In reply to this comment by schmawy:
Ah, Ducatisti! Haha. I actually worked at a Ducati dealership in the mid nineties. They actually sent me to service school in Fairfield, NJ to learn to work on the 916. They're a little to fast and agile for me, not to mention a little uncompromizing for the touring I like to do. Fabulous bikes though. I work with a guy who has a basement full of them, and is building a 70's one frame up right now from an old 750ss that somebody brutalized into a chopper. He's making a nasty cafe out of it.

Do you race motard? I'll behave myself because apparently you're quite mad! I've never raced, but I'm mot putting it out of my head that I might get out there some day. I'd like to do one of the schools, like penguin I think it's called, and I king Keith Code has a school and there's that California one you always see in the back of the bike mags. That and a couple of track days.


I've had the 748S since 2000 and it was joined by the 600SS in 2005 purely to race. The club that I belong to (Ducati Sporting Club UK) started its own race series so I had to have a go as trackdays were getting too competitive. If you're interested, I blogged a load of stuff on my website at the time: http://www.horrible.demon.co.uk/bikes/racing2005.htm

I stopped racing in 2007 after getting torpedoed from behind at about 90mph and that broke me and the bike; one collarbone and a few ribs for me and the bike was trashed. I rebuilt it once the collarbone had healed but it was a year later that I went back and raced - I came 7th (out of 38) so didn't do too bad for a year out!

The Hypermotard is strictly for wheelies^H^H road riding. It's an animal! Best bike I've ever owned and always makes me smile.

I've been to the Ducati factory in Bologna five times now and ended up organising the factory trips for the club which were quite popular! It's an amazing place, really interesting to see such a small factory at work on such a well-known name. Well worth doing if you can, even if you're not that much of a Ducati fan!

Some bike pictures:
Racing Pics
Bike pics

*envy*envy*envy*envy*envy*envy*envy*

Just kidding... (no I'm not)
I'd wish you a great time, but I already know it's guaranteed for you - those are some damn amazing places to be visiting on a single 'trip'.

So I guess we'll see you in 4.0 then

Thanks so much for keeping this amazing place running. Cheers!

Shit, did you go already?

I lived in Berlin for a few years and could tell you some amazing places to go.!!!

>> ^Deano:
Blimey who would have thought this could be dangerous?! India is an amazing place but just way too unregulated in so many ways.


I wish we were unregulated in such ways. I'm tired of laws that protect people from their own stupidity. Let's bring back natural selection!

Blimey who would have thought this could be dangerous?! India is an amazing place but just way too unregulated in so many ways.

Congratulations pinky, you've opened up some great discussion here and it's heartening to read some of the considered and thoughtful replies.
Feminism is definitely a worthwhile forum for debate, as is any movement which moves humanity onto greater awareness of our states of being.

I'm looking forward to the emergence of the masculine movement, when men reclaim their right to self-expression, without fear of being labeled less-than-manly. I look forward to seeing more men hugging and crying together in public and all the other configurations of men embracing their yin-ness.

I also look forward to the day that both heterosexual and LGBT labels have disappeared from our language. I look forward to the day that men and women are who they are, in whatever form that takes, without the need for society to have them pidgeon-holed into some category.

Yes Laura et al, we can apply filters and choose not to see the shit. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, nor that some of us are not deeply affected by it, whether we have those filters in place or not. By the deeply affecting shit, I am not referring to poorly chosen jokes or worded comments which appear on sites like this. I'm talking about serious sexism that can make a person without status or privelege less than human in the eyes of others.

I like your measure of appropriate language, kronos. If it's not something you can say out loud at work, it's probably best left unsaid, wherever you are. I noticed with interest kronos, too, that in your recent post about bad jokes, when you asked that racist jokes be left out, people followed your request. I wonder if you thought it would sound too draconian to include sexist jokes in your list of ones to avoid? I kinda wish you had, because it seemed that some members took that omission as a green light to try and out-do each other with the worst sexist jokes they could manage. I refer to videosiftbannedme's comparison of older women,to dog turd.

Well done to those who have contributed to this discussion with positivity and insight. If people of all races, gender and sexual orientation feel that they have a voice here, then it's a pretty good indicator of an amazing place.

Thanks for your very nice sentiments everyone. Charms asked me to tell you all the following for her: Thank you so very much for your kind words. I don't deserve them, but they make me very happy. Thank you!

We're looking forward to everyone else continuing this tradition in your own locales or travel destination spots around the globe. Maybe we can start a section just for VS pictures from everyone once we have a few more. That'd be great.

Raven- We gambled and lost exactly $10 and our game of choice, which we didn't play this trip around, is roulette. We were just too busy being in love to waste much time in any casinos.

Again, thanks everyone. You're all the wonderfully high caliber people that make this a unique and amazing place to spend all your quality time.

I knew my recovery from Internet addiction wasn't going well, but, um... thanks for pointing that out.

Congrats, guys, you've made this an amazing place.

I always loved this part of the movie, but I always did cringe at some of the inconsistencies. Not just the inconsistencies between what he said and the actual story, but some of the inconsistencies of what he said. “They didn’t even list us as overdue for a week.” And “… Noon, the fifth day…” talking about the plane, which actually happened shortly into the fourth day, yet was before a week’s time. The fact is they were listed overdue within a day of the sinking.

They were also not on their way from Tinian to Leyte, they were on their way from Guam. Leyte Gulf is one of the forgotten battlefields of WWII. The largest naval battle was waged there, along with this major disaster in naval history.

Still, a classic scene though.

Anyone visiting the Philippines, I suggest you check out some of the major battlefields and places of interest; Bataan, Carregador, Leyte, and others. It is an amazing place.

Pink Floyd pfft things have moved on sumwhat. Holand is the most amazing place!

I visited Gainsbourg's grave in Paris a few years back. It had all the markings of a little shrine: someone had left some neat little snapshots among the candles. Someone else had left a cabbage with hiragana on it. Why knows why? There was a half-smoked cigarette lying as though left for Gainsbourg to finish. Amazing place. Watching this clip, made me wonder if the days of men like Serge Gainsbourg, Irving Layton, and Charles Bukowski will ever roll around again. :-)