…:: Alex Smirnov ::…

Blog, Photography, Books, Movies, Cooking, Geocaching, Travel and Various Things I Care About (And You Probably Don't)

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Vacation in Slovakia 2009 (Bicycling: T. Jaseno – Jasenska Dolina – Necpaly – Folkusova – Pribovce – Martin)

June 25th, 2009 · Bicycling, Photography, Slovakia, Travel

For this ride, we were joined by my mom the first time although she did have some doubts us being able to finish this ride, considering the amount of hills. The ride I planned would take us from Ladoven through Drazkovce, Horny and Dolny Kalnik via the first big hill to Turcianske Jaseno, from there via the second big hill to Jasenska Dolina and Bela-Dulice. From Bela to Necpaly and from there via the third big hill to Folkusova and then through Pribovce back home to Martin.

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Vacation in Slovakia 2009 (Bicycling: Bystricka – Strane – Jedloviny – Drazkovce)

June 24th, 2009 · Bicycling, Slovakia

One evening, after a reasonably rainy day my friend Richard (formerly known as Lafo, recently re-nicknamed by me as Ryžo) suggested we go out for a “short sweet bike ride” (his direct quote). You see, I have known Richard for over 15 years but have not really been in touch with him since he left Stony Brook more than a year or so ago. It must be said upfront that unlike Richard, I am not nearly in that good a shape as he is, not to mention the fact that I am easily twice his weight. At this point I was still blissfully unaware of what his concept of “short and sweet” is but in the interest of full disclosure it must be stated that it does not even to begin to approach mine.

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Vacation in Slovakia 2009 (Bicycling: Martin – Trebostovo – Martin, via the “Tank Road”)

June 22nd, 2009 · Bicycling, Photography, Travel

With a significant delay of more than one month, I am finally finding small patches of free time to write about our vacation activities. One of the first things we have done after settling in my mom’s apartment was that we got a bike for Andi. After her dissatisfaction with a hybrid (trekking) bike in the US, we got a mountain bike – Author Solution. Just like last year, I borrowed a bike from my father – Author brand as well. The next day, we took both bikes for a spin in the hilly terrain around my Martin, my home town.

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S Garminom po Hribiky.

June 21st, 2009 · Fun, Geocaching, Travel

Toto je záber na môj Garmin nüvi 205W pri kešovačke v Tvrdošíne. Kombinácia názvu ulice “Hríbiky” v Tvrdošíne so spôsobom akým Garmin interpretuje mapu Slovakia Roads skončila takouto srandovnou hláškou. Len pre informáciu dodám, že hríbiky ešte nerástli. This post simply makes no sense in English, only in Slovak.

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Vacation in Slovakia 2009 (Introduction)

June 20th, 2009 · Geocaching, Personal, Photography, Travel

The time has come yet again to hop across “The Pond” to my native Slovakia for a bit of rest and recreation. After a year ‘s hiatus, I am joined again by Andi and for 10 days also by Francis and Lisa who will be taking a train from Switzerland to join us in Slovakia on the 27th of June. We have been here for a week now so I am using the first day of bad weather to update this thing.

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The End of the Line (Documentary)

June 9th, 2009 · Movies

Stumbled upon this documentary by accident and it looks pretty intriguing. The End of the Line in a nutshell focuses on overfishing of World’s fish stock and presents a scathing analysis of the fishing industry. The film will start appearing in US theaters in the second half of June, mostly in major cities. I have no hopes it will ever find it’s way to Stony Brook, or Suffolk County in general. I guess I will have to wait for the DVD or hope that it ever makes it to TV so that the cable-intoxicated masses will be able to see it. You can view the trailer below and check the status of your favorite fish.

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Stupid CNN headline

June 5th, 2009 · Uncategorized

When it comes to stupid headlines, CNN simply beats the crap out of the competition. I actually do think, that there may – in fact – be no contest. I used to take screen shots and built quite a collection but eventually deleted it. Not sure why, it would come in handy right now. Today was no exception.

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God bless you Dr. Kevorkian

May 15th, 2009 · Books, Personal

I don’t remember what my first encounter with Kurt Vonnegut was, but it must have been impressive. Impressive enough to prompt me to look him up and to read some of his novels. I think it all started with his last one – A Man Without a Country, which I listened to while I tried to fall asleep one night. I did eventually fall asleep, but only long after the book finished. Then came a classic – Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel which undoubtedly is one of the best written books I have ever read. Browsing through library stacks one day I stumbled upon a tiny little book with an intriguing title – God Bless You Dr. Kevorkian.

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Geocaching on Long Island: Maple Swamp County Park

May 6th, 2009 · Geocaching, Hiking, Long Island, Photography

As Francis’ visit on Long Island was coming to an end, we decided to do some geocaching on the Eastern end of Long Island. The weather reports for Saturday looked rather gloomy, but since we haven’t geocached together in a while we were determined to go rain or shine. I put together a pretty busy itinerary of almost 30 geocaches in the Maple Swamp County Park as well as in the Hubbard County Park, close to Riverhead, on the south fork of Long Island.

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Bicycling on Long Island – Stony Brook to Long and Short Beach

May 1st, 2009 · Bicycling, Geocaching, Long Island

Long and Short beach are located in the town of Nissequogue on the North Shore of Long Island. Both beaches seemed to be accessible by ~20-25 mile bicycle ride to the west from our homebase in Stony Brook. The weather forecast for the weekend was sunny and hot (too hot) so we decided to leave around 8 am from campus. After some minor repairs and bike maintenance we left around 8:30. The basic plan was to follow 25A to St. James and then Moriches road north to the beaches and then on the way back, to avoid busy 25A we planned to follow the coast on Harbor Road back to Stony Brook village and to campus.

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