Got my motorcycle license

today. Woke up way too early for the privilege of being the first person at the San Francisco DMV , took a couple tests and got the sheet of paper (why California insists on this archaic process of mailing your license after a couple weeks is beyond me).

I had taken the CHP motorcycle safety course

so I could skip the DMV driving test. I heard you needed a scooter or incredibly tiny bike in order to pass it. The class was definitely worth it.

So now I have to sort out a bike. Patti

has graciously offered to loan me a bike for a while, so I think I can put off a purchase for a couple months. Every friend I have who rides has told me the same thing: Don’t get the bike you really want first. Get a first bike, get comfortable riding it (translation: drop it a couple times), then spend the lucre on the real thing.

So I’ve been trying to determine the likelyhood of crashing a motorcycle in the first N units of time. Factors in my calculation:

• I have plenty of experience riding a bicycle in traffic. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tokyo and rural riding. Mountain biking, road and track (velodrome). I ride a brakeless track bike 300 days a year, rain or shine. Logged a few thousand miles.
• Had an automobile license for 14 years, and no tickets (speeding or otherwise) in 5 years. My car has a stickshift, 300HP and a big spoiler. Still have good driver discount. ;)
• Since I’ve been cycling seriously, I’ve had only 2 incidents that could be categorized as crashes.
• Both crashes involved MUNI rails.
• Both crashes were on a mountain bike with knobby tires (note to self: not great for city riding).
• Only one crash resulted in an injury.
• Zero incidents on a road or track bike (brakeless or otherwise).
• Percentage of bicycle rides without a helmet: 0.05%
• Percentage of unhelmeted rides longer than 2 miles: 0%

So I have a good safety record behind the wheel and handlebars. I like to go fast, but with a safety margin. Assuming I keep things reasonable for the first thousand miles or so on a motorcycle, the risk of an injury resulting from a crash or other incident resulting from my own actions should be relatively low.* *Yeah, I’m knocking on wood too.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in May 2006.

Galapagos islands, the Easter islands or Nepal. The more geographically remote and pristine, the better. I’m a city boy and always will be, so maybe that’s why I prefer vacations with as few people around as possible.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in May 2006.

Went to Mendocino this past weekend avec Liz and took approximately a billion photos. Not sure how I lived before getting a camera with a macro feature.

We stayed at the very excellent Josh Grindle Inn, the oldest operating B&B in Mendocino. Spent Saturday photographing the Mendocino Headlands and breakers at Jughandle Beach.

Noshed with the locals at Patterson’s Pub and dined vegan at The Ravens on Saturday.

Walked around redwoods on Sunday before heading to Boonville and stumbling upon Dharma Realm University . 10000 Buddhas, indeed.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in May 2006.

Like peanut butter & jelly, two great tastes that go great together. Awesome.

Thanks to Andrew, I got to see Barry crank it out of the park his 1st time up to bat. It was the only run of the game, but it was sweet nonetheless.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in April 2006.

Gabo works at Boulette’s Larder and makes food photography look good. He should be on Comet…

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in April 2006.

It’s April, and time for new music. A total impulse buy based solely on the cover, I found the new heavy rotation for springtime: Visioneers: Dirty Old Hip Hop. The opening track featuring Voice rhyming about mixtapes and beat-up Walkmans sets the tone, which is good good good.

My rating: eleven.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in April 2006.

Last night a few of us went out for Lisa’s birthday. We ran into Maile at Skylark right after the doorman and I had this very creepy exchange:

Doorman: Can I see your ID sir?

Me: Sure, here you go.

Doorman, after looking at the ID: Enjoy the weather yesterday?

Definitely.

Take any pictures of the sun?

Huh, yeah. Several actually.

To which he replied, his voice dropping an octave: Good, because you’ll never see it again.

As of 2:00 PM today, I have yet to see the sun…

Later on, we ran into an acquaintance of mine and his wife on the street as they were parking to conincidentally go to the same party we were headed to. He was walking with a cane, and later on he told me the story: He’d fallen 30 feet and crushed a vertebrae and for a while was partially paralyzed. I’m happy he can walk again…

Tangentially, his wife’s cousin is Panasonic’s patent & trademark lawyer. This fact was divulged after a discussion about the merits of various band names such as Rolls Royce. I brought up Panasonic (now Pan Sonic) as an example of a well-known brand name that happened to be a good band name.

There is no point to this post.

SFist mentions one of my favorite books and blogs about food in the same post. We are happy.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in April 2006.

Erosion and a plastic cameraphone lens have a wonderful effect on what is normally a right-angled subject.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in March 2006.