Motorcycling Mulholland Highway

By Jim Cathcart

This week the 10th annual Tiger Woods Chevron World Challenge Golf Tournament is being played here at Sherwood Country Club and after a morning workout followed by roaming the golf course with the players I decided to go for a motorcycle ride. A day of self-indulgence, Ahhhhh. Life is sweet. 

I recently bought a FlipVideo Mino video recorder. It's small enough for a pants pocket and has a mounting clip for my motorcycle's handlebars. Plus it records sound and self-focuses and adjusts for lighting. It's perfect for what I did today. 

I mounted it to my motorcycle, first on the back for a rear view and then on the front as I rode through Sherwood and Decker Canyon Road and up to Mulholland Highway. I then rode to The Rock Store, the famous motorcycle cafe hangout where all the movie stars like to congregate. Jay Leno is a regular there. Here's a photo of him that I took with my phone when he drove up in a Deusenberg one Sunday. Followed by a shot of the typical gathering of bikes there. 

Well today I affixed my trust FlipVideo to my bike and took off to ride my favorite roads. I've uploaded a portion of the ride to YouTube so you can see what it looks and feels like from the cockpit of my FJR1300 on a typical solo ride. (I ride slower with a back seat passenger.) On this ride I rode slower in the curves when there was shade because the road was wet & cold there. 

 

Above is a Yamaha factory photo of my bike. 

Anyway, it was a great ride and I hope you get a bit of the joy that I experienced today by watching this 4 minute video. 

Hope you enjoy it. 

Heartbreak Hiking Fools on Lang Ranch Trail

By Jim Cathcart

In an earlier post I mentioned my hiking habit. The title was "In Praise of Mountain Hiking". Well, my group is called "The Heartbreak Hiking Fools" after one of our least favorite and most pain-inducing hikes on Heartbreak Trail.
Today we hiked Lang Ranch trail, aka Phelan's Pholly (after Des Phelan who found the trail first).

Yesterday I bought a new FlipVideo camera and took it along today to capture the trail, the level of exertion and the group.
Here is the video, with 16 short pieces strung together without transitions. You'll notice the abrupt changes in scenery.
The entire hike to the top took me 36 minutes and 23 seconds but the video is only about 7 minutes long. I hope you enjoy it.



Read my earlier blogpost if you want to form your own hiking/biking/exercise group. It has many good ideas for how you can create a group that requires very little maintenance yet lots of fun.

www.cathcart.com

I, too, now love New York!

By Jim Cathcart

For the past week I've been in New York's famous Times Square at the Marriott Marquis hotel to attend the annual meeting of the National Speakers Association (3,700 members) and the International Federation For Professional Speakers (the worldwide network of associations for speakers.) Total attendance at this week-long event was around 2,000 (in a down economy!)

Here is what it looked like at the opening general session. By the way, the theme for the convention was "NSA Rocks!" and it really did. 

The convention is the professional association's big yearly event where they offer several days of general sessions and breakout workshops on every imaginable topic related to speaking, training, consulting, coaching, performing, publishing, storytelling and communication in general. NSA is one of the best (certified via awards from ASAE and MPI) convention associations in the world. 

As a past national president of NSA and recipient of its CSP, CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame and Cavett Award, I was involved from start to finish on boards, committees, panels, workshops, doing introductions, bestowing awards and giving presentations. But the highlight of the event for me was the "free night", Sunday. I and several of my colleagues got together to hold an "Informal Jam Session" in the Astor Ballroom. We brought guitars, keyboard, harmonicas, tambourines, ukeleles, flutes, songbooks and microphones. 

Then for FIVE HOURS we rocked the room! I sang for most of the five hours and sounded like a frog the next morning. Many professional speakers joined in and displayed their impressive musical talents. Here are some photos for your enjoyment. 

Those in the pix are myself and Patrick Henry, Alan Berg, Daniel Burrus and Rob Peck. 








No, I don't want to live in New York City, but there are few places I've been where I've had this much fun!
Thank you NSA and New York.