Contemplations by Thor /tɔː(r)/

As I was writing my last post on blogger I was told to upgrade my template. After two hours of failed attempts I decided to make a new blog. I'd appreciate any help in migrating to the new format. Edit: Although I never manged the upgrade, I made a new blog and transferred the contents by export/import.

Road trip in Northern California April 2016 What was originally planned as a motorcycle trip, turned out to be a fantastic road trip to the North of the state I have visited most frequently. California has it all: the golden with deserts and sunny locations along the Pacific coast, the fantastic forests of the North and the Sierra Nevada mountains to the East. The objective of the trip to California this time around was an ISO meeting in Sacramento. As usual, I planned to have a couple of days off in front of the meetings in order to adjust to the nine hour time difference. As I had never visited Highway 1 North of San Francisco, I discussed this route with a colleague that frequently visits San Francisco. He definitively recommended the route up to Fort Bragg, but his preference was to ride by motorcycle. By looking at the map, I found some attractive routes East towards Redding. Finally, driving South again either on Interstate 5 or some of slower highways I could make it ...

Motorcycle touring in Italy For a project meeting in Verona in late October, I decided to replace the rental car with a rented motorcycle. I asked my girlfriend for a couple of days of travel extensions in order to be able to ride the motorcycle up North to visit the wine districts and the big lakes. Normally, I'd travel to Verona by flying to Milan and then do the 200 or so kilometers by rental car. After I acquired a motorcycle license last year, I have wanted to do some travelling by motorcycle outside Norway. After exploring some of the options for motorcycle rental in the US, it became evident that this is a fairly expensive way of travelling; roughly estimated to be 2-3 times more expensive than renting a car. Being an avid BMW fan, I nevertheless found it appropriate to drive something Italian when there. I've always wanted to drive a Ducati Hypermotard, but due to limited pannier options, I decided to go for a Multistrada. I found one company in Milan that had a 2015 re...

On my last travel I decided it was to be the last for my 3 kg 17" Full HD notebook. As the battery capacity of my iPod Touch 1G is insufficent for watching anything longer than one hour, I decided it was time for a new gadget: a netbook. A quick look through reviews revealed that the Asus EEE PC 1005PE was the best choice. An impressing battery capacity of 14 hours was listed. Limited availability of the PE had me look to the P version. Cheaper, but why? The guy in the store claimed the smaller HDD (160 vs 250) was the only difference. I tried to list differences from the Asus' website but found none. A google search indicated that the PE had a glossy display, which would rule it out as a choice. The PE battery was also of bigger capacity, 14 vs. 11 hours indicated. I decided to buy the 1005P. Having used it for a couple of days, I have now an updated list of differences: 1) P does not have Bluetooth 2) P does not support 802.11n 3) PE does not have glossy screen 4) some ke...

In 1994, December 15. to be more precise, I purchased a Moccamaster KBC741. This morning, almost 15 years later, it stopped working. In 1994, 1,195 NOK was a lot of money for a coffee maker. Now, after 15 years of maintenance free service I am happy to go out and get another KBC741 with aluminium finish. The buttons have moved, but the design is otherwise unchanged. An auto-off feature is implemented as an option. The price is now 1,500 NOK.

A family with two kids and a large dog often face the challenge of finding a car big enough. By car I then exclude the bus category some peope resolve to buy. When we knew a couple of boys were on the way, we contemplated buying a VW Caravelle or a MB Vito. We came to the conclusion that we'd rather buy a trailer and use it whenever needed rather driving a bus year around. Still, there's only a handful of station wagons to fit the dog cage and a twin cart. My lovely '01 BMW 520iAT (two seater, "green" license plates due to odd tax rules) could be converted, but the car was simply not big enough. I decided that only MB E-class, the new BMW 5-series and Volvo V70 were the list I could choose from. I should mention that some brands like Ford, VW and all french cars were excluded by obvious quality considerations. Still, I was not sure whether my station wagon slash trailer would suffice. To avoid putting too much money into this project (cars are generally bad invest...

It's always been a dream of mine to drive a Cadillac DTS. The Northstar V8, the four chromed exhaustpipes and the majestic exterior has always attracted me about this car. So when me and my friend decided to go roadtripping from San Antonio to Miami we settled for a DTS. At San Antonio International airport I picked up a '07 black DTS. I could not get it confirmed, but I belive it was the 272 bhp version. It was really fantastic to take the car out from the lot. It definately gave the feeling of excessive luxury you fail to find in most American cars. The next morning we set out for Austin, and we discovered soon the comfort of this car on the highway. It is definately a car for the long stretches; very comfortable. For a person used to a fairly tight BMW 5-series, this car felt very loose. I had read to my surprise that this car had a front wheel drive, and this was certainly noticeable when hitting the accelerator. Both me and my friend normally drive rear wheel driven cars s...