length: 170km / 106mi
Duration: 3h7m
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Route:
Santa Teresa Blvd - 6.1 mi.
Right on Bailey Ave - 2.3 mi.
Left on McKean Rd - 2.4 mi.
McKean becomes Uvas Rd - 7.4 mi.
Stop at Uvas Reservoir
Continue Uvas - 2.3 mi.
Right on Watsonville Rd - 3.6 mi.
Right on (152) Hecker Pass Rd - 5.2 mi.
Stop at Mt Madonna
Continue Hecker Pass Rd - 4.5 mi.
Hecker Pass Rd becomes East Lake Ave - 1.7 mi.
Right on Holohan Rd - 1.5 mi.
Holohan Rd becomes Airport Blvd - .6 mi.
Right on Freedom Blvd - 4.9 mi.
Right on Day Valley Rd - 2 mi.
Valencia Rd - 2.6 mi.
Trout Gulch Rd - .5 mi.
Right on Soquel Dr - 3.6 mi.
Right on Porter becomes Soquel/San Jose Rd - 11 mi.
Left on Summit Rd - .2 mi.
Stop at the store on right - .2 mi.
Continue on Summit - 2.5 mi.
Right on Old Santa Cruz Road - 5 mi.
Stop at the Fire Station on the right
This is the end of the ride.
Length: 170km / 106mi
Duration: 3h7m
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Sunday, October 4, 2009
Trip around East San Jose Hills
Before taking the bike back, Nicu and I did a shorter trip around the Eastern San Jose Hills. We did basically Motorcycle Trip 5.
We started at 8a.m. and went towards Milpitas on the Calaveras Avenue. This continues into Calaveras Rd, then Felter Rd and Sierra Rd. We got a very nice view of the San Jose downtown in the fog, from the top of the Sierra Rd.
We then went onto Hwy 130 towards Mt. Hamilton, then Quimby Rd. The Lake Halls Valley was almost dried out, but that's normal being at the end of summer, just before the rains start.
Finnaly we went on to San Felipe Rd and Metcalf, then onto Monterey Hwy and back to return the bike.
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We started at 8a.m. and went towards Milpitas on the Calaveras Avenue. This continues into Calaveras Rd, then Felter Rd and Sierra Rd. We got a very nice view of the San Jose downtown in the fog, from the top of the Sierra Rd.
We then went onto Hwy 130 towards Mt. Hamilton, then Quimby Rd. The Lake Halls Valley was almost dried out, but that's normal being at the end of summer, just before the rains start.
Finnaly we went on to San Felipe Rd and Metcalf, then onto Monterey Hwy and back to return the bike.
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Saturday, October 3, 2009
Trip around Santa Cruz
Today was a fantastic day! First trip on motorcycle!!
I rented a Harley Davidson Softail Heritage and went with Nicu on a trip to Santa Cruz and back. We really took our time. First we went to Alice's Restaurant to have lunch. On the way there, in the mountains it became very cold very quickly. Although we had protective gear, it wasn't enough.
At Alice's I had some huge burger called a "Honda"... It's funny as all their burgers have motorcycle names. There were at least 50 motorcycles in front of the restaurant. Lunch time ;)
We took then Hwy 84 down to the Ocean. Awesome ride. Full of twists. Very low traffic. Then we took Hwy 1 South to Santa Cruz. We visited the Lighthouse, then tracked back to Bonny Doon Road. Took Hwy 236 to Hwy 9 and back to Saratoga. Then all the way back home.
Up in the mountains on 236 it was again super cold. Bluejeans are definitely not enough. I need to buy some proper gear... mainly against the wind.
Anyway today's ride was about 9 hours long all in all. We did about 257km (160miles) and it was pure awesomeness. Again!
This was basically Motorcycle Trip 1.
Show Bigger Map
I rented a Harley Davidson Softail Heritage and went with Nicu on a trip to Santa Cruz and back. We really took our time. First we went to Alice's Restaurant to have lunch. On the way there, in the mountains it became very cold very quickly. Although we had protective gear, it wasn't enough.
At Alice's I had some huge burger called a "Honda"... It's funny as all their burgers have motorcycle names. There were at least 50 motorcycles in front of the restaurant. Lunch time ;)
We took then Hwy 84 down to the Ocean. Awesome ride. Full of twists. Very low traffic. Then we took Hwy 1 South to Santa Cruz. We visited the Lighthouse, then tracked back to Bonny Doon Road. Took Hwy 236 to Hwy 9 and back to Saratoga. Then all the way back home.
Up in the mountains on 236 it was again super cold. Bluejeans are definitely not enough. I need to buy some proper gear... mainly against the wind.
Anyway today's ride was about 9 hours long all in all. We did about 257km (160miles) and it was pure awesomeness. Again!
This was basically Motorcycle Trip 1.
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Motorcycle Trip 17
I found this trip on calmoto.com.
It will take you through beautiful Sonoma County from San Jose to I-280, Golden Gate, Olema, Tomales, Bodega Bay (Tides Wharf Inn), Stewarts Point, then back on Tin Barn Rd, King Ridge Rd, Duncan Mills, Nicasio Reservoir, Hwy 101, and back home on the East side of the Bay.
Length: 516km / 321mi
Duration: 8h8m
Difficulty: Intermediate
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It will take you through beautiful Sonoma County from San Jose to I-280, Golden Gate, Olema, Tomales, Bodega Bay (Tides Wharf Inn), Stewarts Point, then back on Tin Barn Rd, King Ridge Rd, Duncan Mills, Nicasio Reservoir, Hwy 101, and back home on the East side of the Bay.
Length: 516km / 321mi
Duration: 8h8m
Difficulty: Intermediate
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Friday, October 2, 2009
Motorcycle Trip 16
I found this trip on calmoto.com.
This is similar to Motorcycle Trip 9, only that it can be done with a street bike.
Length: 392km / 244mi
Duration: 7h
Difficulty: Beginner/Intermediate
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This is similar to Motorcycle Trip 9, only that it can be done with a street bike.
Length: 392km / 244mi
Duration: 7h
Difficulty: Beginner/Intermediate
View Larger Map
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Motorcycle Trip 15
I found this trip on calmoto.com.
This is a day trip to Tenaya lake in the Yosemite Park.
Length: 690km / 430mi
Duration: 12h
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This is a day trip to Tenaya lake in the Yosemite Park.
Length: 690km / 430mi
Duration: 12h
Show bigger map
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