Rooting for the Martians - Yahoo! News: "Hollywood has grown eye-poppingly angry with the rest of the country, mostly over Bush and
Iraq, but partly, at least, because the left-coasters apparently thought they were somehow entitled to a string of Democratic presidents after Clinton. The upshot is that even mild-mannered nonpropagandists like George Lucas have come under pressure to display their lefty credentials with silly political touches. "
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Sony gets Unreal 3 engine for PlayStation 3
Sony gets Unreal 3 engine for PlayStation 3: "This means that we’ll be seeing the PlayStation 3 hardware pushed to the max, as the engine is one of the most advanced currently on the market, featuring a programmable shaders tool, physics engine, and GUI based physics attribution tool, along with various other tools, such as scenario development, movie scene development, animation and particle animation tools."
Friday, July 15, 2005
Apple Spin Machine Melts Down
PBS | I, Cringely . July 14, 2005 - More Shoes
It's funny to watch Apple fans, and just plain old Apple watchers try to spin the latest Apple "switch" as some brilliant strategy.
It's not as though Apple has always got it right. They have made their share of mistakes with or without Steve Jobs at the helm.
Oh, and while we are at it, why do they keep bringing up Job's stay at Next? Oh, Steve went off and did more brilliant things while Apple foundered on its own. I've never laid eyes on a Next computer or talked to anyone who ran the OS. It's a minor footnote in computing history. A trivia question.
So, what's all this shoe fetishism from Cringely?:
"IBM's G5 dual cores look easily comparable to Intel's Pentium Ds, both in terms of computing power and electrical power consumption. So what's really up?"
Job's goofed, bigtime. That's what's up. "i" goes on to say that well Apple will get a chance to use these processors anyway. But who will want to buy one from Apple? Benchmarks show that it is the ham-handed Apple version of Unix that slows down their systems the most, not the hardware. Which is why people were buying Apple servers and running Linux on it to get the best performance: (Link) but now I question whether anyone would even bother with high end Apple hardware at a point where future support is in doubt. Especially when there are alternatives (Link, Link)
"This third shoe is Apple's closeout sale on the iPod Photo, which is suddenly and inexplicably $150-off all over town. Get ready for the Video iPod, which will presumably be available from more than just Apple. HP is already on board and these clues suggest Intel is likely there, too."
How about as an alternate explanation the fact that nobody wants to pay a lot of money to view video on something that needs to include a magnifying glass? Will Apple have a monopoly on Intel hardware used for digital media? Only if you get your news from Bizarro Superman comics. Apple did well with iTunes. But my Windows friends who tried them were not all that impressed. We all postulated that people would switch from PCs to Apple computers when they got an iPod, but I haven't seen all that many examples of that actually happening. Anybody who can put up with Windows will also put up with a less stylish media player that works with Windows (and is cheaper).
And then the "i-ster" wanders off into retinal scan video displays for $4000. OK well, Apple can sow that market up and still go out of business. Hey *I* was an iTunes user too. I have one of the low end iPods (around here somewhere) and have downloaded maybe $100 of music. But I don't trust Apple (even less now) and have converted all of those tunes to MP3. In every case I wish I had taken the time (and saved the money) and just got the CD. I think others will come to that conclusion too after the fad is over. If I am going to PAY for downloading digital content then I want it unencumbered. When I run my "Software Update" on my Apple computer the thing that gets updated the most often are the media programs (iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie) and the only one of these I use is iTunes. What are the updates, bug fixes, or more restrictive use allowances? You guess. (hint: Bug fixes don't require to accept the usage agreement again). But I'd switch to a native XMMS in a minute, or when I switch back to Linux I'll be using that anyway.
The party is over for Apple. They made a few lucky moves that worked out for them and they had a fairly reliable ally in IBM. Now they are in shark territory with Intel, Dell, Microsoft and others willing to sacrifice good technology for bigger sales figures. Apple hasn't dominated in this arena and isn't likely to start now.
You should have stayed pure Apple, now you have sullied your reputation. Or should I have said Sculleyed? I wonder what he is up to (Link)? Maybe they should bring him back to "save Apple" again. It seems to need saving on a regular basis.
It's funny to watch Apple fans, and just plain old Apple watchers try to spin the latest Apple "switch" as some brilliant strategy.
It's not as though Apple has always got it right. They have made their share of mistakes with or without Steve Jobs at the helm.
Oh, and while we are at it, why do they keep bringing up Job's stay at Next? Oh, Steve went off and did more brilliant things while Apple foundered on its own. I've never laid eyes on a Next computer or talked to anyone who ran the OS. It's a minor footnote in computing history. A trivia question.
So, what's all this shoe fetishism from Cringely?:
"IBM's G5 dual cores look easily comparable to Intel's Pentium Ds, both in terms of computing power and electrical power consumption. So what's really up?"
Job's goofed, bigtime. That's what's up. "i" goes on to say that well Apple will get a chance to use these processors anyway. But who will want to buy one from Apple? Benchmarks show that it is the ham-handed Apple version of Unix that slows down their systems the most, not the hardware. Which is why people were buying Apple servers and running Linux on it to get the best performance: (Link) but now I question whether anyone would even bother with high end Apple hardware at a point where future support is in doubt. Especially when there are alternatives (Link, Link)
"This third shoe is Apple's closeout sale on the iPod Photo, which is suddenly and inexplicably $150-off all over town. Get ready for the Video iPod, which will presumably be available from more than just Apple. HP is already on board and these clues suggest Intel is likely there, too."
How about as an alternate explanation the fact that nobody wants to pay a lot of money to view video on something that needs to include a magnifying glass? Will Apple have a monopoly on Intel hardware used for digital media? Only if you get your news from Bizarro Superman comics. Apple did well with iTunes. But my Windows friends who tried them were not all that impressed. We all postulated that people would switch from PCs to Apple computers when they got an iPod, but I haven't seen all that many examples of that actually happening. Anybody who can put up with Windows will also put up with a less stylish media player that works with Windows (and is cheaper).
And then the "i-ster" wanders off into retinal scan video displays for $4000. OK well, Apple can sow that market up and still go out of business. Hey *I* was an iTunes user too. I have one of the low end iPods (around here somewhere) and have downloaded maybe $100 of music. But I don't trust Apple (even less now) and have converted all of those tunes to MP3. In every case I wish I had taken the time (and saved the money) and just got the CD. I think others will come to that conclusion too after the fad is over. If I am going to PAY for downloading digital content then I want it unencumbered. When I run my "Software Update" on my Apple computer the thing that gets updated the most often are the media programs (iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie) and the only one of these I use is iTunes. What are the updates, bug fixes, or more restrictive use allowances? You guess. (hint: Bug fixes don't require to accept the usage agreement again). But I'd switch to a native XMMS in a minute, or when I switch back to Linux I'll be using that anyway.
The party is over for Apple. They made a few lucky moves that worked out for them and they had a fairly reliable ally in IBM. Now they are in shark territory with Intel, Dell, Microsoft and others willing to sacrifice good technology for bigger sales figures. Apple hasn't dominated in this arena and isn't likely to start now.
You should have stayed pure Apple, now you have sullied your reputation. Or should I have said Sculleyed? I wonder what he is up to (Link)? Maybe they should bring him back to "save Apple" again. It seems to need saving on a regular basis.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Turn On, Tune In, Veg Out - New York Times
Turn On, Tune In, Veg Out - New York Times: "Scientists and technologists have the same uneasy status in our society as the Jedi in the Galactic Republic. They are scorned by the cultural left and the cultural right, and young people avoid science and math classes in hordes. The tedious particulars of keeping ourselves alive, comfortable and free are being taken offline to countries where people are happy to sweat the details, as long as we have some foreign exchange left to send their way. Nothing is more seductive than to think that we, like the Jedi, could be masters of the most advanced technologies while living simple lives: to have a geek standard of living and spend our copious leisure time vegging out."
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Apple to switch to Intel chips starting in '06-CNET - Yahoo! News
Apple to switch to Intel chips starting in '06-CNET - Yahoo! News
Funy how the bloggers are all reporting this same rumor over and over AND indicating that it seems ever more likely, but when you read the base article it all goes back to CNet. Boy are they going to have a big black eye if this is wrong... and Apple will have one if it's right.
Funy how the bloggers are all reporting this same rumor over and over AND indicating that it seems ever more likely, but when you read the base article it all goes back to CNet. Boy are they going to have a big black eye if this is wrong... and Apple will have one if it's right.
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Web pages in SL.
SL Feature Proposal Detail: "We will be working on things in this order:
1) static external webpage in 2D browser, no interaction
2) static external webpage on prim surface, no interaction
3) update URL for primitive, all viewers get update
4) LSL call to set URL for primitive
5) webpage from script/notecard/typed-in HTML
6) interactive web page in 2D
The first release of web pages in SL will not support animated pages (Flash, blink, etc.). There will be strong limits on how many web pages can be seen at the same time, and how many web pages can be used on a given object, in a given parcel, etc. We have to do this because web pages take more resources to load and display than regular textures."
Cool Beans!
1) static external webpage in 2D browser, no interaction
2) static external webpage on prim surface, no interaction
3) update URL for primitive, all viewers get update
4) LSL call to set URL for primitive
5) webpage from script/notecard/typed-in HTML
6) interactive web page in 2D
The first release of web pages in SL will not support animated pages (Flash, blink, etc.). There will be strong limits on how many web pages can be seen at the same time, and how many web pages can be used on a given object, in a given parcel, etc. We have to do this because web pages take more resources to load and display than regular textures."
Cool Beans!
Friday, June 03, 2005
Powerbook G5 Next Tuesday? : Gizmodo
Powerbook G5 Next Tuesday? : Gizmodo: "There is every reason in the world that this could be fake, but it won’t hurt to go ahead and put those Powerbooks on eBay."
Um, yeah sure. Battery life is expected to be on the order of 45 seconds. Apple recommends connecting the back of the Powerbook to a vacuum cleaner to get enough airflow to avoid the processor melting throught the bottom of the unit. Pricing starts at $9599.
Update: Little did I know!
Um, yeah sure. Battery life is expected to be on the order of 45 seconds. Apple recommends connecting the back of the Powerbook to a vacuum cleaner to get enough airflow to avoid the processor melting throught the bottom of the unit. Pricing starts at $9599.
Update: Little did I know!
O'Reilly Radar > Real Estate Development in Virtual Worlds
O'Reilly Radar > Real Estate Development in Virtual Worlds
Now if there was just a Linux version! Maybe we could have one of those cute little O'Reilly books with an animal on it.
Now if there was just a Linux version! Maybe we could have one of those cute little O'Reilly books with an animal on it.
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Is it finally time for 3D online? | Newsmakers | CNET News.com
Is it finally time for 3D online? | Newsmakers | CNET News.com: "Now we're in a position where the timing couldn't be better. Every user has a computer that has 3D. Most people download some kind of game, or download music, or download a chat client--things that are outside the sphere of the Web browser. Right now we have these proprietary, 3D gaming universes, 3D chat worlds, like Linden Labs' 'Second Life,' and they're analogous to the Prodigy and Compuserve of a decade ago."
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
GamesIndustry.biz - PlayStation 3: The industry's best-kept secret?
GamesIndustry.biz - PlayStation 3: The industry's best-kept secret?
Word had leaked out that Linden Labs plans to replace its entire server farm with a single Sonly Playstation 3 when the product debuts next year. A company representative stated that they expect hardware costs for server equipment to drop to "somewhere in the $200-$300 range".
Word had leaked out that Linden Labs plans to replace its entire server farm with a single Sonly Playstation 3 when the product debuts next year. A company representative stated that they expect hardware costs for server equipment to drop to "somewhere in the $200-$300 range".
Monday, May 16, 2005
Virtual Power Brokers
Virtual Power Brokers: "'It's a job in that I am largely motivated by economic success,' she said. 'Here my achievement is creating real value for other residents.'
Graef sometimes is paid in Linden Dollars, the game's equivalent of Monopoly money. But she's able to convert that currency to U.S. dollars via several websites, including gamingopenmarket.com, which looks like a stock market, complete with charts and opening and closing prices. On any given day, a player can sell 240 or so Linden Dollars for one U.S. dollar. Payments are made through PayPal.
Game currency is among the most widely sold virtual commodities.
To Raph Koster, chief creative officer at Sony Online Entertainment, the company that runs 'EverQuest,' the notion that Platinum, or 'Plat,' is equivalent to legal tender is unreal.
'You can't take Plat and buy groceries,' Koster said. 'Outside of EverQuest, Plat has no real value. It's just a string of zeros and 1s in our database.'"
Sounds like the people at Sony Online Entertainment are quite a bit out of touch.
Graef sometimes is paid in Linden Dollars, the game's equivalent of Monopoly money. But she's able to convert that currency to U.S. dollars via several websites, including gamingopenmarket.com, which looks like a stock market, complete with charts and opening and closing prices. On any given day, a player can sell 240 or so Linden Dollars for one U.S. dollar. Payments are made through PayPal.
Game currency is among the most widely sold virtual commodities.
To Raph Koster, chief creative officer at Sony Online Entertainment, the company that runs 'EverQuest,' the notion that Platinum, or 'Plat,' is equivalent to legal tender is unreal.
'You can't take Plat and buy groceries,' Koster said. 'Outside of EverQuest, Plat has no real value. It's just a string of zeros and 1s in our database.'"
Sounds like the people at Sony Online Entertainment are quite a bit out of touch.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
A virtual world with peer-to-peer style - page 2 | CNET News.com
A virtual world with peer-to-peer style - page 2 | CNET News.com: "Today, all of those servers are run by Linden Labs, but the world was built to ultimately support a peer-to-peer model, where players might add their own 16-acre plot into the world from their own computer, said Linden Labs' chief executive officer, Philip Rosedale. For security reasons--including the fact that a real currency is traded inside the world--the company hasn't taken that step yet, however."
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Friday, March 18, 2005
Ambulation
A few years ago a very well-to-do liberal (did I have to mention that?) colleague at work took an interest in my preference in shoes as they often do. She didn't think my somewhat old Sperry Topsiders were suitable to the task of, well, enclosing my feet and all those duties associated thereto.
Now I should add that the Sperry Topsiders (let's just call them "boat shoes") were not my idea in the first place. Several years prior to that I had worn some sort of "sneaker" which took the form of "running shoes" except that they had Velcro fasteners where there would have otherwise been shoe laces. Not having laces was a problem for this (oh, did I mention) other well-to-do liberal person who took an interest in my footwear. She convinced me to switch from my awful Velcro laden sneakers that I think came from somewhere like K-mart for $10 a pair and switch to these nice upscale boat shoes, complete with LEATHER shoe laces that needed to be re-tied about every 15 minutes. Not to mention I feel much safer in them when I am on a boat, that is, if I had a boat.
The cost of the boat shoes was around $75 at he time I think, which I considered excessive. But they were almost as comfortable as the $10 Velcro sneakers and eventually I got used to wearing them. I tried gluing the leather shoe laces to keep them tied, since I never used the laces when putting the shoes on or taking them off (just as I never used the Velcro on the sneakers.) All shoes should go on when you forcibly shove your feet at them and come off when you step on the back of one shoe and pull. Seems simple enough to me. Glue didn't work though, and after a few years of this, and other solutions, I took to tying the laces with square knots, so that even if they LOOKED untied, they remained snugly on my feet. Even the square knots would come undone eventually. I really don't think cow skin was designed to be used in this way. Snipping the excess off at the square knot wouldn't do since there wouldn't be anything to grip to re-tie it. I ended up just tying a series of square knots one on top of another until the top of my shoes looked sort of like an old-time Chinaman's pony tail.
Maybe that's why the more recent liberal fashion consultant thought that I should visit the Earth Shoe store and get something that (to her at least) looked nice and was comfortable too. So I did. And about $150 later I was wearing sort of brown leather clog-looking things with no laces (I liked this) and no heels (I wasn't so sure about this part). They are big up front where the toes are, and the lack of heel was supposed to cause the foot to comfortably "roll" forward as you walked.
These shoes were indeed comfortable for a few days. For some reason though which I don't recall at the moment, I felt compelled to go back to my "boat shoes" after a couple of weeks. This immediately got noticed. My excuse of "not wanting to wear the Earth Shoes out too quickly" was met with the suggestion that I buy a second pair.
I suppose many a friendship has been sacrificed over such a thing. In any event the Earth Shoes found there way here to the beach, where I am now where I thought they might serve as "dress shoes" if I ever needed such a thing (apparently I don't) and the next time I laid eyes on them the special protective spray which the Earth Shoe store salesman had convinced me was essential to proper enjoyment of the shoe had turned into some sort of smorgasbord for green mold. Nothing else in my closet was similarly affected, so I think they really did like that spray. Or perhaps they came in on it.
I've continued to wear the Sperry Topsiders, and only that brand, not just ANY boat shoe, for many years. I've had 4 or 5 pair. I wear them until they disintegrate. Well, actually longer than that, for as they disintegrate I "fix" them as best I can, applying glue here, string there, and whatever it takes to avoid the need to break in a new pair. I've even found an "outlet" store at the beach where I can get them for $50 or so, which is a fraction of what they cost now in regular stores.
All of this, preamble (word chosen carefully) to my shock and horror at seeing a pair of Earth Shoes at Walmart the other day for $15. On a whim, I bought a pair. There was no spray to go with them, and no salesperson nearby to suggest I needed any. They are made in China. I bet the pair I got for ten times as much was too. I wonder what these Topsiders actually cost to make? If I were paying $15 for them I'd be a lot more inclined to throw them away and break in new ones more frequently than I do. If this makes me a tightwad then I'm comfortable with that. I like to know what things cost to make, and that the people in between me, the consumer and those Chinamen who make the shoes and inform me as to how to tie the laces are not making too comfortable a profit.
For well-to-do liberals, money is no object, if it achieves the goal of making MY feet look better, just as personal taste is no object to those in the condo association who want everyone's door to be the same horrid orange. Those who know something about how government works, and who don't either work there, or have unlimited resources, would do well to shop for less expensive alternatives I think.
Or maybe it's just a coincidence that my last two shoe consultants were liberals.
And all of THAT as preamble to my slipping on my new Earth Shoes today and going for a walk on the beach. Spring has sprung I guess, or the 50 degree temperature and lack of wind combined for very moderate FEELING weather. That, coupled with my new shoes, and their "rolling" action and before I knew it I realized I had walked a VERY long way.
Yesterday being St. Patrick's day had a noticeable impact on the beach. Or at least I guess that's what did it. This place is deserted this time of year and it's common to not see another single soul on the beach or any sign of humanity. From the parking lot, and noises in the distance I infer that some are making a long weekend here out of St. Patrick's day, one of the many holidays that I can be blissfully unaware of unless it is brought to my attention. Oh yes, I was careful to get off the streets early yesterday and really had forgotten all about it until I noticed all the tire tracks on the beach. It seemed that every dune crossing had been the site of drunken celebrants testing their four-wheel-drives. Quite a few had apparently brought wood with them to half burn for warmth in the night and then quickly cover with sand until the flame was gone, or not.
I wasn't consciously paying that much attention to the tire tracks or the burnt wood so much as the things uncovered by last nights activity. Due to my eyesight being no better than average for a person my age I tend to collect mostly brightly colored or large things on my beach walks. I'm sure many a tiny treasure has escaped my notice.
As a result, a large snail shell (A) that isn't broken will usually get my attention. The ones found here are not often very attractive, although with some oil and a bit of work they can be made to be quite decorative. Since attending a lecture on the subject broken bits of glass (B) are now picked up by me rather than being passed over. Some people actually SELL this stuff making an old Heineken bottle carelessly tossed into the ocean a modern investment vehicle. I used to think that such glass was worn down mainly by the action of sand, but I learned that salt water actually weakens the structure of molten silicon dioxide (and whatever else they happen to mix with it) accelerating the speed with which those razor sharp edges become harmless, and rendering a Noxema, Haley's MO, or some fancy new fruit drink's bottle (C) difficult to distinguish and giving the glass surface a patina hard to duplicate by mecchanical means. Of course, at the lecture I attended, I found that through proper chemical and spectroscopic analysis one can trace these glass fragments back to their source, be it a modern day bottling plant or a hand blown item from the 1600s (none of which appear in my collection I am sure.)
In fact I often note that the beach is one of the few places that you can safely walk barefooted without much concern. Almost anything except a discarded hypodermic needle is quickly rendered safe to the bottom of the feet in one way or another. Most things submerge themselves in the wet sand at a uniform rate so that if you "relax" your feet (I'm not entirely sure I know what I mean by this) you can walk down the beach without looking where you are going and only occasionally feel something uncomfortable enough to make you check for skin breakage. Almost any metal corrodes rapidly to the point where it is unrecognizable. There is no such thing as stainless steel here. Only gold has much chance of surviving in a recognizable form and I have yet to collect my first dabloon. Wood rots in interesting ways and plastics of all sort may last, but they are quickly covered with sea plants, snails, and other mollusks to the point where you might recognize a familiar shape without being able to see any of the original surface. No, my feet are safe as I amble down the beach this time of year in my Earth Shoes. I have absolutely nothing to worry about.
That is, other than crushing something I'd like to collect (D) like this tiny conch shell about whose inhabitant we can say "We hardly knew ye." As the sand protects our feet from sharp things, it also protects items such as this from multi-ton drunk-driven ersatz dune buggies on St. Patrick's day nights. Our tiny departed conch friend is indestructible by comparison to it's former lodgings (E) which I have seen on the beach frequently thinking it is some sort of washed up plant. But actually I found that these are conchs egg casings. Normally I find these totally empty with a small hole on the outer edge where the young ones have left. Close by to this one however I found a separated unit (F) with no such hole, and not one, but many tiny unborn inside, shell, and all.
The conch, like the snail, of course, makes do with only one foot, albeit the majority of its body serving that purpose, and has no need of an Earth Shoe, or a boat shoe for that matter.
When one walks, one thinks, and without knowing it finds that they have reached the public beach in Delaware with a pocket full of treasure and a seemingly long (now) slog back to that speck in the distance called home. One can but try to get back before damage is done to those collected beach goodies and thoughts.
Making up for months during which I mostly cut and pasted excerpts and my quick reactions to things "collected" on the Internet it occurs to me that the quality of such "blogging" isn't far above the time wasted watching TV. It is nice then from time to time to actually create something, especially as I sit here and realize that those shoes have rubbed a small blister onto the inside of my right foot.
I should go now. I have an "Urgent" message from Sears, informing me that they are all out of the money I gave them to insure I'd never have to have a kitchen appliance replaced. It occurs to me now that Sears gets my money if something breaks, and they get my money if it doesn't too. There is something of the "Earth Shoe" phenomenon in this that I'll have to study more carefully. Look for an update.
Update: Well, I'm here adding tags to my old posts. I noticed I promised an update, so here it is. I let all my Sears extended warrantys expire. Most of this stuff costs about twice as much to replace or insure as to fix, plus, in replacing them you usually get new features, energy efficiency, etc. Also, I'm still wearing the Waolmart Earth Shoes. They don't ever seem to wear out. They smell a bit though. So I throw them in the washing machine from time to time.
Now I should add that the Sperry Topsiders (let's just call them "boat shoes") were not my idea in the first place. Several years prior to that I had worn some sort of "sneaker" which took the form of "running shoes" except that they had Velcro fasteners where there would have otherwise been shoe laces. Not having laces was a problem for this (oh, did I mention) other well-to-do liberal person who took an interest in my footwear. She convinced me to switch from my awful Velcro laden sneakers that I think came from somewhere like K-mart for $10 a pair and switch to these nice upscale boat shoes, complete with LEATHER shoe laces that needed to be re-tied about every 15 minutes. Not to mention I feel much safer in them when I am on a boat, that is, if I had a boat.
The cost of the boat shoes was around $75 at he time I think, which I considered excessive. But they were almost as comfortable as the $10 Velcro sneakers and eventually I got used to wearing them. I tried gluing the leather shoe laces to keep them tied, since I never used the laces when putting the shoes on or taking them off (just as I never used the Velcro on the sneakers.) All shoes should go on when you forcibly shove your feet at them and come off when you step on the back of one shoe and pull. Seems simple enough to me. Glue didn't work though, and after a few years of this, and other solutions, I took to tying the laces with square knots, so that even if they LOOKED untied, they remained snugly on my feet. Even the square knots would come undone eventually. I really don't think cow skin was designed to be used in this way. Snipping the excess off at the square knot wouldn't do since there wouldn't be anything to grip to re-tie it. I ended up just tying a series of square knots one on top of another until the top of my shoes looked sort of like an old-time Chinaman's pony tail.
Maybe that's why the more recent liberal fashion consultant thought that I should visit the Earth Shoe store and get something that (to her at least) looked nice and was comfortable too. So I did. And about $150 later I was wearing sort of brown leather clog-looking things with no laces (I liked this) and no heels (I wasn't so sure about this part). They are big up front where the toes are, and the lack of heel was supposed to cause the foot to comfortably "roll" forward as you walked.
These shoes were indeed comfortable for a few days. For some reason though which I don't recall at the moment, I felt compelled to go back to my "boat shoes" after a couple of weeks. This immediately got noticed. My excuse of "not wanting to wear the Earth Shoes out too quickly" was met with the suggestion that I buy a second pair.
I suppose many a friendship has been sacrificed over such a thing. In any event the Earth Shoes found there way here to the beach, where I am now where I thought they might serve as "dress shoes" if I ever needed such a thing (apparently I don't) and the next time I laid eyes on them the special protective spray which the Earth Shoe store salesman had convinced me was essential to proper enjoyment of the shoe had turned into some sort of smorgasbord for green mold. Nothing else in my closet was similarly affected, so I think they really did like that spray. Or perhaps they came in on it.
I've continued to wear the Sperry Topsiders, and only that brand, not just ANY boat shoe, for many years. I've had 4 or 5 pair. I wear them until they disintegrate. Well, actually longer than that, for as they disintegrate I "fix" them as best I can, applying glue here, string there, and whatever it takes to avoid the need to break in a new pair. I've even found an "outlet" store at the beach where I can get them for $50 or so, which is a fraction of what they cost now in regular stores.
All of this, preamble (word chosen carefully) to my shock and horror at seeing a pair of Earth Shoes at Walmart the other day for $15. On a whim, I bought a pair. There was no spray to go with them, and no salesperson nearby to suggest I needed any. They are made in China. I bet the pair I got for ten times as much was too. I wonder what these Topsiders actually cost to make? If I were paying $15 for them I'd be a lot more inclined to throw them away and break in new ones more frequently than I do. If this makes me a tightwad then I'm comfortable with that. I like to know what things cost to make, and that the people in between me, the consumer and those Chinamen who make the shoes and inform me as to how to tie the laces are not making too comfortable a profit.
For well-to-do liberals, money is no object, if it achieves the goal of making MY feet look better, just as personal taste is no object to those in the condo association who want everyone's door to be the same horrid orange. Those who know something about how government works, and who don't either work there, or have unlimited resources, would do well to shop for less expensive alternatives I think.
Or maybe it's just a coincidence that my last two shoe consultants were liberals.
And all of THAT as preamble to my slipping on my new Earth Shoes today and going for a walk on the beach. Spring has sprung I guess, or the 50 degree temperature and lack of wind combined for very moderate FEELING weather. That, coupled with my new shoes, and their "rolling" action and before I knew it I realized I had walked a VERY long way.
Yesterday being St. Patrick's day had a noticeable impact on the beach. Or at least I guess that's what did it. This place is deserted this time of year and it's common to not see another single soul on the beach or any sign of humanity. From the parking lot, and noises in the distance I infer that some are making a long weekend here out of St. Patrick's day, one of the many holidays that I can be blissfully unaware of unless it is brought to my attention. Oh yes, I was careful to get off the streets early yesterday and really had forgotten all about it until I noticed all the tire tracks on the beach. It seemed that every dune crossing had been the site of drunken celebrants testing their four-wheel-drives. Quite a few had apparently brought wood with them to half burn for warmth in the night and then quickly cover with sand until the flame was gone, or not.
I wasn't consciously paying that much attention to the tire tracks or the burnt wood so much as the things uncovered by last nights activity. Due to my eyesight being no better than average for a person my age I tend to collect mostly brightly colored or large things on my beach walks. I'm sure many a tiny treasure has escaped my notice.
As a result, a large snail shell (A) that isn't broken will usually get my attention. The ones found here are not often very attractive, although with some oil and a bit of work they can be made to be quite decorative. Since attending a lecture on the subject broken bits of glass (B) are now picked up by me rather than being passed over. Some people actually SELL this stuff making an old Heineken bottle carelessly tossed into the ocean a modern investment vehicle. I used to think that such glass was worn down mainly by the action of sand, but I learned that salt water actually weakens the structure of molten silicon dioxide (and whatever else they happen to mix with it) accelerating the speed with which those razor sharp edges become harmless, and rendering a Noxema, Haley's MO, or some fancy new fruit drink's bottle (C) difficult to distinguish and giving the glass surface a patina hard to duplicate by mecchanical means. Of course, at the lecture I attended, I found that through proper chemical and spectroscopic analysis one can trace these glass fragments back to their source, be it a modern day bottling plant or a hand blown item from the 1600s (none of which appear in my collection I am sure.)
In fact I often note that the beach is one of the few places that you can safely walk barefooted without much concern. Almost anything except a discarded hypodermic needle is quickly rendered safe to the bottom of the feet in one way or another. Most things submerge themselves in the wet sand at a uniform rate so that if you "relax" your feet (I'm not entirely sure I know what I mean by this) you can walk down the beach without looking where you are going and only occasionally feel something uncomfortable enough to make you check for skin breakage. Almost any metal corrodes rapidly to the point where it is unrecognizable. There is no such thing as stainless steel here. Only gold has much chance of surviving in a recognizable form and I have yet to collect my first dabloon. Wood rots in interesting ways and plastics of all sort may last, but they are quickly covered with sea plants, snails, and other mollusks to the point where you might recognize a familiar shape without being able to see any of the original surface. No, my feet are safe as I amble down the beach this time of year in my Earth Shoes. I have absolutely nothing to worry about.
That is, other than crushing something I'd like to collect (D) like this tiny conch shell about whose inhabitant we can say "We hardly knew ye." As the sand protects our feet from sharp things, it also protects items such as this from multi-ton drunk-driven ersatz dune buggies on St. Patrick's day nights. Our tiny departed conch friend is indestructible by comparison to it's former lodgings (E) which I have seen on the beach frequently thinking it is some sort of washed up plant. But actually I found that these are conchs egg casings. Normally I find these totally empty with a small hole on the outer edge where the young ones have left. Close by to this one however I found a separated unit (F) with no such hole, and not one, but many tiny unborn inside, shell, and all.
The conch, like the snail, of course, makes do with only one foot, albeit the majority of its body serving that purpose, and has no need of an Earth Shoe, or a boat shoe for that matter.
When one walks, one thinks, and without knowing it finds that they have reached the public beach in Delaware with a pocket full of treasure and a seemingly long (now) slog back to that speck in the distance called home. One can but try to get back before damage is done to those collected beach goodies and thoughts.
Making up for months during which I mostly cut and pasted excerpts and my quick reactions to things "collected" on the Internet it occurs to me that the quality of such "blogging" isn't far above the time wasted watching TV. It is nice then from time to time to actually create something, especially as I sit here and realize that those shoes have rubbed a small blister onto the inside of my right foot.
I should go now. I have an "Urgent" message from Sears, informing me that they are all out of the money I gave them to insure I'd never have to have a kitchen appliance replaced. It occurs to me now that Sears gets my money if something breaks, and they get my money if it doesn't too. There is something of the "Earth Shoe" phenomenon in this that I'll have to study more carefully. Look for an update.
Update: Well, I'm here adding tags to my old posts. I noticed I promised an update, so here it is. I let all my Sears extended warrantys expire. Most of this stuff costs about twice as much to replace or insure as to fix, plus, in replacing them you usually get new features, energy efficiency, etc. Also, I'm still wearing the Waolmart Earth Shoes. They don't ever seem to wear out. They smell a bit though. So I throw them in the washing machine from time to time.
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