CrushedVamp

Good for you on trying to stay fit! I can certainly relate, wanting to get in better shape but am struggling with quality shoes myself. I have not been on this site for awhile and part of that has been because I decided to be a little more proactive in my health myself.. It worked at first until it took a dark turn, but in three months I was able to lose forty pounds. Lost a lot off my waist and was two-thirds of my goal...Then all my walking caused the ligaments in my shins to detach from my tibia. Grrrrr. A lot of pain and a long recovery time. But I also hit a weight loss plateau and despite walking 5-7 miles per day, the weight loss was the exact same. I just stalled. But even before that I was struggling with good sneakers. I got some Sketch Slip-In's but their design rubbed a lot on the shoehorn part of the shoe causing the material to wear off and expose hard plastic that gave my archille tenon's blisters. I have switched to Kirik slip ins that use what they call a "cage" and they do not have the shoehorn issue, but they need help in their insole design as they are not comfortable to wear in extended walks like I do. I wish I could help you on your color choices but got nothing. If you can find quality white trainers/sneakers you might be able to dye them the color you like. My wife often does that matching dyed white Keds to specific outfits she wears. But I fully understand dying Keds is pretty easy.

Very valid points on everything... Kind of an interesting note on ankle bracelets and femme fatale's. In the Femme Fatale novel I wrote, I had my main character wear an ankle bracelet with a little locket on it. She said it was the ashes of her late-mother, but in reality, it was where she kept her cyanide that she killed several men with. It was kind of a cool way to always have a means to kill on her with nobody really the wiser to it. She also owned sheep, so she had all the ingredients on hand to cook up her own cyanide. On the other end of the spectrum with them though there are those in India where women typical have some opulent ankle bracelets because that is how they show they are married. It works over there because of their style of dress but I am not so sure that would work so well in western cultures. It would be kind of awkward to pull up the cuff on a lady's jeans to see if she was married or not before hitting on her at a dance club! 🙂 As for those that think the ankle bracelet is shameful in some way, it has that in common with the pineapple. I have heard that putting displays of pineapple symbols around your house, like pineapples on your porch, of having pineapple shaped wall decorations or the sort is a way people who have open marriages tell others of their lifestyle. But that is not the case at all. Pineapples have typically been status symbols because prior to refrigeration, to have such costly tropical fruit meant the owners had money. They even showed a university that is well known for degrees in the hospitality industry, having pineapples all across their campus to show that. The one piece of jewelry I think is very unique, but have never seen on a person in real life, is the waist chain. I wonder what kind of secret meaning that is supposed to have? 🙂

I cannot think of a reason why men shouldn’t wear them. And what would it matter, all forms of jewelry are bondage like. I mean necklaces are collar-like, bracelets resemble handcuffs, ankle bracelets are leg iron-like, etc. Its even been said wearing jewelry started out back when cave men chained his cave women to a cave wall so she would not run off as he went out and hunted down his wooly mammoth. Then one day he saw pretty shiny rocks in a stream, pounding the soft metal into a chain, and gave that to her instead so she had something shiny to wear instead of being chained to the cave wall. Other cave women saw her jewelry and wanted that from her special caveman. I have my doubts on if wearing jewelry started out that way or not, but it was what I was told. Myself I have never looked at a woman wearing an anklet as anything but wholesome, but I also grew up going to church and a lot of women wore them in the 1980’s, and now in a resurgence, are wearing them again. In looking around last year, I counted 7 women wearing anklets out of 350 church members. Its not like everyone is wearing them at church, but at the same time, not uncommon to see in a respectable setting. But I once saw a lady who did not think the same way as I do. We had just got out of church so my wife was dressed up in a dress, pantyhose, ankle bracelet and high heels, and needed to grab some things from a big box store that sells hardware. As we were grabbing some things for a home project a couple came in the same aisle, and she looked down at my wife’s ankle, then looked at me, then down, then at her husband, and from her raw inquisitive look you could just see that she had heard that ankle bracelets can mean sometimes open relationships. We do NOT do that, my wife just likes ankle bracelets, but you could see the woman was mortified.

You make some valid points, but I am not so sure "Planned Obsolesce" is so much about planned failure about exact places of weakness, as much as it is in knowing they could do more to fortify the shoe... or product... and just don't. In that way, "planned" is kind of an arbitrary word, kind of like how someone might say "passive-aggressive". It is more of a case of, only 10% of the produced product fails so they do not do anything about redesigning it, but if 75% fail, then to prevent costly returns, they will. The Pinto was the classic case for this. It was originally going to be the safest car because it was designed with a gelled gas tank, kind of like how WWII planes had, or stock cars, but they took it out of production due to production costs.

Good for you! No matter the gender, I am just glad to see when people dress nicely. What that entails is subjective of course, but when I see anyone, of any gender; dress sharp, it is impressive, and often times the bolder they are, the more I am impressed. Overall its just a dislike of mine for todays dress like a slob attitude that seems to permeate fashion. My daughter now wears Bear Jeans. I call them that because every time she wears them I ask her if she needs her AR-15 to take out the bear that attacked her and shredded her jeans to nothing but gaping holes... I was looking at getting my wife another ankle bracelet the other day and got sidetracked on a blog post where the woman railed against ankle bracelets pretty much just saying they should be worn at the beach. IN reading the comments below her post however people slammed her for being so close-minded. Some of her points were that they should not be worn by anyone over the age 40, and NEVER to work and got hounded for saying as much. Kind of like how people supported you in your skinny jean post. Again, good for you, and I am glad you got so many likes.

What is the difference between an onion and bagpipes? No one cries when you cut up bagpipes. (Just an old joke I heard a long time ago. Bagpipes don't bother me, but my daughter learning to play the alphorn might). 🙂

I think it is called Planned Obsolescence, which is where they design things to fail in relatively short time frames so that people are forced to buy more of them. I once worked for a company with a highly respected product yet KNEW the paint was bad and so the product would rust out quickly. It took a class action lawsuit to get them to change their ways. I had to replace a pair of shoes of mine yesterday that I wear at work. I love them, but the sole that is glued on cannot handle the oil I work in, so slowly the sole comes apart. I am hoping they change their glue, but if these fail I'll have to go to a different shoe.

My wife has a pair that is multicolored but in that they are very shimmery and change from gold to silver depending on what light they are in. In some light it changes color midway, like at a bar the vamps might be gold but the toes are silver. They are not sequins either, but gritty in texture but really change color. I think she got them at Macy's, but gosh, ten years ago.

What are people's thoughts on "having a way out" for those who wear high heels? For my wife who LOVES her high heels and wears them a lot but not every day; they can get painful at times so we always have a less painful option for her if it becomes too painful. Like having a pair of Keds (primisols) in the car that she can put on, or a pair of ballet flats. It depends on what she is wearing of course so she looks stylish even in shoes without high heels, but we have a way that she can quickly change from painful to painless. Or do you feel working through the pain is best to toughen up and get more accustomed to high heel wearing? I know sometimes for me, I am a little disappointed because she can be quick to change, especially if it is the main event we are going to, but she wants to switch out to flats when I think she would look more refined in heels. But it is not my feet in them, and I am not the high heel police.

The sad thing is... I considered giving my daughter an Alphorn just for that reason: she lives with her mother (my ex-wife). It is a very valid point. We do semi-have a place to play it as here I live on a river in a VERY rural town, in fact our town is 41 square miles in size with only 1100 people, so she could go down by the river and belch out her music. She also lives along a river with her mother, but in one of the most mountainous areas of the country. But would she play it? The real good wooden Alphorn's cost $7000, but a cheap carbon fiber one is only $1500 so it is temping to get for her.

Nice to hear, and good for your son in doing so well with his music. Myself, I dislike music for my own reasons, but atlas you may get a kick out of this: my eleven year old daughter wants me to buy an Alphorn for her to learn how to play. YES one of those... think of the Ricola Cough Drop Commercials here. What the heck do you say to that request? I mean I want to support her, but can you imagine the awful noise as she is learning to play it... miles from the house even?

I will not say anything more about the old muscle car as a work in project as I understand how these things can be. This may not be the case with you regarding that car, but I know a few times I have spoken about projects to people online and then it takes on a world of its own. They are not doing so for nefarious reasons, but rather the opposite; to be congenial and in trying to converse with you on something they know you like. But then the project is not done for the right reasons. Its hurried because I want to show that its something I am working on, or money that should not be diverted to the project is because of external pressure. Ultimately it just ends up not being fun because the best part of some projects is just working on them… being in the moment instead of being so focused on the end result. It took me a long time to figure that out. I do a ton of woodworking projects, but slowly learned I was more pleased slowing down, doing things by hand like making hand cut dovetails instead of cutting them via machine, not only made the woodworking more enjoyable, but they came out better because I was not rushed to get the project done, start the next one; then rinse and repeat. No need to feel pressured about telling us car stories as I hope its a project motivated by a father just to be with his son. In fact, that is the novels theme I am writing about now. It is about an orphan who is a Cabin Boy in 1792 America. As the Captain of the Revenue-Marine, the boy and the captain's love interest (Abigail) take on a ruthless pirate, the orphan (11 years old) feels like he was never loved until the end of the novel when he realizes people love him so much, they will die for him. It is a true father/so story with its own nautical project; the son just happens to be an orphan. It sounds corny in a brief write-up but is a VERY powerful story about a father's love, just not the boys birth father, but father nonetheless.

That is great to hear. My co-worker just bought an old car to drive around and restore as well. I don't know what it is, but I know it has a 455 CID engine in it! My daughters are all into Theater which I have always supported. There is so much too it, from breaking out of their shells, to public speaking, to the creativity of making the costumes and scenery, as well as engineering for some of the sets, and obviously not getting into trouble after school because they are so engaged in theater. So there is a lot to it than just what meets the eye and so we support them. So much so that we went to a Broadway show just to keep encouraging them. Great to hear your son is also stepping up while you're at work so much. Sounds like you are doing well as a parent!!

I think that got carried over for the police as well, at least in the United States. Typically, when they enter a person's home to talk to the occupants, they remove their hat before entering. In a similar situation, but different I watched a woman talking on her phone, absentmindedly doing heel play with one of her heels. All was good until it fell off... and she was on a bridge over a river! The look on her face was priceless when she realized she had to walk home with one heel on and the other lost to the watery abyss. It was the look of pure shock!

I do not judge anyone on what they take in their coffee... My tastes in coffee have really swung wildly over the years. Like most young people I started out going light on the coffee and heavy on the sugar and cream. Then somewhere in the middle I was using that French Vanilla stuff that has more sweetener in it than a sugar factory. Seeing that was not good I switched to half and half, and finally now just a splash of whole milk. Myself, I wish I never started drinking coffee. Granted I have never drunk alcohol, ever smoked, have ever done any kind of drugs, or ever gambled, so in light of those vices, having coffee is relatively minor. But when I think about all the money I have spent on it over the years it is pretty disgusting. Granted I have never broken into an elderly lady's house and smote her over the head just to get a good fix of java, but I am not sure anyone would want to be around me in the morning without it! I also commiserate with you on your Saturday work. I had an emergency call-in Friday Night and had some work yesterday to do that took an hour. It sucks, but when you work on the largest machine in the world (the grid) people expect electricity to be on 24/7/365. As the Blackout of 2003 proved, people die when there is no electricity.